Loss of braking on the 2002 Ford F-250 SD
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 12 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 2002 Ford F-250 SD report loss of braking at a median of 20,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 200 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 103,759 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.
56% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 241 miles | 3,000 miles | 20,000 miles | 90,000 miles | 104,000 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, 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 $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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 75,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Since 300 miles I have taken the truck to the dealer every 3000 - 5000 miles for the rotors warping, shaking during stopping, severe pull to the right unexpectedly during stopping, no brakes when it is raining or wet out. I don't feel safe driving this truck, I have so far been able to keep from getting into an accident by driving off the road onto the berm until I could get it stopped. The dealers turn the rotors and lubricate the calipers(???) since when do you put grease or oil on the brake components? This works for about 3000 miles and back to shaky and no stop again. The dealer now tells me that it is out of warranty and will cost over $1000.00 to fix. I pull a 30 foot camper mr ford, would you like to be in front of me during an emergency stop? I would like you to be there. *jb
Unable to stop in a reasonable distance. While applying brakes and steadily applying more pressure to increase rate of decent, I get a hard pedal that you can't push any harder even with both feet. Brakes will not apply enough pressure to activate the ABS even on wet pavement, only on gravel or snow. I have paperwork from ford stating they have had a number of complaints and are "aware of the saftey concern" but are "unable to fix." fords teck line advised technition to "replace parts untill concern is fixed." I've been to 4 dealers. They have replaced the powerbooster and put aftermarket pads on the front with no effect. When I inquired about the lemmon law after several return trips to the dealer, they now say it's a "percieved problem", and print on the paperwork "no concerns noticed." at the last trip to the dealer the tech. Said he "saw what I was talking about and test drove a new truck to compare but said it was the same way. That means to me that they are still building these trucks even though they've failed to fix the problem. I first returned the truck with 3000 miles. I now have 36,000 and still no brakes. I'm afraid…
2002 ford f250 diesel truck on interstate 25 in denver. Proceeding at 70 MPH in middle lane in heavy fast traffic and suddenly everything shut down. No power, no electrical, no brakes, no steering, very dangerous situation in rush hour traffic. Had it towed. This is the second time the cam sensor has just quit within 1.5 years at $500 cost to replace each time. But, I could have been seriously injured. I believe this justifies a recall to prevent someone from being seriously hurt. Cam sensor!!! *jb
Also reported on the 2002 Ford F-250 SD
Misfire or rough idle
Other engine problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Other electrical problem
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 12 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 2002 Ford F-250 SD?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 20,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 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 2002 Ford F-250 SD?
12 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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