Other powertrain problem on the 2017 Ford Explorer
3 crashes 3 of the 83 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 powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2017 Ford Explorer report other powertrain problem at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 92,500 miles, from 42 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 7,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 122,420 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.
38% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7,180 miles | 29,000 miles | 53,925 miles | 92,250 miles | 129,600 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, 3 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 $400–$4,500 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 29 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 1,200 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 810; the 2017 has 83. 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.
Upon parking our brand new explorer in our driveway (it has a 10 degree slant), we turned off the keyless/push button ignition, but my husband accidentally had it in drive. Our small children were unclipping their seatbelts and starting to get out of the vehicle when my husband took his foot off the brake. With the car in drive and ignition off, it rolled back very quickly down our driveway. This could have been deadly to our small children had they opened their doors. I called ford.com who told me to call the dealer. I called dealer. They took one of their 2017 explorers from the lot and tried to get it to roll in gear after turning off the engine and their vehicle also did it. In reverse and in drive. Their solution was to "make sure you have it in park before you turn it off." some one is going to die!!! Even if I would make it out before getting run over, my baby in a car seat in the back of the car would be rolled into the busy street within a matter of seconds!! Killing her and any oncoming car or truck!!! Also, this same explorer- with only 800 miles on it, had its transmission fall off the mount and land on the axle and…
I was stopped at a traffic light on the highway to make a left. Once light changed, I stepped on the gas and the car wouldn't move. I then heard a loud "thump" and thought I'd been hit from the rear. What actually happened was the transmission, slammed into gear and proceeded to move at about 2-3 MPH. It never regained speed. As I made my turn, I was stuck on another major road at a traffic light and I placed in neutral and heard the loud "thump" again as the trans shifted into neutral. Once the traffic light changed, I put the vehicle back into "drive" and yet again, a loud "thump" as it slammed into drive. Vehicle again proceeded to move at a snails pace, at about 2-3 MPH. Finally on the dash I got a "wrench" light and the engine light come on as well. I pulled over on a side street and turned the vehicle off. I waited a few minutes, turned the vehicle back on and when I shifted into reverse, neutral and then drive, the transmission slammed into gear on each of them very hard. I proceeded to turn the vehicle off and call a tow service to have the vehicle dropped off at the dealership. Might I add that this is a 2017 ford…
2017 ford explorer ecoboost with approximately 8800 miles started making a whinning noise from the transmission. Noticed making right turns the transmission felt like it would disengage and abruptly engage as if thrown in neutral then slammed into dirive. Taking off from light would do similar issue. In a couple of events, vehicle would not move and was in turning lane with traffic approaching almost causing to get t boned. Explorer has been at the dealer and transmission has been serviced twice with the transmission skipping gears or shifting normal until a stop and engages 5th gear, stays stuck in 5th gear.
Also reported on the 2017 Ford Explorer
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Water pump failure
Other electrical problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 83 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2017 Ford Explorer?
Across 42 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 92,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2017 Ford Explorer?
83 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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