AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 16 owner reports

ABS module or sensor failure on the 2001 Ford F-150

5 crashes 1 injury 6 of the 16 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 3 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 16
With an odometer reading 3
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 67%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 6
Typical repair $500–$2,400
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 20th

When abs module or sensor failure gets reported

There are 16 reports of ABS module or sensor failure on the 2001 Ford F-150, 3 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 95,000 miles. It is the 20th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 3 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 35,000 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, 5 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 $500–$2,400 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.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 24 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2006, at a median of 1,800 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 145,000 miles.

By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 113; the 2001 has 16. 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.

Median
  1. 1996 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 110k
  2. 1997 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 80k
  3. 1998 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 76k
  4. 1999 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 74k
  5. 2000 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 69k
  6. 2001 (this one) 35k
  7. 2002 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 50k
  8. 2003 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 27k
  9. 2004 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 5k
  10. 2005 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 18k
  11. 2006 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 2k
  12. 2007 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 34k
  13. 2009 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 94k
  14. 2010 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 47k
  15. 2011 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 126k
  16. 2012 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 143k
  17. 2013 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 137k
  18. 2014 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 91k
  19. 2015 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 2k
  20. 2016 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 71k
  21. 2017 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 107k
  22. 2018 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 83k
  23. 2019 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 86k
  24. 2020 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 90k
  25. 2021 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 45k
  26. 2022 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  27. 2023 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  28. 2024 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 141k
  29. 2025 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure 52k
  30. 2026 Ford F-150 abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —

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.

At highway speed (70 MPH) in left lane of 4 lane divided highway ( conditions dry) was required to perform emergency braking due to slow moving vehicle pulling into our lane. Felt ABS braking (pulsing) for about 1-2 seconds and then truck whipped 90 degrees to the right. Skidded across highway, straighten up, but slid off right shoulder into ditch. Only minor damage to truck. On the highway there was visible a skid mark for right side of truck at the point of braking (no skid marks for left wheels) and skid mark across the highway at about 45 degree angle. Truck had previously been to dealer twice in previous 2 months with complaint about brakes being rough on release. Returned truck to dealer on 2/15/03 and dealer kept until 2/19/03 and reported there was nothing wrong with the brakes. Met with dealer service manager on 3/3/03 and service manager and ford engineer today (3/4/03) and we could not duplicate problem on several attempts at 50-60 MPH. Engineer admitted there were only a couple of things that would cause right brake to lock up, ABS module or caliper. Asked what I wanted and I asked them to replace ABS module and…

24,890 miles NHTSA complaint 396438 filed 2003-03-04

Take a look a my vehicle history, I baby my truck - never used off-road. I have replaced several items that I feel should have been fixed by ford. I had to buy a warranty that cover most of the stuff. Some parts with defects that were replaced. Most replaced at 40,000-80,000 miles 1.) transmission completely replaced 2.) rearend replaced 3.) I'm on my third set of all 4 ball joints 4.) tie rods, tie rod ends (replaced twice now) 5.) coil 6.) headlight housing (3-4 times) 7.) brakes, numerous things worked on and replaced dealership was never able to stop the thumping noise that is still there, said it was normal (not) 8.) idler arm (replaced twice) 9.) sunroof switch replaced twice, reported loud bang when opening. A&b kia said it was normal - no, now it is completely broke and will barely open and have to force closed. 10.) sideview mirrors vibrated 11.) ABS sensor replaced 12.) keyless entry replaced 13.) steering bearings replaced 14.) back bumper is rusting these are just some of the things I can remember right off hand. I've got all receipts. I take care of this truck - wash and wax once a week by hand (unless really bad…

35,000 miles NHTSA complaint 526370 filed 2005-03-17

Dt*: the contact stated while applying brake pressure at various speeds, there was an increased stopping distance and the ABS light illuminated. The vehicle was inspected by an independent repair shop who determined both front anti-lock wheel speed sensors needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was alerted. The consumer traded the vehicle. Updated 09/19/06. *jb

63,301 miles NHTSA complaint 594672 filed 2006-08-31

Also reported on the 2001 Ford F-150

Misfire or rough idle

162 reports median 90k

Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure

127 reports median 129k

Other engine problem

102 reports median 111k

Cruise control failure

100 reports median 92k

Other speed control problem

80 reports median 120k

Other seat belt problem

77 reports median 62k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 16 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 16 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 abs module or sensor failure happen on the 2001 Ford F-150?

Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 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 abs module or sensor failure on the 2001 Ford F-150?

16 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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