Other speed control problem on the 1998 Lincoln Navigator
3 fires 3 of the 10 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.
Only 3 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 other speed control problem gets reported
There are 10 reports of other speed control problem on the 1998 Lincoln Navigator, 3 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 78,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 97,502 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, 3 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2001, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 1998 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Dt*: the contact stated while pulling into a driveway at 5 MPH, the accelerator pedal was lightly depressed and the vehicle surged uncontrollably. The brake pedal was depressed, but the vehicle did not stop. While the brake pedal was depressed, the vehicle was put in neutral and the ignition was turned off, the vehicle then stopped. An auto parts store checked the computer for codes, and found one for the air sensor. The computer was reset, but the vehicle has not been inspected by a mechanic. Updated 06/12/06. *jb
Tl*the contact owns a 1998 lincoln navigator. While parked in the garage, the vehicle caught fire. The contact extinguished the fire. The ford dealer stated that there was no recall. The contact would have to pay $400 for the repair. He received a recall letter on march 8, 2008 stating that the vehicle is included in the vehicle speed control recall. He informed the dealer and manufacturer of what happened and they are giving him the run around. The recall number was unknown. The current and failure mileages were 97,502.
Tl*the contact owns a 1998 lincoln navigator. While parked at a gas station, the contact noticed smoke underneath the hood of the vehicle. The fire department arrived and extinguished the fire. The vehicle was towed to the contact's residence. The insurance company stated that the vehicle was destroyed, but did not disclose the cause of the failure. The vehicle was towed to a salvage yard. The dealer has not been notified. Prior to the fire, the contact received a recall notice for NHTSA campaign id number 05v388000 (vehicle speed control). He took the vehicle to the dealer to have the recall repaired at that time. The contact believes that the fire was due to the vehicle speed control. A fire report was filed and the contact has pictures of the fire. The failure and current mileages were 155,969. Updated 09/16/09 *bf updated 09/17/09.*jb
Also reported on the 1998 Lincoln Navigator
Other wheel or tire problem
Tire blowout or tread separation
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Misfire or rough idle
Sunroof failure or glass breakage
Other suspension problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 10 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 10 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 speed control problem happen on the 1998 Lincoln Navigator?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 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 other speed control problem on the 1998 Lincoln Navigator?
10 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