2020 FORD F-150 — Complaint #1981800
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING: STEERING WHEEL/HANDLE BAR filed April 9, 2024
NHTSA complaint #1981800 (ODI reference 11581920) concerns a 2020 FORD F-150 and was filed on April 9, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 9, 2024. The vehicle had 100,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to South Carolina based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering: steering wheel/handle bar, 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. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
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-150 cohort independently describe similar steering: steering wheel/handle bar 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 2020 FORD F-150 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2020 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 75 MPH, the steering wheel became very difficult to turn. The contact stated that the power steering and traction system warning lights were illuminated. The contact pulled over to the side of the road and the vehicle was towed to the dealer. The vehicle was diagnosed with an internal steering failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 100,000. The VIN was not provided.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1981800 |
| ODI Number | 11581920 |
| Date Filed | April 9, 2024 |
| Failure Date | April 9, 2024 |
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.