Other engine problem on the 2009 Ford F-150
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 26 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 2009 Ford F-150 report other engine problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles, from 23 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 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 136,020 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.
22% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14,780 miles | 37,005 miles | 66,700 miles | 120,000 miles | 150,800 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, 2 a crash and 1 an injury 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 2009 has 26. 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.
I experienced unintended acceleration while backing up. I had just started the engine and placed it in reverse and then tapped the accelerator lightly to start moving. The vehicle then started to accelerate rapidly backwards. Luckily my foot was off the accelerator for I was in a school parking lot and on a slight incline so I was riding the brake lightly. I had my right foot fully on the brake pedal and could barely keep it slowed. I placed the engine in neutral and the tach showed a steady 4000 RPM, again my foot was still off the accelerator. I then turned off the engine and restarted and all seem normal. I took it to the dealer and they could not duplicate or show any computer code errors.
Vehicle has stalled/shut down on three separate occasions during operation. The first two times the vehicle shut off while stopping at a traffic light. During the latest occurrence the vehicle shut off while navigating a left turn through an intersection. The stall resulted in a power steering and brakes failure. I was able to stop the vehicle without incident because there was no traffic. The latest incident occurred on 05/23/2011. The vehicle has been taken to the local ford service department but they cannot recreated the problem and therefore have no solution. I have also notified ford customer service of the problem. There have been six other quality issues with this vehicle. Ford customer service instructed me to continue driving the vehicle and report the incident to the service department when it happens again. Hopefully the next time it happens it will not result in a crash. *tr
The check engine light started going on and off periodically. After three visits to the dealer they determined that there are no mechanical problems. They researched and determined there is a computer program problem with the main computer that causes the light to go on. They told me that I would have to pay to get an update to the computer program that would correct this problem. It cost me three visits and a $85 bill to find out the problem is with their computer program. They know there is a problem with their program and they want the vehicle owner to pay over $200 to fix it. How do they figure that is the owner's fault? *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Ford F-150
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Other powertrain problem
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 26 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 2009 Ford F-150?
Across 23 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 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 other engine problem on the 2009 Ford F-150?
26 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