NHTSA Complaint #11567338 — 2020 FORD EXPLORER

While driving my Explorer at night on an unlit road in north western New Jersey the instrument cluster in my car displayed a warning message stating, “Check Headlight System, See Manual”. I pulled over and inspected my cars exterior lights for abnormalities, found none. With the headlamp warning light still on I proceeded on my way home when approximately 10 miles further down the road my driver side low beam turned off completely drastically reducing my visibility of the road ahead of me. Making it incredibly unsafe to me and the passengers in my car. On my way home I got pulled over by a local police officer for an out headlight. I explained the issue and they let me off with a warning. I immediately brought my car to my local Ford dealership to be further inspected. They proposed that the headlamp control module was causing the issue by diagnosing using their “pin test”. After replacing the module ($1,000) at the dealership I drove the car less than 10 miles away from the dealership and the headlamp warning light turned back on and the driver side low beam turned off once again leaving me stranded without light on the road. This cycle continued several times and Ford had no explanation as to why it’s happening. I was sent a quote to pay full price for the repair ($2,500) because I was out of Ford’s 36,000 mile limited warranty. A new car that leaves me without a driver side low beam on a dark road poses an incredible risk to me and my passengers as well other drivers and is unacceptable. Not only is an out headlight illegal and a ticket able offense what if there was an animals or debris on the road while I was driving with my 8 month old niece? My down the road sight is exponentially reduced because the driver side low beam is out. The car had less than 36,500 miles when this issue first occurred and it’s been an ongoing problem ever since. An LED headlamp is supposed to be a “lifelong” vehicle part and it’s failing before the car is fully broken in.