Brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 1999 Ford F-150
1 crash 1 of the 9 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.
When brake line, hose or caliper failure gets reported
Owners of the 1999 Ford F-150 report brake line, hose or caliper failure at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 100,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 115,000 miles. It is the 28th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 85,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 74,800 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 82,800 miles | 100,000 miles | 109,000 miles | 133,000 miles | 157,600 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 is 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 $250–$1,600 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 15; the 1999 has 9. 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.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Pulling a 10 foot box trailer well within gvw limit...main brake line failure, line along the frame rail appears to be rusted way beyond what would be expected for the vehicle year, brake line burst when brakes applied...through inspection revealed all metal parts not aluminum are rusted, appears metal is inferior quality but factory...lines to be replaced. *jb
I went to drive my 1999 ford f-150 last night, and the brake pedal went completely to the floor. No previous symptoms were evident. Upon inspection, it is evident the brake line along the frame to the rear wheels burst due to excessive corrosion. Further inspection showed that all of the other brake and fuel lines on the truck are electroplated, and maintain a silvery non corroded finish. However this line along the frame is obviously unplated, flaking chips of rusted steel, resulting in failure. Whether it was a design flaw, or manufacturing oversight, the unplated brake line could have had severe consequences. *tr
I was on a trip in alabama traveling south on I-85 on september 2, 2008. I stopped for a break just north of montgomery. When I got on the on ramp to I-85, my left front tire suddenly went flat. I replaced the wheel with the spare and discovered that the wheel had been ripped open. I drove to the nearest ford dealer in montgomery where they discovered that a brake caliper bolt had come out and caused the brake caliper to rip the wheel apart. I was extremely lucky to have been on the on ramp rather than traveling on the interstate at 70 miles an hour. This is the third time that the same caliper bolt has come out. The last time was in oneonta ala and was replaced by the local ford dealer in oneonta. This is a dangerous safety problem that could have caused the death of two people. *tr
Also reported on the 1999 Ford F-150
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Other body or interior problem
Misfire or rough idle
Other engine problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 9 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 brake line, hose or caliper failure happen on the 1999 Ford F-150?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 100,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 1999 Ford F-150?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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