Overheating on the 2003 Ford Ranger
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 overheating gets reported
There are 2 reports of overheating on the 2003 Ford Ranger, 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 102,000 miles. It is the 31st most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 17,000 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 $400–$3,500 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 700 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 6; the 2003 has 0. 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.
(1) I was in heavy stop and go traffic, keeping with the flow of the traffic. At one point I had to slam on my brakes. The truck felt like it didn't want to stop. The brakes felt "greasy" and I had to avoid rear ending the car in front of me. (2) brake failure due to overheating? Rotors were warped after that. Truck shuddered when applying the brake. (3) a ford dealer turned the rotors at 25,632 miles. At around 28,000 the shuddering has returned during braking. Dealership says it will not fix the problem again under warranty.
At about 6000 miles I noticed the vehicle vibrating when I applied the brakes. I took it in to the local ford dealer in temecula and they told me the rotors on the front brakes were overheating. I mentioned to them that I never had a problem before on the many cars I've owned over the years (as I'm 54 years old). They machined the rotors for free but told me it was my driving. At about 11,000 miles I experienced the same problem. I brought it to the same dealer and after much discussion with the service manager he machined the rotors for free. About a month ago the car started vibrating again when I applied the brakes. I called the ford hotline toll free number and they told me to take it back to the dealer that worked on the brakes and have them send them a report. The dealer still cannot find anything a matter with the brakes. Please believe me, I do not tailgate on the feeway and do not drive like an 18 year old. I've never had a problem with brakes before, outside of replacing pads and machine the rotors every 35k miles or so. At this point I'm not sure what options I have. Can you help? Thank you, dennis cullen. *ak
Also reported on the 2003 Ford Ranger
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Other suspension problem
Rust or structural corrosion
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 2 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 2 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 overheating happen on the 2003 Ford Ranger?
Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 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 overheating on the 2003 Ford Ranger?
2 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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