How many miles will a 2004 Ford Explorer last?
NHTSA holds 227 owner complaints on the 2004 Ford Explorer that list a mileage past 100,000 miles: 71 past 150,000 and 15 past 200,000. NHTSA's complaints file of November 11, 2026 holds 1,304 complaints on this model year, 1,086 of them with a mileage, and half of those mileages are at or under 65,000 miles; each mileage is the odometer when an owner reported a safety problem, not how long the vehicle lasted.
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See what the paid report includes →Of the 1,086 complaints on the 2004 Ford Explorer that list mileage, the middle half came between 38,000 and 94,000 miles; 227 (21%) came after 100,000 miles, 71 (7%) after 150,000 and 15 (1%) after 200,000.
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How many miles will a 2004 Explorer last?
The 1,086 mileages owners gave run from 1 to 400,000 miles. A quarter are at or under 38,000 miles, half at or under 65,000, three quarters at or under 93,830 and nine in ten at or under 132,000; 227 (21%) came after 100,000 miles, 71 (7%) after 150,000 and 15 (1%) after 200,000.
These mileages say when owners reported a problem, not when a 2004 Explorer wears out. NHTSA's file holds only vehicles whose owners complained; one that ran without a problem never appears in it, so it gives no lifespan and no cutoff, and how a vehicle was maintained matters more than any one odometer reading.
Most of these reports came early in the vehicle's life: 859 of the 1,086 came at or under 100,000 miles. The 227 past that mark show the 2004 Explorer still being driven at those mileages, not how many reach them: NHTSA's file counts complaints, not the vehicles on the road.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Lowest mileage listed | 1 mile |
| 25th percentile | 38,000 miles |
| Median (50th percentile) | 65,000 miles |
| 75th percentile | 93,830 miles |
| 90th percentile | 132,000 miles |
| Highest mileage listed | 400,000 miles |
| Complaints after 100,000 miles | 227 (21%) |
| Complaints after 150,000 miles | 71 (7%) |
| Complaints after 200,000 miles | 15 (1%) |
Every model year together: Half of the 16,183 NHTSA owner complaints on the Ford Explorer that list mileage came after 68,000 miles (NHTSA complaints file of November 11, 2026). How many miles will a Ford Explorer last? →
Common problems with the 2004 Explorer
NHTSA's file holds 1,304 owner complaints on the 2004 Ford Explorer. Owners named the powertrain most often: 460 complaints, and half of the 378 that list a mileage came after 49,000 miles. A complaint can name more than one component.
| Component (NHTSA category) | Complaints | Listing mileage | Median mileage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power Train | 460 | 378 | 50,000 |
| Structure | 426 | 354 | 72,000 |
| Visibility | 100 | 82 | 67,670 |
| Vehicle Speed Control | 76 | 64 | 73,000 |
| Engine And Engine Cooling | 71 | 61 | 55,000 |
Of the 1,304 complaints, 58 report a crash, 15 report a fire and 67 report an injury (83 people reported injured). These are owners' reports to NHTSA, not findings.
Is the 2004 Explorer a good year?
Complaint counts cannot say whether the 2004 is a good or a bad Explorer: they rise with how many were sold and how long they have been on the road. They show how the 2004 compares with the other model years in NHTSA's file.
With 1,304 complaints, the 2004 ranks 11th of the 37 Ford Explorer model years from 1990 to 2026 with 10 or more complaints, counting from the most. The most: the 2002 (3,295). The fewest: the 1990 (12).
Recent model years have had less time to collect complaints, so their counts are still growing. No year is ranked by mileage here, because a year's median mileage mostly follows its age.
| Model year | Owner complaints | Listing mileage | Median mileage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 Explorer | 12 | 1 | Under 10 mileages |
| 1991 Explorer | 609 | 34 | 113,804 |
| 1992 Explorer | 633 | 33 | 111,130 |
| 1993 Explorer | 938 | 40 | 115,000 |
| 1994 Explorer | 1,203 | 67 | 98,083 |
| 1995 Explorer | 843 | 96 | 121,170 |
| 1996 Explorer | 1,450 | 150 | 120,000 |
| 1997 Explorer | 1,731 | 230 | 99,000 |
| 1998 Explorer | 1,959 | 305 | 100,000 |
| 1999 Explorer | 1,348 | 303 | 82,201 |
| 2000 Explorer | 952 | 326 | 77,150 |
| 2001 Explorer | 375 | 113 | 90,000 |
| 2002 Explorer | 3,295 | 2,521 | 79,000 |
| 2003 Explorer | 1,131 | 914 | 73,000 |
| 2004 (this page) | 1,304 | 1,086 | 65,000 |
| 2005 Explorer | 497 | 430 | 70,000 |
| 2006 Explorer | 630 | 546 | 55,000 |
| 2007 Explorer | 208 | 184 | 67,000 |
| 2008 Explorer | 148 | 128 | 77,000 |
| 2009 Explorer | 33 | 26 | 76,000 |
| 2010 Explorer | 115 | 95 | 40,707 |
| 2011 Explorer | 1,198 | 877 | 70,000 |
| 2012 Explorer | 831 | 566 | 70,000 |
| 2013 Explorer | 2,239 | 1,531 | 76,439 |
| 2014 Explorer | 1,684 | 1,017 | 66,500 |
| 2015 Explorer | 1,820 | 1,164 | 57,000 |
| 2016 Explorer | 2,467 | 1,503 | 49,000 |
| 2017 Explorer | 1,706 | 852 | 50,000 |
| 2018 Explorer | 736 | 290 | 50,000 |
| 2019 Explorer | 303 | 119 | 54,271 |
| 2020 Explorer | 1,256 | 417 | 24,000 |
| 2021 Explorer | 463 | 110 | 45,000 |
| 2022 Explorer | 277 | 59 | 38,000 |
| 2023 Explorer | 115 | 25 | 17,000 |
| 2024 Explorer | 21 | 4 | Under 10 mileages |
| 2025 Explorer | 113 | 16 | 3,000 |
| 2026 Explorer | 44 | 5 | Under 10 mileages |
The linked 2015–2022 pages show NHTSA's September 15, 2026 collection, so their counts can differ from this table's.
Every Explorer year compared on NHTSA’s complaints and recalls: Ford Explorer years to avoid →
2004 Ford Explorer recalls
NHTSA's recall files of November 11, 2026 list 4 recall campaigns that name the 2004 Ford Explorer (0 vehicle campaigns and 4 equipment or tire campaigns that name this model year, often for aftermarket parts). A campaign covers a production range, not every vehicle of the model year: check the VIN with NHTSA's free recall lookup.
What these figures can and cannot tell you
- Complaints are owners’ reports to NHTSA. NHTSA publishes them without verifying them: a complaint is an allegation, not a defect finding.
- The mileage is what the owner wrote on the complaint; NHTSA does not check it against the odometer.
- The make, model and model year are the ones on the complaint. NHTSA records them as filed, so a few complaints sit under a model year the name was not sold in.
- They are not a lifespan study. The file holds only vehicles whose owners reported a problem, so these figures do not say how long a typical 2004 Explorer lasts.
- A complaint count rises with how many vehicles were sold and how long they have been on the road, so it is not a rating of the 2004 Explorer.
- Nothing here describes one vehicle: its title brands, odometer readings, accidents and open recalls are in the records for its own VIN.
- 218 of the 1,304 complaints on the 2004 Ford Explorer give no usable mileage (blank, zero, a filler such as 999999, or over 500,000) and are left out of every mileage figure.
- NHTSA names counted: EXPLORER and EXPLORER HYBRID. NHTSA files some vehicles under several names (a series name and a trim name, for example); this page counts only these.
- Recall-file names matched: EXPLORER, EXPLORER HYBRID and EXPLORER PHEV.
Primary sources behind this page
Open the underlying public source and verify that its scope matches the question you are asking.
- NHTSA complaints flat file (FLAT_CMPL.zip), downloaded November 11, 2026National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- Complaints file field layout (CMPL.txt)National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- NHTSA recalls flat file (FLAT_RCL_PRE_2010.zip), downloaded November 11, 2026National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- NHTSA recalls flat file (FLAT_RCL_POST_2010.zip), downloaded November 11, 2026National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- Recalls file field layout (RCL.txt)National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- NHTSA recall and complaint datasets: scope and documentationNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- Recalls Lookup by VINNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration
NHTSA’s complaints file was downloaded on November 11, 2026 (FLAT_CMPL.txt, dated 2026-11-11 10:15, 2,265,416 rows), with its recall files (FLAT_RCL_PRE_2010.txt and FLAT_RCL_POST_2010.txt, dated 2026-11-11 08:02). Each complaint is counted once, by its NHTSA number, with the model year and mileage of its first row; a model year has a page only with 10 or more complaints. The collection script and its rules are in scripts/collect-nhtsa-model-year-longtail.mjs.
2004 Ford Explorer questions
How many miles will a 2004 Ford Explorer last?
NHTSA holds 227 owner complaints on the 2004 Ford Explorer that list a mileage past 100,000 miles: 71 past 150,000 and 15 past 200,000. Of the 1,086 complaints on the 2004 Ford Explorer that list mileage, the middle half came between 38,000 and 94,000 miles; 227 (21%) came after 100,000 miles, 71 (7%) after 150,000 and 15 (1%) after 200,000. These are mileages at a reported problem, not a lifespan: the file holds no 2004 Explorer that never had one.
What are the most common 2004 Ford Explorer problems?
NHTSA's file holds 1,304 owner complaints on the 2004 Ford Explorer. Owners named the powertrain most often: 460 complaints, and half of the 378 that list a mileage came after 49,000 miles. A complaint can name more than one component. Of the 1,304 complaints, 58 report a crash, 15 report a fire and 67 report an injury (83 people reported injured). These are owners' reports to NHTSA, not findings.
Is the 2004 Ford Explorer a good year?
Complaint counts cannot say whether the 2004 is a good or a bad Explorer: they rise with how many were sold and how long they have been on the road. They show how the 2004 compares with the other model years in NHTSA's file. With 1,304 complaints, the 2004 ranks 11th of the 37 Ford Explorer model years from 1990 to 2026 with 10 or more complaints, counting from the most. The most: the 2002 (3,295). The fewest: the 1990 (12).
How many recalls does the 2004 Ford Explorer have?
NHTSA's recall files of November 11, 2026 list 4 recall campaigns that name the 2004 Ford Explorer (0 vehicle campaigns and 4 equipment or tire campaigns that name this model year, often for aftermarket parts). A campaign covers a production range, not every vehicle of the model year: check the VIN with NHTSA's free recall lookup.
How do I check a used 2004 Ford Explorer before buying?
Take the 17-character VIN from the vehicle and compare the odometer with the readings on file for it: title transfers, inspections and auction sales record the mileage on the day. VIN Lookup (free-vin-lookup.com) sells the original ClearVIN PDF for $14.99 (3 reports for $29.99, 5 for $44.99): odometer readings, title brands and auction records on file for the VIN. Check the VIN before buying a used 2004 Ford Explorer.