Other speed control problem on the 2015 Ford Explorer
2 crashes 2 of the 13 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 speed control problem gets reported
Owners of the 2015 Ford Explorer report other speed control problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 30th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 91,800 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.
20% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33,000 miles | 37,875 miles | 65,196 miles | 89,000 miles | 124,800 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 $250–$2,000 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.
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 25 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2025, at a median of 400 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 1998 carries the most reports, with 206; the 2015 has 13. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2015 ford explorer. While driving various speeds, the contact applied the accelerator pedal with force and smelled an exhaust odor. The vehicle was taken to the dealer (bill utter ford located at 4901 s interstate 35 e, denton, tx 76210; (940) 321-7400) where it was diagnosed and repaired. The repair specifics were not available. The failure recurred several other times. The manufacturer was contacted at 800-392-3673 and stated that there was no issue. The failure mileage was 24,000.
While driving in the car with my two children on route 193 in maryland (not a highway but a busy road), the car suddenly stopped accelerating, an error appeared on the screen that said "terrain management system error", a wrench indicator light came on and the light on the tms knob went out (car had full tank of gas). I pulled over on the side of the road, turned the car off, restarted it and the error indicators were gone. It then drove with no problems. We took it to the dealer the following day for an oil change and asked them to look into the problem. After charging us $175 for a diagnostic, they told us that they couldn't replicate the problem and no codes were stored in the computer so there was nothing they could do. We picked up the car and brought it home. Sunday morning, once again it abruptly stopped accelerating, and the same error messages appeared. The terrain management system error only appeared for a couple of seconds and was then replaced with a wrench error on the screen. This time I took pictures in the hopes that it might help the dealer pinpoint the problem. I then cut the car off and restarted again. It…
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 13 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 speed control problem happen on the 2015 Ford Explorer?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 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 other speed control problem on the 2015 Ford Explorer?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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