AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 6 owner reports

Loss of braking on the 2006 Ford Expedition

1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 6 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.

Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 6
With an odometer reading 6
Reports per 1,000 built 0.4 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 33%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 2
Typical repair $400–$3,000
What it means when it happens Critical
Rank among this year's problems 17th

When loss of braking gets reported

There are 6 reports of loss of braking on the 2006 Ford Expedition, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 6 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 86,605 miles — —

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Of these reports, 1 a crash and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.

Putting it right typically runs $400–$3,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 120,000 miles.

By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 25; the 2006 has 6. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Brakes failed in panic situation on dry road. Brakes grabbed and then completely let go when antilock system took over. There was no surge in the pedal as it went completely to the floor. My road speed was 35 MPH when I hit the brakes and I would say their was at least 100ft between mine and the stopped vehicle in front of me. I thought of swerving to miss it but was sure I would at least slow enough to only bump the vec. In front of me. The guy I hit said he heard a chirp and a couple seconds later got hit. There where no skid marks that I know of. Their was 21000 dollars damage to the front of my 2006 expidition. *nm

13,000 miles NHTSA complaint 611225 filed 2007-01-28

I purchased a 2006 ford expedition in april of '06, beginning in november of '06 my engine began stalling. The consequences included loss of braking power, freezing of steering, vehicle slowing with no control. I brought this to my dealers attention on numerous occasions as the problem has continued throughout 2007. I am very concerned of the potential for accidents and injuries. *tr

18,000 miles NHTSA complaint 649970 filed 2007-12-15

Tl* the contact owns a 2006 ford expedition. The contact was traveling 35 MPH when the brakes on the vehicle failed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, and the contact was advised that the brake lines had rusted through. The manufacturer stated that corrosion damage to the vehicle is what caused the brake failure. The contact has filed a complaint with the manufacturer. The contact feels that the corrosion should not be a factor because they do not live in a snow environment. The failure mileage 66710 and the current mileage 68000.

66,710 miles NHTSA complaint 815828 filed 2010-09-22

Also reported on the 2006 Ford Expedition

Other engine problem

112 reports median 86k

Other speed control problem

23 reports median 90k

Other electrical problem

19 reports median 99k

Airbag failed to deploy in a crash

17 reports median 160k

Other fuel system problem

16 reports median 83k

Other wheel or tire problem

15 reports median 60k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 6 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 6 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does loss of braking happen on the 2006 Ford Expedition?

Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is loss of braking on the 2006 Ford Expedition?

6 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

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