Loss of braking on the 2013 Ford F-150
16 crashes 3 injuries 3 deaths 22 of the 103 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 loss of braking gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Ford F-150 report loss of braking at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 72,500 miles, from 80 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 12,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 117,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 105,700 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.
29% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13,000 miles | 29,832 miles | 50,000 miles | 73,224 miles | 118,700 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, 16 a crash, 3 an injury and 3 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 $400–$3,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 260,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 106; the 2013 has 103. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 ford f-150. The contact stated that while driving 45 MPH downhill and towing a fifth wheel trailer with a 7,025 pound haul, the brakes became unresponsive. The vehicle was rated at a towing capacity of 10,000 pounds or less. The vehicle was taken to a dealer, who stated that the brakes failed because the v6 engine did not provide enough compression for the vehicle to carry the load. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but offered no assistance. The VIN was not available. The failure and current mileage was 1,400.
While driving on a county highway, pressed the brake peddle to slow for a bad section of road and brake peddle was stiff and would not depress. No brakes. Brake light and errors showed on console. No prior indication there were problems with the brakes. Used the emergency to safely brake the car to call for roadside assistance. Car was towed to the dealer. Dealer indicated that a vacuum line had fallen off and caused the no brake condition. I would have thought there would be a redundant system to allow the brakes to operate. *tr
Truck was parked several hours in son-in-laws driveway. Wife got in truck, after cranking and placing in reverse, no brakes! Backed into son-in laws vehicle damaging it and damaging f 150. F 150 still under warranty, taken to mullinax ford mobile al. Found mastercylinder defect , failed gasket caused brake booster to fail. Master cylinder replaced by mullinax ford, mobile al. *tr
Also reported on the 2013 Ford F-150
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
Other visibility problem
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 103 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 loss of braking happen on the 2013 Ford F-150?
Across 80 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 72,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is loss of braking on the 2013 Ford F-150?
103 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