Pass rate
80.6%
Around average — 8.4 pts ahead of the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 108 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£99
2004 Ford Explorer MOT pass rate
- 2004
- typical 75,607 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
33.2% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2003 85.2% pass
- Avoid 2000 76.0% pass
Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 9.2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 77.9%
- Typical mileage
- 76k mi
The 2004 Ford Explorer MOT pass rate is 80.6% of its MOT tests — 8.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 33.2% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.6× the national share
Suspension accounts for 33.2% of everything recorded on the 2004 Ford Explorer, against 21.0% nationally — 12.2 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 72.2% and this one manages 80.6% — 8.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 17% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
Written from this page's own figures: fault shares against the national composition, the like-for-like pass rate, and the priced repair list. How these are worked out
Watching a Ford Explorer? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2004 Ford Explorer compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 8.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 77.9%. The median 2004 Ford Explorer in this dataset had covered 75,607 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 80.0% of the time, April–September 81.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint excessively worn", noted on 7.41% of tests.
- 108 recorded tests behind this page.
- 80.6% overall pass rate, 77.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Ford Explorer, the average is 78.8% — best year 2003 (85.2%), worst 2000 (76.0%).
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
This page's data
- Tests analysed
- 108
- Typical mileage (median)
- 75,607 mi
- Make and model
- Ford Explorer
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Explorer MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 64% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Explorer
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 19 | 89.5% |
| East of England | 16 | 75.0% |
Regions come from the postcode area recorded at the test station. Areas on region borders are assigned to the region with the majority of their population.
What fails a 2004 Explorer
Everything a tester recorded on this vehicle, grouped into the inspection sections that produced it. The notch on each bar is the national share, so you can see at a glance whether this car is unusual or just ordinary.
A test can record several items, so these percentages do not add up to 100%. The exact strings, with prices, are in the full DVSA record at the bottom of this page.
Before your test
Three checks worth doing on a 2004 Explorer
These are not generic tips — they are the faults recorded most often on this exact model, rewritten as things you can check yourself. All three take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
-
Check the suspension joints 7.4% of tests
“ball joint excessively worn”
With the car parked on level ground, rock the top of each front wheel in and out while someone watches the suspension arm. Clunks, or rubber boots split and greasy, are what testers record here.
-
Check the battery 3.7% of tests
“battery(ies) insecure”
Check the battery is secure and its terminals are clean and tight — a loose battery is a fail on its own, and a weak one shows up as slow cranking on a cold morning.
-
Check the lights 3.7% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
Switch everything on and walk round the car: both headlamps on dip and main, every indicator, both brake lights, reverse, fog and the two number-plate lamps. A bulb is a few pounds and a five-minute job.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
What it costs to get a 2004 Explorer through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £36–£99 — and 17% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £36–£99
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: integral vehicle structure condition corroded…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 17%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 108 MOT tests on this vehicle. They exclude diagnostics, retest fees and garage labour where the part is a DIY fit, and they are not figures from the DVSA dataset. Older and higher-mileage examples cost more than the average. How these estimates are built → · All MOT repair costs → · Cheapest cars to put through a test →
Every year of the Explorer, side by side
4 model years on record, from 2000 to 2005. Across them the pass rate runs from 76.0% to 85.2% — a spread of 9.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 76.0% battery(ies) insecure but not…
- 2003 85.2% battery(ies) insecure but not…
- 2004 80.6%ball joint excessively worn
- 2005 78.9% linkage pins and bushes pin or…
Colour is the pass rate on a fixed scale, so a block means the same thing on any model. Each year links to its own page with the full fault breakdown.
Compare the 2004 Ford Explorer with another year
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Other 2004 cars with a similar record
- Porsche Cayenne 81.1%
- Porsche Boxster 81.5%
- Toyota Alphard 79.2%
- Subaru Impreza 82.2%
- BMW 645 78.8%
- BMW Z4 78.3%
Closest pass rates among 2004 cars with at least 2,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. See the full rankings: best and worst MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2004 Ford Explorer 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 10 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 235 individual items recorded on this vehicle, and the same share across all cars nationally. A single test can record several items, so a row is not a percentage of tests.
| Category | Items | This car | Nationally | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 79 | 33.20% | 20.98% | +12.22 |
| Brakes | 45 | 18.90% | 20.89% | −1.99 |
| Non-component advisories | 28 | 11.80% | 4.18% | +7.62 |
| Tyres | 25 | 10.50% | 19.76% | −9.26 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 25 | 10.50% | 12.21% | −1.71 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 14 | 5.90% | 5.52% | +0.38 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 9 | 3.80% | 5.57% | −1.77 |
| Visibility | 4 | 1.70% | 4.97% | −3.27 |
| Steering | 3 | 1.30% | 2.57% | −1.27 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3 | 1.30% | 1.76% | −0.46 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 7.4% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 5.6% | £18–45 |
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.7% | £60–140 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.7% | £40–150 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.7% | £5–20 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.9% | £18–45 |
| Integral vehicle structure condition corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.9% | £180–450 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.9% | £5–25 |
| Towbar condition obstructing the registration plate Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 1.9% | £80–250 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.93% | £18–45 |
Severity is as recorded: Major and Dangerous fail the test outright; Minor and Advisory do not. Costs are estimates from typical UK parts prices — see how they are built.
What testers noted without failing the car
Advisories are the early warnings — the same parts a year or two before they fail. Reading them is how you tell a car that has been maintained from one that has been patched.
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 16.7% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 16.7% | £120–300 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 13.9% | £45–95 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 13.0% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 10.2% | £40–150 |
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 9.3% | £40–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 8 | 100.0% | 20,951 mi |
| 30-60k | 20 | 95.0% | 46,695 mi |
| 60-90k | 44 | 75.0% | 73,515 mi |
| 90-120k | 22 | 72.7% | 102,179 mi |
| 120k+ | 14 | 78.6% | 167,313 mi |
Source: 108 recorded tests on this vehicle-year. Every row above is recomputed from the same DVSA extract as the rest of the page — see the methodology.
2004 Explorer MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2004 Ford Explorer?
80.6% of the 108 2004 Ford Explorer tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 77.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 Ford Explorer?
The three most recorded items are ball joint excessively worn (7.41%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (5.56%), battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier (3.70%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 Ford Explorer MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 78.6% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 Ford Explorer in this dataset had covered 75,607 mi.
Does the season affect the 2004 Ford Explorer MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 80.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 81.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.