1999 FORD F-350 SD — Complaint #637738
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:GEAR BOX:SHAFT PITMAN filed September 8, 2007
NHTSA complaint #637738 (ODI reference 10202244) concerns a 1999 FORD F-350 SD and was filed on September 8, 2007. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 18, 2003. The vehicle had 140,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Missouri based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering:gear box:shaft pitman, 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: yes, fire: no, injuries: 1, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. 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-350 SD cohort independently describe similar steering:gear box:shaft pitman 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 1999 FORD F-350 SD shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
I HAVE HAD 2 STEERING GEAR BOXES BREAK ON MY TRUCK. THE FIRST WAS WHEN MY TRUCK WAS HIT WHILE PARKED. THE INDIVIDUAL HIT THE FRONT OF MY VEHICLE AND DENTED IN THE FRONT BUMPER AND FENDER. IT WAS NOT UNTIL WE WENT TO LOAD THE TRUCK ON THE WRECKER THAT WE DISCOVERED THE BROKEN BOX. THE SECOND TIME I WAS DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD AND THE PERSON IN FRONT OF ME SLAMMED ON THEIR BRAKES TO AVOID AN INDIVIDUAL MAKING A TURN IN FRONT OF THEM. I JERKED MY WHEEL TO THE LEFT TO GO OVER THE CURB AND AVOID THE ACCIDENT BUT WHEN MY TIRES HIT THE CURB IT SHEARED OF THE PITMAN ARM RIGHT BELOW THE STEERING GEARBOX WHICH RESULTED IN ME LOSING MY STEERING. I THEN PLOWED INTO THE VEHICLE INFRONT OF ME WITH NO WAY TO AVOID THEM. THE CURB WAS NOT A VERY BIG ONE AND IT WORRIES ME THAT THIS IMPORTANT PART BROKE SO EASY. *TR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 637738 |
| ODI Number | 10202244 |
| Date Filed | September 8, 2007 |
| Failure Date | May 18, 2003 |
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.