1998 FORD F-150 — Complaint #670141
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:LEAF filed May 16, 2008
NHTSA complaint #670141 (ODI reference 10228041) concerns a 1998 FORD F-150 and was filed on May 16, 2008. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 15, 2008. The vehicle had 145,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Arizona 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 1998 FORD F-150 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 1998 FORD F-150. THE CONTACT SMELLED BURNING RUBBER COMING FROM HIS VEHICLE. THE SMELL WAS THEN REPLACED BY A RATTLING SOUND COMING FROM THE REAR OF THE VEHICLE. THE CONTACT INSPECTED THE VEHICLE AND NOTICED THAT THE REAR LEAF SPRING FRACTURED ON THE PASSENGER SIDE. HE JACKED THE VEHICLE UP, REPOSITIONED THE SPRING, TIED IT DOWN WITH WIRE, AND DROVE THE VEHICLE HOME. HE REMEMBERED A RECALL HE HAD SEEN AND CALLED THE MANUFACTURER, WHO INFORMED HIM THAT HIS VIN WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THE RECALL. THE RECALL NUMBER WAS UNKNOWN. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 145,000 AND CURRENT MILEAGE WAS 153,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 670141 |
| ODI Number | 10228041 |
| Date Filed | May 16, 2008 |
| Failure Date | March 15, 2008 |
| VIN | 1FTRX18L2WK |
Similar SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:LEAF Complaints for 1998 FORD F-150
REAR LEAF SPRING: ON THE F-150, EXTEND CAB, LONG BED, THE LEFT REAR LEAF SPRING IS OVER-LOADED BECAUSE THE FUEL TANK ( AND THE DRIVER ) ARE ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE VEHICLE. THIS CAUSES THE VEHICLE T
RECEIVED RECALL NOTICE (98V161000) & NOTIFIED THE DEALER. WAS INFORMED NO PARTS AVAILABLE TO REPAIR THE REAR LEAF SPRINGS. *AK
RECEIVED RECALL NOTICE IN MAIL (98V161000) & CALLED DEALERSHIP. WAS INFORMED THAT NO PARTS WERE AVAILABLE FOR THE REAR LEAF SPRINGS. WOULD NOTIFY OWNER WHEN THEY ARE AVAILABLE. *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.