No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2012 Ford F-250 SD
Only 5 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 no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
There are 5 reports of no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2012 Ford F-250 SD, 5 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 88,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 20,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $200–$1,800 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 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2020 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 10; the 2012 has 5. 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.
Traveling down the highway at 55mph with cruise set and hit brake to turn corner. Engine immediately died with subsequent loss of power brakes and steering--scary because it happened at a critical time while turning a corner on a highway. Absolutely no warning--engine seemed fine prior. Truck would not start. Towed the dead truck to nearest ford dealer in wellington, ks. High pressure fuel pump failure was the diagnosis. Evidently when this happens, metal filings from the shredded pump take out all the injectors, fuel rail, pressure regulator, and also sends metal filings into the fuel tank via the return line. Ford corporate, not the dealer mind you, claims this failure is a result of fuel contamination in spite of the fact that there are 2 fuel filters and a water separator in the system and they were well maintained. Repairs are estimated at $8000 + and ford has refused warranty saying it is not their fault. The "fuel contamination" claim by ford may not even be accurate as their "diagnosis" was made from a picture of the failed part. No fuel tests by ford were conducted although I did retain a sample of the fuel. No specifics…
Traveling down the highway at 55mph with cruise set and hit brake to turn corner. Engine immediately died with subsequent loss of power brakes and steering--scary because it happened at a critical time while turning a corner on a highway. Absolutely no warning--engine seemed fine prior. Truck would not start. Towed the dead truck to nearest ford dealer in wellington, ks. High pressure fuel pump failure was the diagnosis. Evidently when this happens, metal filings from the shredded pump take out all the injectors, fuel rail, pressure regulator, and also sends metal filings into the fuel tank via the return line. Ford corporate, not the dealer mind you, claims this failure is a result of fuel contamination in spite of the fact that there are 2 fuel filters and a water separator in the system and they were well maintained. Repairs are estimated at $8000 + and ford has refused warranty saying it is not their fault. The "fuel contamination" claim by ford may not even be accurate as their "diagnosis" was made from a picture of the failed part. No fuel tests by ford were conducted although I did retain a sample of the fuel. No specifics…
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford f-250 sd. The contact stated that the accelerator pedal failed to respond while the vehicle was in reverse. Prior to the failure, an unknown sensor was replaced by the dealer. The gear was shifted into drive and the vehicle was driven to the driveway. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. In addition, coolant leaked from the reservoir into the valley of the engine and the four power door locks would intermittently unlock when driving. On a separate occasion, in extremely cold weather, the engine failed to start. The vehicle failed to restart and was towed to the dealer. The contact was uncertain of the repair that was performed. The manufacturer was notified of the failures. The approximate failure mileage was 20,000.
Also reported on the 2012 Ford F-250 SD
Other engine problem
Other steering problem
Other suspension problem
Other electrical problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other wheel or tire problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 5 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 5 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 no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2012 Ford F-250 SD?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 20,000 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 no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2012 Ford F-250 SD?
5 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1,667 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