2000 FORD F-350 — Complaint #255196
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EQUIPMENT:MECHANICAL:WRECKER AND WHEEL LIFT DEVICES filed November 7, 2000
NHTSA complaint #255196 (ODI reference 735711) concerns a 2000 FORD F-350 and was filed on November 7, 2000. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 3, 2000. The report was geocoded to Colorado based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as equipment:mechanical:wrecker and wheel lift devices, 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-350 cohort independently describe similar equipment:mechanical:wrecker and wheel lift devices 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 2000 FORD F-350 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THE FACTORY INSTALLED TOW PACKAGE WIRING IS DEFECTIVE. THE ELECTRIC BRAKE WIRING IS DEFECTIVE, FORD HAS FAILED TO FIX THE POROBLEM, I CAN GET THE WIRING REPAIRED FROM A THIRD PARTY, BUT MY CONCERN IS HOW MANY TRUCKS HAVE DEFECTIVE WIRING AND OTHER CONSUMERS ARE BEING PUT AT RISK BY FORD NOT ADMITTING THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THERE TOW PACKAGE WIRING. THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION IN COLORADO WE HAVE A LOT OF VERY STEEP GRADES AND TOWING A TRAILER DOWN THEM WITHOUT OUT THE TRAILER BRAKES OPERATIONAL COULD RESULT IN A SERIOUS ACCIDENT. I HAVE BEEN TO TWO FORD DEALERS AND NEITHER ADDRESSED THE PROBLEM. I HAVE DIGITAL PICTURES OF THE DEFECT, THAT CAN BE TRANSMITTED TO YOU.*AK
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 255196 |
| ODI Number | 735711 |
| Date Filed | November 7, 2000 |
| Failure Date | September 3, 2000 |
| VIN | 3FTSW30F4YM |
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.