2012 FORD F-250 — Complaint #1881525
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL: PRE-HEATER filed March 20, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1881525 (ODI reference 11512823) concerns a 2012 FORD F-250 and was filed on March 20, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 18, 2023. The vehicle had 160,100 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Washington based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as fuel system, diesel: pre-heater, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same FORD F-250 cohort independently describe similar fuel system, diesel: pre-heater failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2012 FORD F-250 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2012 Ford F-250. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds over 50 MPH, the vehicle shifted into LIMP Mode. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer, where the failures could not be duplicated. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that the failure persisted and that the transmission was slipping while shifting. The contact also stated that prior to entering the vehicle, he noticed a fluid leak underneath. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer, where unknown transmission repairs were completed; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was then taken to an independent mechanic, where the fuel pressure regulator and heater malfunction failure codes were retrieved, and it was diagnosed that the Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) tank needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 160,100.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1881525 |
| ODI Number | 11512823 |
| Date Filed | March 20, 2023 |
| Failure Date | January 18, 2023 |
| VIN | 1FT7W2BT9CE |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.