Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin on the 2001 Ford F-250 SD
Only 4 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin gets reported
There are 4 reports of exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin on the 2001 Ford F-250 SD, 4 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 100,000 miles. It is the 21st most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 83,700 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
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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 85,000 miles.
By volume the 1999 carries the most reports, with 11; the 2001 has 4. 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.
Exhaust manifold studs/bolts deteriorating and or breaking off from the engine cylinder heads. The exhaust manifolds are still attached to the engine by some of the bolts that have not broken yet,but they are very deteriorated. I feel this is a very serious issue that could result in a serious accident if the remaining bolts break off while my vehicle is being driven. I feel strongly that the vehicle manufacture should be responsible for this repair at their expense. *jb
While driving home from work today during a rain storm in rush hour (I'm traveling at 10mph top), my engine suddenly lost power and sounded as if it had lost the muffler, except the sound was coming from the engine compartment. Because of the rain, it wasn't as loud as the last time it happened three years ago, but I knew what had happened thanks to my prior experience. I pulled over immediately and exited the highway. Once the rain stopped, I was sure what had happened. There is no reason for this occurring at all, but to have it happen twice! There is seriously something wrong with the design in ford's engines (mine is a 5.4 v8, f-250.) I see all the reports of the same problem on the internet and it mentions the fact that there is the possibility of engine compartment fires. When it happened to me the first time, I was told by the dealership I should be able to drive it in for service, so I did. And I did so again today, taking the backroads. Only later this evening, while researching the problem, did I discover the danger. Please apply pressure to ford to correct this problem before someone is seriously injured. And since this…
We have a 2001 ford f250 sd, 5.4 liter triton v8. There was an awful ticking noise for a few weeks and on monday, july 4th, while restarting the truck it made a huge pop noise followed by a very loud tick that sounded like an exhaust leak. It was so loud that my 2 year old son was scared. After contacting ford and many auto shops we learned this will cost us over 500 dollars and that they have serviced over 10 vehicles in the last month with the same problem!! What? And after research have noticed that there have been complaints dating back to 2006 and no recourse by owners! What? This safety issue needs to be fixed! It is so dangerous. We are repairing our vehicle using the mechanic that ford recommended, he will be changing the coil and adding pins to it to ensure that it won't happen again for that plug, but the others...keeping our fingers crossed that nothing else happens before ford gets their stuff together and fixes this!! *tr
Also reported on the 2001 Ford F-250 SD
Misfire or rough idle
Other engine problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 4 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 exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin happen on the 2001 Ford F-250 SD?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin on the 2001 Ford F-250 SD?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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