Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure on the 2017 Ford Explorer
When liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure gets reported
Owners of the 2017 Ford Explorer report liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 14 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 82,000 miles. It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 83,013 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.
21% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19,387 miles | 40,000 miles | 73,395 miles | 78,750 miles | 102,400 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 $250–$1,500 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 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 1996, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 343; the 2017 has 21. 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.
On 10/31/17 while out with my children trick-or-treating, the liftgate on my leased 2017 ford explorer became "stuck" in an upright position and would not close electronically or manually. My family and I had pulled over and parked in a residential area to get items out from the rear storage area. I had opened the hatch with the electronic switch and the door stopped about 2/3 of the way up. As this had happened to me previously, I followed the manual directions to set the liftgate open height. We finished getting our items out of the vehicle and pressed the control button to close. It was at this point that the liftgate--now at maximum height--simply made "whirring" sounds and would not close. Despite referencing the owner's manual, calling ford roadside assistance and scouring the internet for potential solutions, all attempts to bypass the electronic system/motor and manually close the door were unsuccessful. I was forced to drive my family home with the rear liftgate precariously left wide open. The next day I was advised by my leasing company to have a tow truck pick the vehicle for safety reasons. The tow driver was shocked…
Also reported on the 2017 Ford Explorer
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Water pump failure
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other wheel or tire problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 21 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 liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure happen on the 2017 Ford Explorer?
Across 14 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure on the 2017 Ford Explorer?
21 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