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Transmission · 66 owner reports

Other powertrain problem on the 2005 Ford F-150

Reports of this failure 66
With an odometer reading 50
Reports per 1,000 built 0.2 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 28%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $400–$4,500
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 4th

When other powertrain problem gets reported

Owners of the 2005 Ford F-150 report other powertrain problem at a median of 62,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 50 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 12,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 116,774 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.

28% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 50 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
12,911 miles 35,000 miles 61,500 miles 84,964 miles 129,685 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 $400–$4,500 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.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 30 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 135,000 miles.

By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 956; the 2005 has 66. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

While shifting the vehicle into park and getting out of the vehicle, the vehicle went into reverse. The consumer was able to get back into the vehicle and stopped the vehicle. The truck was towed to the dealer. The dealer had to replace the transmission level linkage. *sc *jb

35,000 miles NHTSA complaint 522304 filed 2005-02-17

I currently own a 2005 ford f-150 4x4 supercrew truck and have started experiencing some grinding/ pulling in the transmission. I first thought it would probably just go away and now it just gets worse each time. The problem creates a rather loud noise and has greatly concerned me. I contacted the dealership where I purchased the truck, rivertown ford/ columbus,ga, and I discovered that this problem seems to be wide spread with the f-150. I am in process of trying to solve this problem now. Ford motor co. Needs to issue a recall for this issue. *nm

12,110 miles NHTSA complaint 562379 filed 2005-11-14

Automatic transmission on 2005 ford 150, goes into nuteral when you stop on a hill and will roll backwards even though the truck is in drive or the truck will roll forward even with the truck in reverse. The truck also goes into nuteral when going down a hill and you take your foot off the gas . Transmission then clunks when goes back into gear. Also when tuck down shifts when going up hill it seems to hit a dead space in the transmission. Was told this is all normal by ford reps. *nm

13,000 miles NHTSA complaint 563482 filed 2005-11-21

Also reported on the 2005 Ford F-150

Other visibility problem

146 reports median 51k

Other engine problem

122 reports median 85k

Misfire or rough idle

57 reports median 102k

Other electrical problem

49 reports median 69k

Other brake problem

49 reports median 45k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 66 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2005 Ford F-150?

Across 50 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 62,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other powertrain problem on the 2005 Ford F-150?

66 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