No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2005 Ford F-150
When no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Ford F-150 report no-start or intermittent start failure at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 33rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 60,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 145,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 86,495 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59,380 miles | 80,350 miles | 90,000 miles | 136,886 miles | 145,875 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 $200–$1,800 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 27 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 56; the 2005 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.
My 2005 f-150 lariat ford pickup truck suddenly began to surge as I was pulling into my driveway. White smoke was billowing out the tail pipe. I was able to complete parking of the vehicle. I turned off the engine and then tried restarting but it would not start. I called a nearby ford dealer and they dispatched a wrecker to bring the truck to the ford dealer garage located a few miles away. Once the truck was looked at the dealer called to inform me that a fuel injector had gone bad and that ford was aware of the problem and had extended the warranty on this model year of pickup truck to 111,000 miles. The truck was out of the 35,000 miles warranty. Ford said there would be no charge to repair the injector. I'm wondering why there was no recall by ford since they admit they are aware of the problem. Should the injector have failed while driving at a higher speed there could have been an accident and possible loss of life. *tr
Original flywheel broken. Told will cost $1k to $1,4k to replace that and starter b/c flywheel 'probably' damaged starter. Truck won't start sometimes, and grinds when I try to start it. Was stranded 2 times and had to be towed. *tr
Original flywheel broken. Told will cost $1k to $1,4k to replace that and starter b/c flywheel 'probably' damaged starter. Truck won't start sometimes, and grinds when I try to start it. Was stranded 2 times and had to be towed. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Ford F-150
Other visibility problem
Window regulator or power window failure
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Misfire or rough idle
Other electrical 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 no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2005 Ford F-150?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 80,000 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 no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2005 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