No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2004 Ford F-250
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 2004 Ford F-250, 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 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 95,000 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 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 50,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 carries the most reports, with 7; the 2004 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2004 ford f250. The engine failed to start after several attempts. There were no prior warnings. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer for a diagnostic test. The technician stated the failure was due to vibration of the wiring harness shortage. The contact is aware of the safety risk involved. The vehicle has not been repaired. The failure mileage was 151,000 and the current mileage was 151,300. The VIN was unavailable.
The problem began in july 2011. I own and bought new, a 2004 f-250 super duty crew cab four-wheel drive truck with a 6.0 liter engine. The problem started with hard cold starts. When it did start after three to four attempts, the engine ran extremely rough. After a few minutes, it would eventually level off. Throughout the day, the engine would start and stop without any problems. But after being parked overnight, the truck would be hard to start. This continued for several weeks. On the evening of august 11, 2011, after the engine was off for only three hours, it was hard to start. The engine would lope, it would not level off for a few minutes and blew black smoke out the exhaust. Eventually, it did level off and drove home. I did not attempt to start it up again until the morning of august fifteen. It would not start. When I turned the key, it cranked, acted like it was going to start, then back to just cranking. I attempted seven times and stopped concerned I would drain the battery, damage the starter, or some other part. I contacted the dealer. It had to be towed to their service center. They ran diagnostics and determined…
About 9/15/2010 the vehicle, while stopped at a red light failed to accelerate when light changed and the gas pedal was depressed. The truck then stalled and took up to 5 minutes to restart. The incident did not repeat for several months. The next incident the truck failed to accelerate after slowing to near stop at a yield at a highway crossing nearly causing an accident. Replaced fuel filter and had a tune up although it had recently been done and it didn't happen again for a few weeks. After a few weeks of hard driving with no incidence the truck again failed to accelerate on highway entrance ramp nearly causing another accident. After pulling over and turning off the engine and restarting it drove on the highway fine, but stalled when exiting the highway. The latest incident, driving on the highway the truck drove fine, until exiting. It failed to respond to pressure on the gas pedal and stalled leaving a woman and child on the side of the road for 2 hours waiting for a tow. During that time it would not start. Towed to dealership and after having the vehicle for a week, they stated they pulled codes showing fuel injector was…
Also reported on the 2004 Ford F-250
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
Stalling while driving
Other fuel system problem
Wiring harness or short circuit
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 2004 Ford F-250?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 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 2004 Ford F-250?
5 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.6 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