Other electrical problem on the 2008 Ford F-150
4 fires 4 of the 16 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 electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Ford F-150 report other electrical problem at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 115,463 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
33% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19,197 miles | 25,000 miles | 53,500 miles | 92,581 miles | 134,660 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, 4 a fire is 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–$2,000 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 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 220; the 2008 has 16. 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.
2008 f150 supercrew lariat 4x4 bought brand new on july 18 with 426 miles on it. I have made no modifications to the truck except put a flat bed cap on the bed that attaches with clamps under the bed rail and has no electrical components. I have driven the truck less than 2500 miles. On the morning of the incident I drove to work just minutes away from home. Parked truck and locked vehicle and went into factory to my office. 35-40 minutes later I received a call on my phone from the guard building saying my truck was on fire. I walked back out to the parking lot and the truck was filled with smoke. Bystanders said truck had flames inside going up windshield but had died down. They had a fire extinguisher but the truck was locked and they didn't want to open the truck since the flames were dying down until the fire department arrived. Fire department arrived and I unlocked truck door and opened up truck to let smoke out. Small fire rekindled under dash on passenger side, put out immediately with dry chemical fire extinguisher. Opened hood to disconnect battery cables for fire department and did not notice any damage in engine…
Tl* the contact owned a 2008 ford f150. The contact was driving approximately 35 MPH when sparks began shooting form the auxiliary cigarette lighter. The contact stated that his cellular phone was plugged into the lighter at the time of the failure and the sparks were falling into a trash bag inside the vehicle. The contact exited the vehicle and contacted the fire department. The fire department arrived forty-five minutes later and was able to extinguish the fire within one and a half hours. The vehicle was destroyed. The VIN was unavailable. The failure mileage was 43,000.
2008 f-150 radio and interior lights randomly come on while the key is off, out of the ignition, parked in the garage, with the doors closed, the windows can be open or closed. Began randomly about 2 months ago (12-1-2010 @ 60k miles). No re-occurring pattern to the incidences. If the radio on/off switch is off the radio does not come on, but the interior light will come on. Local dealer replaced some sort of "radio module-$600.00" but did not resolve the issue. Help; concerned about battery life and other potential electronic failures. *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Ford F-150
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Other brake problem
Other speed control problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 16 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 electrical problem happen on the 2008 Ford F-150?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2008 Ford F-150?
16 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 151 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