Other visibility problem on the 2018 Ford Explorer
When other visibility problem gets reported
Owners of the 2018 Ford Explorer report other visibility problem at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 80,176 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.
44% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,824 miles | 15,000 miles | 50,000 miles | 70,000 miles | 85,000 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 2018 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.
The integrated blind spot mirror on both the driver side and passenger side is mounted at the wrong angle. It does not show the blind spot of the car. You can not see any portion of low profile cars in the blind spot mirror and you can not see the headlights of most vehicles at night. It does show the very top of taller cars (suvs/trucks/vans). I have photos taken while driving of cars that are in the blind spot. As you can see in the photos, you can see only the very top of the van and almost none of the standard car. At night, the roof of the car is not as helpful to see as the headlights. I checked another 2018 explorer at the dealership and it had the same view in the blind spot mirror. The ford service technician agreed that the view on the 2018 explorer was different from the view on his personal 2016 ford fusion. However, since all of the 2018 explorers had the same view, it could not be fixed. Older models appear to have blind spot mirrors that are correctly positioned. 2014 ford explorer, 2015 ford transit, and 2016 ford fusion all had correctly positioned blind spot mirrors. I came very close to side swiping a car at…
Purchased my explorer on may 28, 2018, vehicle currently has less than 6,000 miles on it and this morning, my daughter used the remote to unlock the doors as it sat parked on our driveway, climbed in and closed the front passenger door and the back window shattered. Glass was inside, outside and then pieces continued to fall. The bottom of the window has small chunks out of it on the edges as well.
Front sound screen windshield seems very soft and weak. Slightest strike from road debris causes chip or crack. Debris strikes regardless of amount of impact has caused chipping, cracks, and visible scrapes of material. Windshield is sound screen and seems made of extremely soft materials making vulnerable to easy damage which is safety risk to driver and occupants while driving regardless of on highway or city street.
Also reported on the 2018 Ford Explorer
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Water pump failure
Other electrical problem
Other powertrain problem
Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin
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 other visibility problem happen on the 2018 Ford Explorer?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 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 2018 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