1997 FORD F-150 — Complaint #871975
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:GEAR BOX:SHAFT SECTOR filed August 5, 2011
NHTSA complaint #871975 (ODI reference 10417191) concerns a 1997 FORD F-150 and was filed on August 5, 2011. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 4, 2011. The vehicle had 106,000 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 steering:gear box:shaft sector, 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 steering:gear box:shaft sector 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 1997 FORD F-150 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 1997 FORD F-150. THE CONTACT STATED THAT WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 10 MPH, THE STEERING WHEEL DETACHED FROM THE VEHICLE. THE CONTACT WAS ABLE TO STOP THE VEHICLE SAFELY. WHILE INSPECTING THE VEHICLE, THE CONTACT NOTICED THAT THE INTERMEDIATE STEERING SHAFT WAS NOT PROPERLY SECURED ON THE STEERING BOX. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOTIFIED AND THE CONTACT WAS INFORMED THAT THE VEHICLE WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THE RECALL ASSOCIATED WITH NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID NUMBER 03V196000 (STEERING:GEAR BOX:SHAFT SECTOR). THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE FAILURE AND CURRENT MILEAGES WERE APPROXIMATELY 106,000. UPDATED 09/27/11 *BF THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED AT THE OWNER'S EXPENSE.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 871975 |
| ODI Number | 10417191 |
| Date Filed | August 5, 2011 |
| Failure Date | August 4, 2011 |
| VIN | 1FTDX186XVK |
Similar STEERING:GEAR BOX:SHAFT SECTOR Complaints for 1997 FORD F-150
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 1997 FORD F-150. WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 4 MPH, THE CONTACT LOST CONTROL OF THE STEERING. THE CONTACT INSPECTED THE VEHICLE AND NOTICED THAT THE STEERING SHAFT WAS SEPARATED
WHILE DRIVING AT 30 MPH VEHICLE STARTED SHIFTING TO THE LEFT. STEERING WHEEL KEPT TURNING INTO CIRCLES. THERE WAS NO WAY TO STEER THE VEHICLE. MECHANIC DETERMINED THAT STEERING SHAFT WAS DEFE
UPON REVERSING OUT OF AN ALLEY AT 5 MILES INTERMEDIATE STEERING SHAFT SEPARATED FROM THE STEERING GEAR. THIS RESULTED IN LOSS OF STEERING. AS A RESULT, CONSUMER LOST CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE AND WENT ON
PROBLEMS WITH STEERING ON 1997 FORD F150. *MR THE CONSUMER'S VEHICLE WASN'T INCLUDED IN RECALL # 03V196000. THE PROBLEM WAS INTERMITTENT IN THE CONSUMER'S VEHICLE AND CONTINUED. THE CONSUMER WAS C
THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER FOR RECALL # 03V196000, HOWEVER AFTER THE MECHANIC STARTED TO WORK ON THE VEHICLE, HE INFORMED THE CONSUMER THAT ALL THE PARTS WERE NOT AVAILABLE, AND TO TAKE THE C
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.