Other speed control problem on the 2017 Ford Explorer
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 17 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 2017 Ford Explorer report other speed control problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 23rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 17 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 97,983 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.
56% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 miles | 15,000 miles | 30,000 miles | 98,000 miles | 98,000 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
Of these reports, 2 a crash and 1 an injury are 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 2017 has 17. 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.
Last nights as I drove my new 2017 explorer off the lot with only 11 miles on it, I drove on surface streets and then onto the highway. After I got up to 65 MPH the explorer started to lose acceleration on the highway. I had to get off at the next exit and then had great difficulty getting the car to move from 0 to 30 miles per hour to get back to the dealership using the side streets. I now have a loaner car and I was first told it could be the electronic throttle body, and then after a hookup to the computer was told it was in transport mode - however nothing on the instrument panel registered any problems. I had test driven the car on saturday 3/18/17 using both surface streets and highways, and last night (3/20/17) I was able to get it up to speed on the highway again. The experience was very scary as I had to maneuver out of traffic to get off the highway at speed below 40 MPH until I could get to the side streets.
I have encountered too many issues with this vehicle, my biggest issue has to do with what I thought I was having a "falling asleep at the wheel" issue. There were a few times last winter, after letting the car sit stationary and warm up , that I couldn't "stay awake" while driving home on the freeway. It happened once, twice, then continued, and it became apparent it was the vehicle, not me, that was causing this. It can be best described as the sensation right before being put under for a medical procedure. I would then come out of this unconcious state in potentlally deadly driving situations. I also noticed that my dog was being affected at the same time. I could see him getting anxious next to me, and then have what looked like a panic attack until I put the window down. He would keep his head outside the vehicle for a majority of the ride. I basically stopped using the heater. At the same time, the battery kept dying, and the vehicle would shut down and go into a "battery safe" mode, and it needed to be jumped every other trip. When I took the car to the dealer, they basically said there may be a problem, but they didn't…
I purchased my ford explorer 2017, in september of 2016, I have returned back to the dealer more than 10 times less than a 2 year period. My first problem was the truck would not get enough speed, unless I hit the gas 2 oir 3 times, the dealer came it wasn't a problem until the engine light came on, and than I was told it was a recall on it, but when I check, there was no recall on my VIN. I have 5 batteries since I had the truck, I ask them what is causing this, I never get a response. My AC/heat went out, I told them, I notice something coming in through the vents. I informed the dealer's repair department that it smelled like a rotten egg or just look like air coming in the vents. I never got an answer to that question. I tried calling ford corporate office, but know one never returned my call.
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 17 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 2017 Ford Explorer?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 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 2017 Ford Explorer?
17 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