Misfire or rough idle on the 2001 Ford F-250
When misfire or rough idle gets reported
Owners of the 2001 Ford F-250 report misfire or rough idle at a median of 105,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 70,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 82,961 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 68,200 miles | 91,506 miles | 105,000 miles | 132,500 miles | 151,161 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–$1,600 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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2005, at a median of 60,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 1999 carries the most reports, with 26; the 2001 has 12. 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.
While driving 45 MPH consumer heard a loud noise and pulled over. Consumer saw the spark plug was defective, and drove home. Dealership was notified, but did not resolve the problem. *ak
Faulty engineering on a 2001 ford expedition. Spark plugs under pressure just pop right out of the head. The ford barely hit a 100,000 miles. Ford boasts that tune ups are not necessary until a 100,000 miles. Well anyways the spark plug shot out of the head and the end result is that it will cost me $2,000 dollars to replace the entire aluminum head. After talking with other owners and doing some internet homework with on consumer affairs, I noticed at least a hundred other people with the exact same model ford and that have had the same exact problem. *nm
While driving 55 MPH, heard a load bang and then a steady popping sound. After pulling off road to check problem open the hood to see the coil exploded and arching against fuel rail, and spark plug on the valve cover. Got the truck home started researching this issue and I see this is a common problem yet ford says it isn't. My best educated repair solution is cal van 38900 ford 5.4l spark plug port repair kit at a cost of 250 . It took a day and a half to do a complete repair. Seems to be working but ford has a problem and should do something for the owners should it happen. They cant say this is a torque issue this are the factory plugs and coil. So if they torque them wrong at the factory. *tr
Also reported on the 2001 Ford F-250
Other wheel or tire problem
Other steering problem
Other powertrain problem
Tire blowout or tread separation
Other engine problem
Cruise control failure
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 misfire or rough idle happen on the 2001 Ford F-250?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is misfire or rough idle on the 2001 Ford F-250?
12 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