Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2003 Ford F-250 SD
Only 2 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure gets reported
There are 3 reports of steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2003 Ford F-250 SD, 2 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 98,000 miles. It is the 22nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 38,500 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 $700–$2,600 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 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2016 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 2019 carries the most reports, with 25; the 2003 has 3. 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 2003 ford f-250 sd. While the contact was attempting to park the vehicle, he was unable to turn the steering wheel to the right and the vehicle would not move while in reverse. When the contact examined the vehicle, he noticed that the driver's side tire was turned completely to the left and the passenger side tire was turned completely to the right. The contact also noticed that the tie rod detached from the driver's side tire. Prior to the failure, the contact noticed that the front end of the vehicle felt very loose. The vehicle was diagnosed by the dealer and serviced for the failure. The current and failure mileages were 32,000.
I purchased a new ford f250 truck, VIN 1ftnx20l33e, on april 17, 2003, from elkhorn motors in elkhorn, wi. On october 24, 2004, at around 45,000 miles, I rotated the tires front to back in wisconsin before a trip to florida. After this tire rotation, I noticed a tendency for the steering wheel to oscillate when I stepped on the brakes. I assumed it was related to tires and planned to replace them on my return. I picked up a 5th wheel in florida and started back on november 2. The oscillation in the steering wheel was much worse, seemingly aggravated by the change in cg with the trailer attached. Hard braking at high speeds worsened this condition but I was mostly able to avoid this situation for the trip home. The truck acted completely normal when the brakes were not applied. I replaced both front tires with new ones. I informed my mechanic of my symptoms and asked him to realign the front end if he was unable to find anything else amiss. He found the tie rod end threads worn so much that the adjusting sleeve wobbled inside it even though the bolts were tight. There was also evidence from rust patterns that the adjusting sleeve…
Also reported on the 2003 Ford F-250 SD
Other engine problem
Misfire or rough idle
Other wheel or tire problem
Other steering problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 3 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 3 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure happen on the 2003 Ford F-250 SD?
Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2003 Ford F-250 SD?
3 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