Master cylinder or brake booster failure on the 2016 Ford F-150
2 crashes 2 of the 101 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 master cylinder or brake booster failure gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Ford F-150 report master cylinder or brake booster failure at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles, from 87 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 7,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 80,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 73,500 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.
45% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,600 miles | 9,750 miles | 40,000 miles | 61,000 miles | 80,100 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 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 $450–$2,200 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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2005, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 190,000 miles.
By volume the 2014 carries the most reports, with 110; the 2016 has 101. 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.
The pickup truck is no older than 3 months and while driving on the expressway I suddenly lost function of my brakes. The brake pedal went all the way down with no brake reaction. The midway ford dealership informed me the master cylinder brake was defective. Thankfully no one was injured, nor any physical damage to property; however the traumatic incident did cause me angina due to my heart condition. I was extremely lucky to have been able to have controlled the health condition with nitroglycerin. All I ask is that ford take this incident seriously to avoid any future accidents which may potential result in a fatality. I no longer have faith in my vehicle and prefer a different car moving forward.
Brand new king ranch ford f-150 brakes recurrently fail. No accident but they currently have greatly reduced stopping power, super dangerous. Ford reports long back order 3+weeks on master cylinder, makes me wonder if there is larger issue.
2.5 month old truck with approximately 7k miles driven. I was rolling down a hill about 10mph and tried to stop to talk with a neighbor. The pedal travel didn't feel normal and I rolled about 5 feet past my neighbor. After coming to a stop the pedal slowly sunk to the floor. I shifted to park then released and reapplied the pedal. There was initial resistance at roughly the normal pedal height, and again the pedal slowly sank to the floor. When I shifted back to drive and tested the brakes I experienced a slightly diminished "initial grab" when applying the brakes which then would decrease even further while the pedal sank to the floor. When the pedal was completely depressed I had very very little braking ability. Ford has had the truck for over 3 weeks and states that they believe the master cylinder to be faulty and the lead time on a replacement is quite long. (3 weeks they hope). I have spoken with ford customer service and opened a case. The told me they would seek to prioritize the part for me. I have not heard from them (were supposed to call last thursday) dealer has no updates for me either. In view of the recall for…
Also reported on the 2016 Ford F-150
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Loss of braking
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 101 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 master cylinder or brake booster failure happen on the 2016 Ford F-150?
Across 87 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is master cylinder or brake booster failure on the 2016 Ford F-150?
101 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