1997 FORD F-150 — Complaint #355717
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:LEAF filed June 5, 2002
NHTSA complaint #355717 (ODI reference 8011114) concerns a 1997 FORD F-150 and was filed on June 5, 2002. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 1, 2002. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:rear:springs:leaf spring assembly:leaf, 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 suspension:rear:springs:leaf spring assembly:leaf 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 1997 FORD F-150 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
CONSUMER NOTICED EXTENDED STOPPING DISTANCE. VEHICLE WAS INSPECTED, AND DISCOVERED THAT REAR LEAF SPRINGS WERE BENT AND NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. BOTH REAR LEAF SPRINGS WERE REPLACED ONE YEAR AGO. *AK
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 355717 |
| ODI Number | 8011114 |
| Date Filed | June 5, 2002 |
| Failure Date | June 1, 2002 |
| VIN | 1FTDX18W2VN |
Similar SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:LEAF Complaints for 1997 FORD F-150
1) DRIVING LOW SPEED RESIDENTIAL 2) MIDDLE LEAF SPRING REAR DRIVER SIDE BROKE, MOVED FORWARD OVER TIME AND SWUNG INTO TIRE SIDE WALL DESTROYING TIRE. RECALL NHTSA # 98V161000 HAD BEEN PERFORMED IN 19
DT:THE CONTACT STATED THE MIDDLE LEAF SPRING BROKE IN THE REAR OF HER VEHICLE. THE FIRST TIME IT BROKE WAS ON THE LEFT SIDE, IT PUNCTURED A TIRE. THE TIRE WENT FLAT WHILE THE TRUCK WAS SITTING. THE
WHILE BACKING UP HEARS A NOISE. DEALER HAS BEEN CONTACTED. THERE IS A TECHNICAL SERVICE BULLETIN # 15692 THAT DESCRIBES THE EXACT PROBLEM, A CONSTANT SNAPPING NOISE IN THE REAR OF THE VEHICLE. *
ON APRIL 12, 2003 WHILE DRIVING MY 1997 FORD F 150 SUPER CAB PICKUP VIN [XXX] I NOTICED A NOISE COMING FROM THE REAR OF THE VEHICLE. AFTER STOPPING TO INVESTIGATE I DISCOVERED THE MIDDLE LEAF OF THE
CONSUMER STATES THAT VEHICLE WAS TAKEN IN FOR A RECALL ON THE REAR LEAF SPRING CLIP TO PREVENT LEAF SPRING FROM PUNCTURING TANK. CONSUMER STATES FEELS THAT RECALL WAS NOT PROPERLY CORRECTED. PLEASE P
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.