Six problems related to exterior lighting have been reported for the 2017 Ford Explorer. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2017 Ford Explorer based on all problems reported for the 2017 Explorer.
Headlight went out due to water intrusion on plug and module.
Driver's side a-pillar trim fell off while driving at highway speed.
I had a piece of window trim fly off while I was driving on the highway at 70 mph. When it flew off, it may have hit another car. With the piece gone, I am not unable to open the hatch and the dome lights stays on for a considerable amount of time. There is no way to turn off the dome lights, you have to wait for them to go off, which is sometimes more than 10 minutes. When the piece was replaced, the hatch worked as normal. I had the window trim replaced and the same thing happened. I was traveling down the highway over 70 mph and the piece flew off in heavy traffic. I, again, have not been able to open the hatch nor turn off of the dome lights.
The low beam led light has gone out which consists of replacing the whole headlight assembly. The dealership wants $2000 to replace this unit. Looking online at car forums this is a known issue on these Explorers. Our Explorer is from 2017 with only 31000 miles on it which means at most the headlight has been on for only 516 hours. Led lights should be lasting for 30000-40000 hours. This is a safety concern as driving without a low beam headlight is a concern to the person driving as well as any other person on the road. The vehicle issue has been confirmed and inspected by the dealer and there were no symptoms or messages of the problem prior to it occurring. Ford should be liable to repair the headlight in these instances as their product is a safety risk and malfunction on their end.
On may 20th 2020, I drove the car from my house to the grocery store, an approximate 7 miles drive. I parked the car on the parking lot, a few seconds after leaving the car white smoke started to come from under the hood, as the seconds passed the white smoke converted into a fire in the engine, 5 minutes later the car was lost due to fire.
There is a constant drain on the battery and overnight the battery can go dead. I replace the battery every 6 months to a year and have been doing that ever since we purchased it. The dealership wants $250 to diagnose it. It's been a problem from day 1. Even when we took it to get serviced and they kept it overnight - the same thing happened at the dealership, but they just ignored it. That was when it was under warranty. I read on the internet that several people have this same problem. I feel this should be a recall. I have a 2017 Ford platinum.
| Exterior Lighting problems | |
| Headlights problems | |
| Tail Light Switch problems |