AtWhatMileage
Adas · 39 owner reports

Other driver assistance problem on the 2021 Ford Explorer

Reports of this failure 39
With an odometer reading 15
Reports per 1,000 built 0.5 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 53%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $250–$1,800
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 2nd

When other driver assistance problem gets reported

Owners of the 2021 Ford Explorer report other driver assistance problem at a median of 35,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 55,000 miles, from 15 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 45,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 70,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 52,400 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.

53% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 15 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
16,600 miles 30,250 miles 34,600 miles 52,944 miles 69,000 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 $250–$1,800 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 18 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2026, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 195,000 miles.

By volume the 2020 carries the most reports, with 113; the 2021 has 39. 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.

Median
  1. 1997 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 104k
  2. 1998 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  3. 1999 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  4. 2002 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 76k
  5. 2003 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  6. 2004 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 172k
  7. 2006 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 66k
  8. 2007 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 49k
  9. 2008 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 197k
  10. 2009 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 250
  11. 2010 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 125k
  12. 2011 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 35k
  13. 2012 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 68k
  14. 2013 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 82k
  15. 2014 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 75k
  16. 2015 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 88k
  17. 2016 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 38k
  18. 2017 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 40k
  19. 2018 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 67k
  20. 2019 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 52k
  21. 2020 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 14k
  22. 2021 (this one) 35k
  23. 2022 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 18k
  24. 2023 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  25. 2024 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  26. 2025 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 8k
  27. 2026 Ford Explorer other driver assistance problem 7k

Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens

Also reported on the 2021 Ford Explorer

Other powertrain problem

63 reports median 29k

Other electrical problem

38 reports median 30k

Other engine problem

32 reports median 77k

Other body or interior problem

26 reports median 52k

Cruise control failure

17 reports median 34k

Differential or transfer case failure

16 reports median 113k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 39 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 driver assistance problem happen on the 2021 Ford Explorer?

Across 15 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 55,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other driver assistance problem on the 2021 Ford Explorer?

39 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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