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2003 Ford F Super Duty Problems and Recalls
Owners filed 27 complaints with NHTSA about the 2003 Ford F Super Duty, most often about the engine (48% of complaints, typically around 117,500 miles). It is 5th of 7 F Super Duty model years by number of complaints.
Most common 2003 Ford F Super Duty problems
Engine
13 complaints · 48%Half of these problems showed up before 117,500 miles. Parts named most often: engine.
I have a 2003 f350 superduty truck. It has a triton v10 engine. The spark plug blew out of the engine. This happend 2 years ago also. Forunately I was on surface streets and was not on the freeway which may have been fatal.
My truck has spit out two spark plugs on the passenger side of the engine. These plugs had to be repaired with a hell-coil and this is a temporary fix. It cost me $400 to repair both. My truck has over 100,000 miles and spit out the first at 120,000.
Fuel system
6 complaints · 22%Half of these problems showed up before 94,000 miles. Parts named most often: storage.
Noticed gas tank sagging - inspection found rear strap corroded and broken. Research found that there is a recall on several brands of Ford cars and f150 trucks (1999-2003 models) for this exact problem but the f250 is not covered. If the same problems occur on a different model (e.g. F250) you would think the recall…
Fuel injectors plugged resulting in loss of power. Happened repeatedly over the years. Now it appears to be delaminating fuel tank liner. Appears to be a widespread problem. Ford won't take responsibility.
Complaints are owner reports to NHTSA, not verified defects. One complaint can name several components, so shares add up to more than 100%.
2003 Ford F Super Duty recalls
NHTSA lists no recalls for this model year.
Recall repairs are free at any franchised dealer. Enter your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls to see which recalls are still open on your car.
NHTSA defect investigations
Engine stalling
Summary
In a december 3, 2007 letter, ford advised NHTSA that it will conduct a safety recall to replace the cam position sensor (cps) in approximately 1.2 million subject vehicles to address reports of engine stalling.a new design cps with improved performance and durability will be installed as a remedy.owner notifications will begin in december 2007. The subject vehicles are durable, full-sized, medium duty trucks commonly used for commercial purposes, rescue/emergency response, and commercial or recreational towing.cps failure is comparable to unexpectedly turning the key off since the signal it produces is vital to the electronic engine control system.cps signal loss terminates fuel injection r
Spark plug ejection from cylinder head
Summary
On september 6, 2005, odi received a petition requesting that the agency investigate allegations of engine spark plug ejection in certain model year 1997 through 2004 ford vehicles with triton v-8 and v-10 engines.odi received a total of 474 non-duplicative complaints on the subject vehicles where the complainant, or the dealer repairing the vehicle, reported that a spark plug detached from the cylinder and/or ejected from the engine.as of december 8, 2005, odi is not aware of any allegations where the alleged defect resulted in a loss of vehicle control, a crash, an injury, or a fatality in any of the 10,319,810 subject vehicles.in addition, odi is aware of only two incidents where the vehi
Engine stalling
Summary
In a june 7, 2005 letter, ford notified odi that it would be conducting a safety recall of approximately 180,000 ford f-super duty, excursion and e-series vehicles equipped with 6.0l diesel engines to correct two wiring related conditions that could result in engine stall (NHTSA recall no. 05v-270, ford no. 05s34).the affected vehicles were built between september 29, 2003 and may 31, 2004.according to ford, vehicles with the conditions may stall without warning and may or may not restart.ford will instruct owners of vehicles included in the recall to take their vehicles to a dealer to have the fuel injector control module wire harness upgraded or replaced and or have a new injection control
Engine stalling
Summary
Twenty five of the odi failure reports are duplicative of ford complaints.twenty odi reports do not contain a VIN (and may or may not be duplicative of ford reports).the 14 alleged crashes and 2 alleged injuries were all minor.submitted during preliminary evaluation (pe) 04-070, ford's response to odi's information request (ir) letter contained about 5,000 consumer reports (mors) and 8,700 field reports (cqis).ford reviewed the complaints and categorized them.the manufacturer reports shown above represent a count of unique vehicles that ford categorized as allegedly stalling due to a subject engine component ('a' category, see ford's ir response letter for further detail); some of these vehi
Accelerator pedal sensor (etc)
Summary
Failure counts from odi?s analysis are stated above; see the additional problem experience discussion in the summary report.ford data contained duplicative reports for 4 odi complaints and 1 crash.three crashes were allegedly due to intermittent operation of the electronic throttle control (etc) pedal, one crash occurred when an etc disabled vehicle was struck by another motorist, one report contained no detail.the injuries were minor.an issue involving fixed etc pedals was investigated also, however failure reports and populations are not shown above; see summary report for detail.although ford has used etc based throttle control systems for many years, the pap feature was new for my 2002.t
Accelerator pedal sensor failure (etc)
Summary
The subject vehicles for this investigation include model year 2002 and 2003 excursion and f super duty trucks equipped with 7.3l diesel engines and an optional power adjustable pedal (pap) feature.the subject vehicles utilize an electronic throttle control (etc) system to control engine speed and power.the accelerator pedal position sensor of the etc system was replaced under ford's field service action (fsa) 03b03 (announced in february 2003) due to concerns that it may not operate as designed and as a result, may cause the vehicle to continue to idle or unexpectedly slow when the accelerator is applied.certain complaint and warranty information related to the vehicles involved in fsa 03b0
Questions about the 2003 Ford F Super Duty
- What are the most common problems with the 2003 Ford F Super Duty?
- By NHTSA owner complaints: engine (13 complaints, typically around 117,500 miles); fuel system (6 complaints, typically around 94,000 miles).
- How many recalls does the 2003 Ford F Super Duty have?
- NHTSA lists no recalls for the 2003 Ford F Super Duty. Check your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls in case one is issued later.
- Is the 2003 a bad year for the Ford F Super Duty?
- It is 5th of 7 F Super Duty model years by number of complaints, with 27 complaints. Complaint counts are not adjusted for how many cars were sold, so popular years collect more of them, and the newest years have had less time to.