Other engine problem on the 2014 Ford Explorer
1 injury 1 of the 169 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2014 Ford Explorer report other engine problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 3,000 miles and a quarter after 46,000 miles, from 127 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 100 miles at the tenth percentile to 84,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 83,667 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
57% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 123 miles | 2,825 miles | 30,000 miles | 45,500 miles | 83,790 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 an injury is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $300–$4,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 29 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 12,500 miles, and latest on the 2022 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 253; the 2014 has 169. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I bought my ford explorer 2014 on july 1st 2013. On august 1st, 2013, my car did not move forward while I started the car and put it to 'd' (drive) in a parking lot. Instead, the car went backwards while I stepped on gas. I was very confused, and thought it was my illusion. So I stepped on brake and checked the drive panel, the light for 'd' is on. Then I switch to 'p' and after a few seconds put to 'd' again. However, my car still went backward and my rear bump hit the front bumper of another car which park behind mine. Then I got confirmed that my car was malfunctioning. I was 100% sure that the gear of my car was in 'd', since I did not see the back up mirror on from the lcd display, and the indicating light of the gear was 'd'. And my corporate parking lot is very flat. After that, I turned off my explorer, and went out to check if there is damage to the car that I hit. Then I restart my explorer, put gear shift in 'd' and it went back to normal. I could not believe it happened to my new car purchased only about a month. This problem made me panic. What if the problem happened again in a busy street? What if there are…
Within 24 hrs. Of purchase, driving on even road dry conditions approx. 40 MPH engine shut off while in motion no hesitation no bucking just shut off. Pulled off side of road restarted ok took to dealer (jack byrne ford) no code no idea what caused it, could not get to repeat . This vehicle is primarily driven on the highway we are deathly afraid that this will happen again at a higher speed and will result in a rear end collision. Spoke to the sr. Regional customer service manager for ny/nj. She states that the dealer looked vehicle over and could not find problem nor could they repeat it no code she could not state the vehicle is safe to drive just that the dealer couldn't find anything and its ready to be picked up at dealership. *tr
The explorer sport (v6 twin turbo ecoboost) started leaking sulfurous smelling vehicle exhaust fumes (possibly cyanotic ) into the car which made the occupants feel unwell . Ford have a fix that they do not advise customers about so the fume issue is known to them ( tsb 12-12-4 ). This fix has been performed yet the odor persists in certain circumstances. We have little confidence that the problem has been properly resolved and we have little confidence in driving a car with this type of fault. It is disturbing that oxides of sulfur and hydrogen sulfide can only be smelled within certain concentration limits and that the "nose" becomes insensitive to them at higher concentrations. Other people are suffering the same problem and I think it s only a matter of time before a driver becomes incapacitated and has a serious accident. If this has not already happened. Many other reports of this problem on various websites. *tr
Also reported on the 2014 Ford Explorer
Other steering problem
Other body or interior problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin
Other suspension problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 169 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other engine problem happen on the 2014 Ford Explorer?
Across 127 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 3,000 miles and a quarter after 46,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2014 Ford Explorer?
169 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed