Unclassified problem on the 2002 Ford F-150
16 crashes 5 fires 12 injuries 33 of the 41 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 27 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.
When unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Ford F-150 report unclassified problem at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 155,000 miles, from 27 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 66th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 250,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 224,709 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
15% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24,800 miles | 53,000 miles | 96,000 miles | 155,000 miles | 249,509 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, 16 a crash, 5 a fire and 12 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 29 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2022, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 205; the 2002 has 41. 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.
While driving the consumer lost control of the vehicle and as a result the vehicle landed in a ditch. The frontal air bags failed to deployed on impact. *nm the vehicle was repaired with many new parts. The consumer is concerned that the air bags may not deploy if the vehicle becomes involved in another accident. *nm
The truck had a heating system failure. The door located in the heating unit (that opens and closes when the temperature is adjusted) became stuck in the open position which allowed only cold air to enter the air vent. The consumer had to turn off the heat system to prevent hyperthermia. As a result the defogger system couldn't be used which caused poor visibility. The dealership replaced the door and other components. *nm the dealer also replaced the temperature potentiometer and actuator. *nm *tc
While attempting to park my truck in a parking lot during the winter month of january, I had to maneuver over a small snow pile the size of a speed bump. After spinning my tires in four wheel drive on the slick snowy parking lot, the trucks front tires finally made it over the bump from a parked position. As soon as the truck came to a sudden stop on the other side of the bump, both front airbags deployed. Theconsequences of the deployment are that my insurance will not cover the accident because it was a non-collision accident and that the value of my truck now is 6,000 dollars less than it was with air bags. To correct the failure I have contacted ford motor company and have had no such luck in anyone assumiong responsibility for the cause of the airbag failure.*ak
Also reported on the 2002 Ford F-150
Misfire or rough idle
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Other engine problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other electrical problem
Cruise control failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 41 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 41 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2002 Ford F-150?
Across 27 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 155,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2002 Ford F-150?
41 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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