Other visibility problem on the 2015 Ford Explorer
When other visibility problem gets reported
Owners of the 2015 Ford Explorer report other visibility problem at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 15 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 16th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 91,440 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.
33% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12,560 miles | 33,788 miles | 45,000 miles | 67,500 miles | 104,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $150–$1,400 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 25 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2006, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 96; the 2015 has 34. 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 approximately 55 MPH, there was a loud banging noise and glass fell from the sun roof. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 14,900. The VIN was unavailable.
Tl* the contact owns a 2015 ford explorer. While driving 70 MPH, a piece of trim that circled the windshield on the driver's side blew off. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the windshield was not the original part on the vehicle, which caused the trim piece to fail. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 33,000.
My car has projection headlights. On a dark road, it appears as though there is a black curtain over the top half of my windshield. Road visibility is limited by this, this would be the cut off line where below the line there is light and above it is total darkness. On back roads where there are no street lights, this is a horrible blind spot that is worsened by going down hills and around curves. Going down a slope causes the projection to be shortened to immediately in front of the vehicle. If there were pedestrians or animals beyond this area, they would be invisible. Driving over bumps in the road make the cut off line bounce around, quickly becoming annoying as well as dangerous. Anything above this cut off line is invisible, such as road signs. On a perfectly straight and level road the lights are bearable. *tr
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 34 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 visibility problem happen on the 2015 Ford Explorer?
Across 15 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2015 Ford Explorer?
34 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