1998 FORD F-150 — Complaint #524243
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:TORSION BAR filed March 2, 2005
NHTSA complaint #524243 (ODI reference 10112429) concerns a 1998 FORD F-150 and was filed on March 2, 2005. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 2, 2005. The vehicle had 72,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Washington based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:front:springs:torsion 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 suspension:front:springs:torsion 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 1998 FORD F-150 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THE R/H TORSION BAR BROKE AT LOW SPEED TURNING INTO A PARKING LOT. THE BAR IS BEING REPLACED AT THE DEALERSHIP. THEY SAY THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE. AFTER SEEING ALL THE REPORTS ON LINE, I FIND THIS HARD TO BELIEVE.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 524243 |
| ODI Number | 10112429 |
| Date Filed | March 2, 2005 |
| Failure Date | March 2, 2005 |
Similar SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:TORSION BAR Complaints for 1998 FORD F-150
I STEPPED INTO MY VEHICLE TO GO TO WORK, AND THE TORSION BAR BROKE. SNAPPED INTO TWO PIECES. WAS THANKFUL I WAS NOT DRIVING. I HAVE BEEN TOLD BY THE TOW TRUCK DRIVER AND THE MECHANICS, THAT THEY HA
FRONT RIGHT TORSION BAR SNAPPED WHILE VEHICLE WAS PARKED IN MY DRIVEWAY. *AK
ON DECEMBER 30, 2003, I SENT THE FOLLOWING LETTER TO FORD MOTOR COMPANY AND AS OF YET HAVE NOT RECEIVED A REPLY. HOPEFULLY YOU CAN GIVE ME SOME POINTERS ON HOW I SHOULD PROCEED. THANK YOU, [XXX]. [X
DRIVER SIDE TORSION BAR SNAPPED ,CAUSING FRONT LEFT CORNER OF VEHICLE TO DROP UNEXPECTEDLY POSSIBLY DAMAGING SWAY BAR, SHOCK ABSORBER AND RELATED BUSHINGS. FORD CUSTOMER SERVICE STATED THERE IS NO COV
THE VEHICLE WAS PARKED, WHEN THE LEFT TORSION BAR FAILED. *JB
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.