Stalling while driving on the 2004 Ford F-250 SD
When stalling while driving gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Ford F-250 SD report stalling while driving at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 90,150 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
40% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13,650 miles | 27,938 miles | 86,000 miles | 97,000 miles | 103,800 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 $300–$2,500 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 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2001, at a median of 65,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 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.
The engine stalled which caused the vehicle to loose power steering and power brakes. This is very hazardous when pulling a fifth wheel camper. *jb there were a number of stalls that seemed to have been different from the original problem in that the vehicle begin to run rough prior to the stalling. The engine alos lost coolant. *sc
While driving approximately 30 MPH on dry level pavement, the engine returned to idle with no power. Pulled over to a safe place and tried again after re-starting. Drove approximately mile and the engine stalled. No warning lights were on and after many more attempts, the vehicle had to be towed. Dealer located and replaced burned wiring harness directly below the turbo charger. *jb
Tl*- the contact owns a 2004 ford f250 superduty 6.0l. The contact stated that while driving 50 MPH he lost turbo charge trying to accelerate to get onto the freeway. This happened when the vehicle overheated as well. Also, the contact stated that the engine stalled. He had taken the vehicle to the dealership, where they have made repairs 5 times to date. This had been an ongoing problem since the vehicle was purchased. The failure mileage was 15,000, and the current mileage was 23,000. *ak
Also reported on the 2004 Ford F-250 SD
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other fuel system problem
Misfire or rough idle
Other speed control problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 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 stalling while driving happen on the 2004 Ford F-250 SD?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is stalling while driving on the 2004 Ford F-250 SD?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 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