There are 5 owner-reported brakes complaints for the 2022 Ford Explorer in NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
Every component of the braking system signaled a fault & associated alerts simultaneously. Nearly a complete brake failure occurred (almost caused me to run into an intersection at a red light). Brakes maintained very little pressure even with pumping them, approx every 5th time I stopped pressure was regained. Quadrupled the braking distance. ABS, parking brake, etc - all failed. Managed to get the car to dealer service (hazard lights & slow driving). Car still at dealer service garage. Brake fluid levels are fine, no apparent leaks. Service intake tech replicated the issue but the mechanics could not. I refused to take the the car back without further work.
The contact owns a 2022 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that while driving at 20-25 MPH, the brakes were applied, and the brake pedal fell off. The brake pedal was not responding. The vehicle increased in speed to 43 MPH. The contact maneuvered around an unknown vehicle to avoid an accident, but the unknown vehicle turned and crashed into the passenger-side quarter panel. The vehicle traveled off a curb and landed in a ditch. The contact and two passengers occupying the second-row seats and one child passenger occupying the third row in a car seat sustained bruises and cuts and were transported to the hospital. The air bags did not deploy. There was no fire. A police report was filed. There was an abnormal beeping sound detected. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was towed to a body shop. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted, who opened a claim and declined to assist. The failure mileage was approximately 57,865.
1. I had received a Ford Motor Company Ford Customer Service Division, P.O. Box 19043, Dearborn, Michigan 48121-1904 Safety Recall Notice 23S55/NHTSA Recall 23V675 letter dated November 2023. 2. Below are my responses to above questions... - What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? ANSWER: A rear axle bolt may fracture. They have inspected months ago. - How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? ANSWER: I am concern for my wife's safety. - Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? ANSWER: Koons is very aware as I have reached out to service advisors, and sent correspondence (web site emails...don't have copies though) between APR24 - JUL24. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? ANSWER: Yes; months ago. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? ANSWER: Not that we are aware of. Our trigger was the letter sent to us in November 2023. Summary: The letter we received is dated November 2023, we started reaching out to Koons in April 2024, and constantly following up with them. All the same answer...waiting for the part to arrive. That only 5 of these parts come out once a week. I finally gave up in July 2024, as I advised them (by sending web site email, and sending service advisor cell phone a test that we communicate by) that I was going to report to problem to your agency. No response back from either of them. I have written down dates and each time I reached out to them with no luck at all, which is on the original recall letter. To be honest, I am very concern as this is my wife's vehicle to drive. I have advised her to use her parking brake when parking, but understand that there is other impacts if the axle would crack.
On 4 separate occasions the brakes on this Explorer failed to engage. The first incident happened as I was backing out of my garage and the brakes did not engage immediately. This resulted in my damaging our trellis. I was traveling at about 5 mph This happened Sept. 2023. The second incident happened as I was coming out of the car wash and applied the brake, but it did not engage and this resulted in a small fender bender with the car in front of me.- Again very slow speed, about 2 MPH Happened in November 2023. The third incident was on the road as I approached a car stopped for a red light. Again the brakes failed to engage, but I was able to avoid the car in front of me by swerving into the lane to the left. Fortunately no car was approaching on that lane this happened November 2023. The final incident again was on the road. The car in front of me was stopped for a left turn and I applied the brakes, the car did not stop so I swerved to the right onto a lawn and side swiped a tree before the brakes finally took hold. I was slowed down to about 30 MPH happened inJanuary 2024.. This failure in the car braking system has resulted in a substantial money loss . After these incidents I am no longer driving the car. I contacted the dealership and they would not look at the vehicle until it was repaired. We will be returning the car to the dealership for their evaluation of the problem.
There is a brake cover, the black plastic/rubber overlay piece that provides traction and grip for the brake pedal. During normal driving today it just slipped off and struck my foot. This is a police car, I understand that it just "slips back on" but it I was emergency Braking or Power Braking, it would be a hell of a time for the brake peddle cover to slip off.
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Sep 8, 2026