1989 FORD F250 — Complaint #388801
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:STORAGE:AUXILLARY TANK:SELECTOR DEVICES filed January 11, 2003
NHTSA complaint #388801 (ODI reference 10000959) concerns a 1989 FORD F250 and was filed on January 11, 2003. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 14, 2002. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as fuel system, gasoline:storage:auxillary tank:selector 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 F250 cohort independently describe similar fuel system, gasoline:storage:auxillary tank:selector 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 1989 FORD F250 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
FUEL TANK AUXILIARY SELECTOR SWITCH PROBLEM, OVERFLOW FROM ONE TANK TO THE OTHER, RESULTING OF OVERFLOW OF FUEL PAST THE FILLER CAP. SAME AS NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID 91V146000. HOWEVER MY VEHICLE WAS MANUFACTURED SLIGHTLY BEFORE THE EARLIEST CUTOFF DATE OF 2/1989. TS
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 388801 |
| ODI Number | 10000959 |
| Date Filed | January 11, 2003 |
| Failure Date | December 14, 2002 |
| VIN | 1FTHX25G3KK |
Similar FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:STORAGE:AUXILLARY TANK:SELECTOR DEVICES Complaints for 1989 FORD F250
TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 1989 FORD F250. WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 25 MPH ON NORMAL ROAD CONDITIONS, THE CONTACT SMELLED A STRONG ODOR OF FUEL COMING FROM OUTSIDE OF THE VEHICLE. THE DRIVER PULLED OV
FUEL IS BEING PUMPED OUT OF FRONT TANK ON TO GROUND, SEE 91V146000 FORD CAN NOT TELL ME IF THE RECALL HAS OR HAS NOT BEEN DONE ON THIS TRUCK. SEEMS IF THE TRUCK IS OVER 10 YEARS OLD THEY DON'T KEEP
DT: THE CONTACT STATES THERE IS A NHTSA RECALL CAMPAIGN 91V146000 CONCERNING THE AUXILIARY TANK DEVICES. THIS VEHICLE HAS THE SAME PROBLEMS AS INDICATED IN THE RECALL, BUT IT IS NOT INCLUDED IN TH
FUEL LEAKED OUT PAST THE FILLER CAP WHILE DRIVING. THIS WAS DUE TO THE DEFECT DESCRIBED IN THE FUEL TANK AUXILIARY SELECTOR AND SWITCH RECALL 91V146000 BUT THE VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER WAS NOT I
FUEL TANK SELECTOR AND SWITCH EXPERIENCED THE SAME DEFECT AS STATED IN RECALL 91V146000; HOWEVER, THIS VEHICLE WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THE RECALL DUE TO VIN. *AK
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.