Other electrical problem on the 2005 Ford Ranger
1 fire 1 of the 13 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Ford Ranger report other electrical problem at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 110,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 100,978 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.
17% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11,222 miles | 48,004 miles | 54,461 miles | 85,500 miles | 112,200 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
Of these reports, 1 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 105,000 miles.
By volume the 1996 carries the most reports, with 31; the 2005 has 13. 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.
Inertia switch tripped in 2008 while parked!? Walked home, looked up on internet, found out how to reset. February 2010 the inertia switch tripped again while coasting down smooth road. Pulled over and reset switch. Daughter reports inertia switch tripped a couple of weeks later, fortunately I told her how to reset it. This could be very dangerous and life-threatening, especially if it happened on a crowded freeway! I feel that ford knows this is a problem, have created a relocation kit. For a hundred bucks! I feel ford should pay for it. I have only 7k miles on this truck, in five years! *tr
Driving east on I-10 near ontario, cal at 70 MPH 5/22/2010 9pm, truck died the inertia fuel switch was open . Had to drive with son holding down on the button to keep truck running to get off freeway at 4th st. Inertia switch is dead used a paper clip on wires to drive home. Also the wire connector to the inertia was melting some. First time this happen is in oct 14 2005 and 4 or 5 times sense. *tr
I was driving 65mph on the freeway (which was smooth) and my inertia switch went out. This shut off my power steering, my power brakes and I was almost killed by a semi truck because of this. It happened 10 times today, usually when coming to a stop. This has happened multiple times, and ford has not yet issued a recall. About two weeks ago, the same thing happened (on the freeway), and once again almost caused an accident. They have already tried fixing this before and it continues to occur. I have read multiple instances of this occurring and believe this is an extremely dangerous defect, and almost cost me my life. I have a 2005 ford ranger. Thank you for reading my problem, I am very disturbed by this and hope ford will fix this. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Ford Ranger
Airbag inflator rupture
Other fuel system problem
Other body or interior problem
Fuel pump failure
Other suspension problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 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 other electrical problem happen on the 2005 Ford Ranger?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2005 Ford Ranger?
13 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