2018 FORD F-150 — Complaint #2172716
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY/WIPER filed February 3, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2172716 (ODI reference 11715196) concerns a 2018 FORD F-150 and was filed on February 3, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 3, 2026. The report was geocoded to Illinois based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility/wiper, 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-150 cohort independently describe similar visibility/wiper 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 2018 FORD F-150 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
I have a 2018 Ford F150 with a windshield wiper linkage that is seizing up. It is available for inspection upon request. I was driving down the highway after the snow last night and with all the salt and snow coming off the highway, I couldn't see and the wipers just stopped mid swing. This appears to be the same issue that Canada users are experiancing too (24S77). The dealer said they were out of the part due to many instances of this issue. It was inspected and the motor appears to still work but the linkage is seizing up and stopping. There were no warnings. It just stopped working.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2172716 |
| ODI Number | 11715196 |
| Date Filed | February 3, 2026 |
| Failure Date | February 3, 2026 |
| VIN | 1FTEW1EG5JF |
Similar VISIBILITY/WIPER Complaints for 2018 FORD F-150
I started the truck including the rear and front window defroster. After about 5 minutes, I heard a loud "pop." I looked around the vehicle and noticed that back window was broken.
The windshield wipers began running very slow and at times completely stop at mid wipe position. The occurs no matter what speed they are set at.
The 2018 Ford F150 is notorious for the connection for the rear defroster on the rear window to fall off. There is no real good way to repair this. This leaves it impossible to clear the rear window f
Rear view camera is blurry. Can no longer clearly see obstacles while backing up. Camera problem was reproduced and repaired by the dealer.
Linkage seized and no longer moves. This is a recall in Canada but not the US, but my truck was also affected.
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.