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1989 FORD F250 — Complaint #709758

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NHTSA Complaint about FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:STORAGE:AUXILLARY TANK:SELECTOR DEVICES filed February 25, 2009

NHTSA complaint #709758 (ODI reference 10259881) concerns a 1989 FORD F250 and was filed on February 25, 2009. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 14, 2008. The vehicle had 98,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. 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.

Vehicle
1989 FORD F250
Component
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:STORAGE:AUXILLARY TANK:SELECTOR DEVICES
State
California
Mileage
98,000 mi

Complaint Description

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 OVER TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD AND OBSERVED FUEL LEAKING FROM THE AUXILIARY TANK. IMMEDIATELY, THE FUEL TANK CAP WAS REMOVED AND FUEL SPRAYED OUT OF THE TANK ONTO HIS CLOTHING. THERE WERE NO PERSONAL INJURIES SUSTAINED. ON A SEPARATE OCCASION, THE MAIN FUEL TANK FAILED IN THE SAME MANNER. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOTIFIED AND DISCOVERED NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID NUMBER 91V146000 (FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE,STORAGE;AUXILIARY TANK;SELECTOR DEVICES). THE VIN WAS EXCLUDED FROM THE RECALL, ALTHOUGH THE FAILURES WERE IDENTICAL. THE VEHICLE HAS NOT BEEN REPAIRED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 98,000 AND CURRENT MILEAGE IS 105,000. UPDATED 03/18/09. *JB

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 709758
ODI Number 10259881
Date Filed February 25, 2009
Failure Date August 14, 2008
VIN 1FTHF25H7KP

Similar FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:STORAGE:AUXILLARY TANK:SELECTOR DEVICES Complaints for 1989 FORD F250

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.