Sunroof failure or glass breakage on the 2017 Ford Explorer
When sunroof failure or glass breakage gets reported
Owners of the 2017 Ford Explorer report sunroof failure or glass breakage at a median of 15,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 16th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 83,550 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.
63% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,750 miles | 7,538 miles | 16,250 miles | 72,750 miles | 90,300 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 $700–$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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 2020 carries the most reports, with 44; 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.
Exhaust is entering the vehicle and making myself and my 2.5 year old son sick. I immediately get a headache when driving and feel nauseous, extreme fatigue, body and muscle aches, memory issues, confusion, and I've been coughing up brown mucous which is linked to the inhalation of hazardous pollution and gases. These symptoms last long after I am finished driving my car and haven't gone away for more than four days. My son is having the same symptoms and it makes me nervous because exposure to these gases will hinder his neurodevelopment. It is difficult to say when the gas is entering the car, but I opened my sunroof while driving this morning with the windows up and the A/C on and I could smell a natural gas smell and I felt the effects of inhaling the gas immediately. The gas was escaping through the sunroof and right by my head.
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 sunroof failure or glass breakage happen on the 2017 Ford Explorer?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is sunroof failure or glass breakage 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