Loss of power steering on the 2015 Ford Explorer
2 crashes 2 of the 32 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 loss of power steering gets reported
Owners of the 2015 Ford Explorer report loss of power steering at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 16 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 80,000 miles. It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 113,879 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
19% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16,184 miles | 41,525 miles | 70,728 miles | 91,780 miles | 130,063 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, 2 a crash 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 $600–$2,800 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2014 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 121; the 2015 has 32. 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.
While driving 30 MPH coming up on a left hand turn my power steering went out, the advance trac light came on and the stability light also came on making it really hard to make the turn. Luckily there was no cars turning on my right allowing me to use up both lanes. I was able to pull to the side of the road turning it off for a couple of minutes while I looked to see if I had turned something off. I started it and everything was fine as before.
This car was bought new with less than a 100 miles on it, at about 7000 miles while entering I 495 from a ramp I stepped on the gas and the steering locked up I quickly took my foot off the gas and the steering unlocked,I visited the dealer and complained the car was checked no problem was found ,at 32000miles I started hearing noises from the front of the car sometimes while backing up this was intermittent and I was never able to duplicate the noise at the dealer until I had a complete failure at 42700+ miles the noise was occurring constantly,the dealer' s diagnosis was failure of the steering box,I am not an expert but this is a dangerous problem the failure occurred while I was driving at 20 miles per hour on city streets,if I had been on the freeway at 70 miles an hour it could have created an accident with injuries and who knows what else talking to the manufacturer is useless my complaint was and is been ignored I think this car has a defect in the steering system that is worth your investigating for the cause before someone is seriously hurt in an accident.as I write this the defective part is being replaced at a ford…
My wife was driving at high speed on interstate highway. Noticed sudden loss of ability to steer. Numerous warning and messages appeared on dash along with audible alarms. Thankfully was able to pull over to side of road and stop. Seemed to be complete loss of power steering.was able to get vehicle home but vehicle was very hard to steer. Had vehicle towed to local ford dealership. Code revealed failed steering rack. $1800 to replace steering rack. Vehicle had 51449 miles. Contacted ford consumer relations-asked her to trigger a recall. I told her, in my opinion, this is a dangerous flaw that could have caused a disasterous collision. She started a file and would be in touch with my local dealer, in hopes that there may be a possible "financial assistance" situation. Service adviser at local dealership said there is no recall because the numbers aren't there on this model year to consider it dangerous enough to recall the vehicle for this problem. I believe, in this situation, ford motor company is putting profits ahead of safety. I had no choice but fix the vehicle and am quite confident that the steering rack installed is of the…
Also reported on the 2015 Ford Explorer
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Other steering problem
Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 32 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 loss of power steering happen on the 2015 Ford Explorer?
Across 16 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is loss of power steering on the 2015 Ford Explorer?
32 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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