Other engine problem on the 2005 Ford F-150
3 crashes 6 fires 3 injuries 1 death 13 of the 122 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.
When other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Ford F-150 report other engine problem at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 107,000 miles, from 104 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 21,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 142,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 121,500 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.
16% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20,600 miles | 50,000 miles | 85,000 miles | 107,250 miles | 142,100 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, 3 a crash, 6 a fire, 3 an injury and 1 a fatality 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 $300–$4,000 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 30 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2024, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 411; the 2005 has 122. 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.
A week after I had picked up my new 2005 ford f150 lariat the 5.4l engine started knocking and sputtering. After taking it back to the dealer they determined that the problem was related to faulty sprockets on the cam shafts (bulletin ssm-18342). I brought it in for service and a week after getting it back the knocking and sputtering is still there and getting worse. Now I'm going back to the dealer insisting the engine be replaced. I don't expect a lot of cooperation.*ak
Ford f150 2005 , after about 100 to 150 miles on truck driving on a road with slight hills noticed vibration , at or about 2100 to 2400 rpms in any gear flat or hilly surface and at any speed as long as 2100 to 2400 rpms are reached , truck vibrates through out the truck , contacted dealership where purchased 3 times first was told to bring truck back in for further testing , second time drivable tech went for ride noticed vibration , third time service manager drove truck noticed vibration , contacted ford , ford states issue is normal for truck not going to do anything , but has tsb for issue 05-15 , so I am to assume that ford is now producing trucks that vibrate at set rpms . The truck now has about 650 miles on it and the vibration is getting worse but ford or the dealership will not do anything to fix the issue.*ak
2004 f-150 super crew stalled after decelerating and at low speed turning left through oncoming traffic. Was able to roll through intersection without power steering and re-start engine after coming to a stop and shifting to park. This is the second time the vehicle has stalled at a low speed or turning.
Also reported on the 2005 Ford F-150
Other visibility problem
Window regulator or power window failure
Other powertrain problem
Misfire or rough idle
Other electrical problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 122 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 other engine problem happen on the 2005 Ford F-150?
Across 104 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 107,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2005 Ford F-150?
122 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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