Stalling while driving on the 2004 Ford F-150
When stalling while driving gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Ford F-150 report stalling while driving at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 36th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 99,500 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.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26,500 miles | 51,700 miles | 74,500 miles | 110,250 miles | 126,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $300–$2,500 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 carries the most reports, with 30; the 2004 has 8. 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.
2004 ford f-150 fx4 stalls while driving; it is as if the gas pedal no longer works. Had vehicle towed to dealership. They have had the vehicle for four days and state that they cannot find anything wrong with it. They state that the computer shows that it was run on "lean fuel", however it had a full tank of gas. Runs okay during test driving by dealership. However, stalling presents a safety concern. 8jb
2004 ford f-150 fx4 stalls while driving; it is as if the gas pedal no longer works. Had vehicle towed to dealership. They have had the vehicle for four days and state that they cannot find anything wrong with it. They state that the computer shows that it was run on "lean fuel", however it had a full tank of gas. Runs okay during test driving by dealership. However, stalling presents a safety concern. 8jb
Tl*the contact owns 2004 ford f-150 truck. The contact was driving 30 MPH when the engine stalled and the contact coasted in neutral gear onto the side of the road. The roads were wet, yet, they played no factor in the vehicle failure. The vehicle was towed to his residence. The dealers quoted a price of $300-$1800 to replace the spark plugs. The dealer stated that the repair did not fall under the 100,000 mile warranty. The failure mileage was approximately 60,100. The current mileage was 60,300. Updated 03/26/10
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
Complaints are voluntary, so 8 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 stalling while driving happen on the 2004 Ford F-150?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is stalling while driving on the 2004 Ford F-150?
8 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