1999 Ford Excursion: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 1999 Ford Excursion
On the 1999 Ford Excursion, the failure owners report most often is misfire or rough idle, with 3 reports on file. Across every failure mode on this year, half the dated reports were filed before 80,000 miles.
The failures owners actually file about
Owners have reported 8 named failure modes on the 1999 Ford Excursion, and the three most-reported carry 50% of everything filed.
Misfire or rough idle leads with 3 reports and about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles.
Premature brake pad or rotor wear follows with 1 report, median 5,000 miles.
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure follows with 1 report, median 95,000 miles.
By system, the reports fall mostly into engine (3), suspension (2) and brakes (1).
When these failures get reported
9 of the reports on the 1999 Ford Excursion came with an odometer reading, and half of those were filed before 80,000 miles.
Cumulatively, 33% by 50,000 miles and 78% by 100,000 miles of the dated reports had been filed.
The busiest stretch is between 0 and 10,000 miles, which alone holds 33% of the dated reports.
33% of the dated reports were filed below 36,000 miles.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
- Dashed the median reported mileage
What happens when these parts fail
Across the named modes, 1 a fire. Those are the words owners used in their own complaints, and NHTSA does not verify them, but they are the closest thing in this data to a measure of what a failure actually did.
The average severity weight across every report on this year is 3.50, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.
What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: misfire or rough idle at $250–$1,600, premature brake pad or rotor wear at $300–$1,400, control arm, ball joint or bushing failure at $400–$2,200 and tail light, brake light or signal failure at $100–$900. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.
30% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.
Every reported failure mode
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Misfire or rough idle | engine | 3 | 3 | — | 130k | — | 0.1 | $250–$1,600 | Moderate |
| Premature brake pad or rotor wear | brakes | 1 | 1 | — | 5k | — | 0.0 | $300–$1,400 | Moderate |
| Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure | suspension | 1 | 1 | — | 96k | — | 0.0 | $400–$2,200 | High |
| Tail light, brake light or signal failure | lighting | 1 | 1 | — | 80k | — | 0.0 | $100–$900 | Moderate |
| Other electrical problem | electrical | 1 | 1 | — | 85k | — | 0.0 | $250–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Other fuel system problem | fuel | 1 | 1 | — | 5k | — | 0.0 | $300–$2,200 | High |
| Other suspension problem | suspension | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $350–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Other speed control problem | adas | 1 | 1 | — | 5k | — | 0.0 | $250–$2,000 | Critical |
Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.
How often, against how many were built
Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 1999 Ford Excursion draws about 0.4 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 69th percentile of complaint rates among 1999 vehicles we can rate.
That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.
The working figure is 28,000 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 1999 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The odometer reading is the one the owner gave.
Misfire or rough idle
I own a 1999 ford expedition and have now had 2 spark plugs eject out of the cylinder head due destroying the coils of each spark plug in the process. This is a widely know issue with 1997-2000 fords, but ford is doing nothing about it. I call the dealer in carlsbad california and was quoted almost $3000 to fix the problem. There is no recall on this failure and ford is doing nothing about it. I found a company named timesert that sells a "ford triton spark plug steel inser kit" and paid over $400 for the kit and did the repairs myself....when a company like timesert makes a kit specifically to fix this problem with fords it's hard not to believe there is a serious problem here that ford needs to correct. *jb
I own a 1999 ford expedition and have now had 2 spark plugs eject out of the cylinder head due destroying the coils of each spark plug in the process. This is a widely know issue with 1997-2000 fords, but ford is doing nothing about it. I call the dealer in carlsbad california and was quoted almost $3000 to fix the problem. There is no recall on this failure and ford is doing nothing about it. I found a company named timesert that sells a "ford triton spark plug steel inser kit" and paid over $400 for the kit and did the repairs myself....when a company like timesert makes a kit specifically to fix this problem with fords it's hard not to believe there is a serious problem here that ford needs to correct. *jb
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
When applying the brakes the steering wheel vibrated and the car jumped. The front and rear rotors were replaced. The fuel line was replaced twice. The vehicle accelerated on its own. *jb
Recalls on the 1999 model year
NHTSA has issued 1 recall campaign covering the 1999 Ford Excursion, affecting an estimated 28,000 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.
The campaigns cover engine and engine cooling:engine:diesel. Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.
One caution about reading these together: a recall usually raises the complaint count for the same part, because owners who read about it go and file. The mileages stay informative; the counts get noisy.
ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:DIESEL
1,176,000 vehicles 2007-12-05- Defect
- On certain heavy duty trucks equipped with 7.3l diesel engines, the camshaft position sensor located on the engine of the vehicle may function intermittently, possibly resulting in an engine stall.
- Consequence
- In the event of an engine stall, a crash could result without warning.
- Remedy
- Dealers will inspect the sensor and replace it with an improved camshaft position sensor free of charge. The recall began on december 29, 2007. Owners may contact ford at 1-866-436-7332.
Recall work is free at a franchised dealer regardless of the car's age. Check the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before assuming it was done.
Better and worse years of the same car
Across the 6 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 2005 comes out best at 65 and 2003 worst at 71.
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.
What this page cannot tell you
10 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.
Of those 10 reports, 9 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 90% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".
The failure modes are assigned by software reading the owner's own words, which is accurate in bulk and wrong in individual cases. A mode with a handful of reports may contain a misfiled one.
And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.
Questions this page answers
What are the most common problems with the 1999 Ford Excursion?
The most-reported failures are misfire or rough idle (3 reports, median 130,000 miles), premature brake pad or rotor wear (1 report, median 5,000 miles) and control arm, ball joint or bushing failure (1 report, median 95,000 miles). Counts come from owner complaints filed with NHTSA, which are voluntary, so they show what owners bothered to report rather than every fault that occurred.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed