The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is conducting a preliminary investigation surrounding Ford Explorers made from 2011 through 2019. Over 160 complaints have come in surrounding windshield trim pieces that detach at highway speeds. If a recall ends up getting issued it could affect 1.86 million vehicles in total.
Every day, vehicle owners have the ability to log on to the NHTSA’s website and file a complaint about said vehicle. Sometimes, those complaints go nowhere and sometimes they lead directly to recalls. According to the NHTSA, it’s received 164 different complaints about windshield trim coming off of Ford Explorers.
More specifically, the investigation filing states that, “A windshield trim panel can detach while driving at highway speeds. This could cause the detached piece to hit the windshield of a vehicle, or even a motorcyclist, following behind the subject vehicle and cause a loss of vehicle control and a crash.” It goes on to say that drivers following Ford Explorers with this issue have been “startled” by the flying debris.
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Dig into the actual complaints and you’ll find that they range from really simple to very in-depth. “Front windshield side trim came off while driving,” said one. Another customer bemoaned the lack of a recall and cited their own personal research uncovering a number of similar incidents.
“The windshield trim on the passenger side flew off the vehicle unexpectedly while driving 70 mph on the freeway. The piece hit the windshield and then flew off and could have struck a vehicle behind me or caused someone to swerve unexpectedly. This is extremely dangerous. There was no warning lights or indicator light. While searching for recalls online numerous people have complained of this happening to them unexpectedly,” they said.
That seems to be the story that many Explorer owners have. Either side of the windshield trim seems to loosen and ultimately come off of the car. Many times it smacks the windshield just before flying off into traffic behind the vehicle itself. If the NHTSA ends up issuing a full recall it could end up involving 1,864,480 Explorers.
