Other body or interior problem on the 2003 Lincoln Navigator
2 injuries 2 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 body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Lincoln Navigator report other body or interior problem at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 600 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 126,110 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.
50% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 570 miles | 3,375 miles | 47,500 miles | 96,200 miles | 126,680 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 an injury 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 $200–$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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 400 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
2003 lincoln navigator--- within the first 60 days (5000 miles) of ownership the rear end was termed to be defective and a complete new assembly had to be installed. At 12,000 miles the rear end again has started making the same sounds as before. I took the vehicle to the dealership where it was purchased and I was told that ford was aware of the problem and nothing was done to repair it. *la
Without warning the vehicle stalled while the consumer was driving at an undetermined speed. The consumer contacted the dealer on four separate occasions and the problem still continued. *ak when idling the vehicle made a pressure like noise that would get louder, the low oil indicator light would come on, the valves had a tapping sound that was abnormal, there was a metal scraping sound which as if the bottom was going to drop out, there were exhaust noises along with a popping sound, and there was continuous stalling. *sc the consumer stated there was an ongoing dispute regarding the odometer reading. Also the brakes and door locked never worked. *jb
Power deployable running board on the passenger side did not extend out (deploy) when the door was opened to exit the vehicle. The passenger stepped out of the vehicle and fell to the ground. The board has not deployed since this incident. Taken the vehicle in for repair and parts (motor) are not covered by extended warranty. Same problem happened around 40k miles. Dealership replaced both running board assemblies. *nm
Also reported on the 2003 Lincoln Navigator
Other suspension problem
Air suspension failure
Other electrical problem
Alternator or charging system failure
Other engine problem
Other powertrain 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 body or interior problem happen on the 2003 Lincoln Navigator?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other body or interior problem on the 2003 Lincoln Navigator?
17 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 515 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