Brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 2004 Ford F-150
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.
When brake line, hose or caliper failure gets reported
There are 6 reports of brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 2004 Ford F-150, 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 115,000 miles. It is the 45th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 24,750 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 $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 2004 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.
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.
First applaction of brakes after backing out of drive way that is stopping at the red light at (rt)#30-& main rd,brake lines at ABS control manfold,are vibrating so bad it sounds like the fan is rubbing somthing my experance with hydraulic. Tells me that the brake line fittings at there seat in the manafold will fali.#2 this truck has delux mirrors,signal mirrors,LED mounted in the bottom,r/s LED outer three cant be seen from the driver's seat. *ak
First applaction of brakes after backing out of drive way that is stopping at the red light at (rt)#30-& main rd,brake lines at ABS control manfold,are vibrating so bad it sounds like the fan is rubbing somthing my experance with hydraulic. Tells me that the brake line fittings at there seat in the manafold will fali.#2 this truck has delux mirrors,signal mirrors,LED mounted in the bottom,r/s LED outer three cant be seen from the driver's seat. *ak
Regarding 2004 ford f150 4x4 pickup: several months ago I experienced steering problems. Our local dealer fixed a problem with the front brakes. He stated that they have had a number of 2004 4x4 pickups with the same problem, though there has been no recall. Last week the vehicle crashed, which resulted in serious injuries (multiple head fractures) to my wife, and the vehicle being totaled. I was driving on a straight two-lane country road, up a slight graded. Suddenly the vehicle turned sharply to the left. It made a 180 degree turn, and skidded sideways (over the center crown) across the road and broadsided a power pole. The pole struck the passenger-side door, effectively caving it in and causing the injuries. Days later I inspected the vehicle. I noticed (and photographed) that the left front wheel was resting against the brake caliper housing. There was no damage evident to explain this. I did observe that the right front wheel had a clearance between it and the right brake housing. Note that there is no collision damage to the left side or front portion of the truck. The fact that the vehicle seemed to pivot on the left…
Also reported on the 2004 Ford F-150
Other visibility problem
Window regulator or power window failure
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
Other suspension problem
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 brake line, hose or caliper failure happen on the 2004 Ford F-150?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 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 brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 2004 Ford F-150?
6 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