Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2008 Ford F-150
1 injury 1 of the 24 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Ford F-150 report steering rack, gear or tie rod failure at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles, from 24 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 45,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 93,000 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.
4% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44,000 miles | 59,000 miles | 76,500 miles | 119,386 miles | 137,000 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
Of these reports, 1 an injury 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 $700–$2,600 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 24 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 105,000 miles.
By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 115; the 2008 has 24. 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.
It felt as if steering was binding when making a turn. It would suddenly break free and oversteer was a problem. When coming out of a turn the wheel would not center on its own, but had to be turned back to the straight ahead position. Spoke with a ford dealer and they wanted an exorbitant charge to just look at the vehicle and professed they had not heard of the problem before. I went on the internet and found at least two hundred (200) references to the exact issue. It was the lower steering shaft universal joints that had severely corroded. I lubed the joints and things went back to normal for a few days and the binding returned. I installed a new lower shaft - ford part8l3zb767b- and the truck steers like new. The original part ended in a and the b represents an updated version. Obviously ford is aware of the problem and has engineered a fix - and never notifying the consumer. A true concern is the following. Over the past few months when driving straight the wheel showed about 15 degrees of right input while tracking straight, hands off. I had the alignment checked and all ok. It was not pulling, just a displaced from center…
It felt as if steering was binding when making a turn. It would suddenly break free and oversteer was a problem. When coming out of a turn the wheel would not center on its own, but had to be turned back to the straight ahead position. Spoke with a ford dealer and they wanted an exorbitant charge to just look at the vehicle and professed they had not heard of the problem before. I went on the internet and found at least two hundred (200) references to the exact issue. It was the lower steering shaft universal joints that had severely corroded. I lubed the joints and things went back to normal for a few days and the binding returned. I installed a new lower shaft - ford part8l3zb767b- and the truck steers like new. The original part ended in a and the b represents an updated version. Obviously ford is aware of the problem and has engineered a fix - and never notifying the consumer. A true concern is the following. Over the past few months when driving straight the wheel showed about 15 degrees of right input while tracking straight, hands off. I had the alignment checked and all ok. It was not pulling, just a displaced from center…
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 ford f-150. The contact stated that while traveling 40 MPH the steering wheel seized while making a turn. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic. The mechanic confirmed that the steering shaft and universal joint needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 42,100 and the current mileage was 42,220... Updated11/01/12 *bf the consumer stated the steering wheel would not self correct after making a turn. 11/02/12
Also reported on the 2008 Ford F-150
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Other brake problem
Other speed control problem
Other steering problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 24 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure happen on the 2008 Ford F-150?
Across 24 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2008 Ford F-150?
24 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 226 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