Complaint volume
911 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2021 Ford F-150 Complaints
911 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2021 Ford F-150, grouped by component category.
911 Total complaints
13 Crash reports
4 Fire reports
6 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are power train, exterior lighting, visibility. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 13 crash reports, 4 fire reports, 6 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 203 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 45,841 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to power train, exterior lighting, visibility?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2021 Ford F-150?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2021 Ford F-150
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2021 Ford F-150 complaints?
13 Crash
4 Fire
6 Injury
0 Fatality
27 Towed
3 Medical attention
What are the most common 2021 Ford F-150 complaint categories?
POWER TRAIN 201
EXTERIOR LIGHTING 75
VISIBILITY 64
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 52
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 52
VISIBILITY/WIPER 41
ENGINE 33
STEERING 24
SERVICE BRAKES 19
BACK OVER PREVENTION 18
911 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2022 | POWER TRAIN,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Driving the truck the transmission shifts down hard depends on the day it’s hard trying too get used to braking when it downshifts like it does. Then when leaving and up shifting sometimes it wants to jerk the truck and hesitates. My father owns a 2019 and his transmission is amazing. Mine is horrible. Since I bought the truck it’s been like this and I just don’t want to be stuck with a broke transmission when my warranty expires one day for it. The speed it jerks when it’s low speed like taking off, the down shifting is going from like 50 down. This happens all the time. I just see people with my year truck getting new transmission because their transmission already is no good. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | POWER TRAIN | Upon getting into the vehicle, it was noticed that there was gear oil leaking all over the rear passenger wheel prompting me to remove the wheel cap. Inside, the axle nut that connects to the axle shaft was completely sheared off and not connected. I am not sure how long it was like this, but from my experience without this nut the axle could have slid into the differential causing a rear axle failure, if that were at highway speeds, or in descent while pulling a trailer that could have been very serious. The broken parts are with the vehicle at the servicing dealership Currently the vehicle is at the dealer being repaired. Due to part shortages and as noted by the dealer being unsafe to drive I will be without a vehicle for 3-4 weeks possibly. The problem has been reproduced by multiple other truck owners noted online in group forums etc., and the dealership was well aware of the issue noting there were 3 other similar trucks in for the same repair needed. There has been no inspection by they manufacturer, only by the dealership where purchased and servicing the vehicle. No noticeable issues right before the problem occurred. Approximately 4000 miles prior to the issue it was noted that the same wheel seemed to be locking and stuttering while turning. Almost as if the brakes/axle were locking right when taking the vehicle in for routine service. It was noted to the dealership, but being that only light service mechanics were on duty they could not do a full inspection. They did inspect brakes for locking etc. found no issues and the locking / stuttering was no longer noticeable. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | SUSPENSION | The bolt that holds the rear axle in place sheared off. This seams to be a common issue on the Max Tow equipped trucks, but Ford hasn't done a recall or even placed a TSB. On top of that my truck is out of service for a back ordered part to fix a safety issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | POWER TRAIN | Right real axle bolt is sheared. This appears to be a big issue with 2021 Ford F150's with the max tow option with the 3.5 ecoboost. Parts back ordered for over a month. Dealer will not release the truck due to safety issues and unsafe to drive. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | I have been waiting for the wiper motor recall for months. Called Ford and they said there isn’t a recall after all. I am to wait for the wiper motor to quit and then they will order parts. Doesn’t sound safe to drive in the rain without a operating wiper motor. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | ENGINE | At 1200 miles the engine shook while driving and a puff of white smoke came out the tailpipe. The dealership claimed it was a faulty sparkplug. 150 miles later the low oil pressure light came on while driving at 75mph. After the local dealership offering nothing to resolve the problem over many weeks, another dealership found oil was passing through the heads. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Nothing happened, I'm filing a complaint about inaction on Ford remedying this recall. It's been 4 months and counting on getting this wiper recall fixed due to no parts available. How can that be when Ford is still building F150's and filling orders but leave the vehicles driving on the roads hoping the windshield wipers don't fall off. Unreal! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Nothing happened. My complaint is about inactivity on performing recall # 22V263 for underbody insulators that can become detached and destroy the driveshaft which can cause the vehicle to loose control. I received the recall notification electronically over 2 weeks ago and was told a followup letter would arrive telling me parts were available and when I could schedule getting the repair done.To date I have not received any such letter. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | EQUIPMENT | 2021 FORD F150. CONSUMER STATED THAT THEIR INFOTAINMENT SYSTEM WAS HACKED. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | VISIBILITY | The contact owns a 2021 Ford F-150. The contact received a notification for NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V142000 (Visibility); however, the parts for the repair were unavailable. The dealer had been notified about the recall and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The manufacturer had been notified of the recall. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the repair. The contact had not experienced a failure. Vin tool confirms parts not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | POWER TRAIN,ENGINE | The contact owns a 2021 Ford F-150. The contact stated when he started up the vehicle, it would not start up. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where they replaced the transmission and the engine, but the vehicle still would not start. The manufacturer was contacted and stated that the vehicle would be repaired under warranty. The failure mileage was 17,500. | Crash: No Fire: No | 17,500 |
| Aug 2022 | VISIBILITY | The contact owns a 2021 Ford F-150. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V142000 (Visibility) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2021 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while towing a trailer, he attempted to make a right turn while driving downhill. The trailer began to push into the vehicle and slide into the back end of the truck. The contact attempted to manually apply the trailer brakes but the trailer brakes failed. The traction control warning light appeared on the instrument panel as the contact began to lose control of the vehicle. The trailer pushed the vehicle off the road and onto a mount of dirt and stone. The trailer damaged the rear bumper and rear right corner panel of the vehicle due to the failure. The contact did not suffer any injuries due to the failure. A police report was not filed since the failure occurred on his property. The dealer was initially notified of the failure and offered no assistance. The contact took the vehicle to an independent mechanic where the vehicle was repaired for the damage. The contact then received a recall notice for NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V193000 (Electrical System). The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the recall was serviced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline. The vehicle had been repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 10,000. | Crash: Yes Fire: No | 10,000 |
| Aug 2022 | VISIBILITY | The contact owns a 2021 Ford F-150. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V142000 (Visibility) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving with my wife and our one month old baby on I-25 in Albuquerque on a hot day (truck screen indicated 106 F) when suddenly the AdvanceTrac traction control, forward pre-collision braking, adaptive cruise control, and ABS system warnings all came on the dashboard. At the same time the brake pedal went limp (no braking action for the first ~50% of the pedal press). I slowed the truck by coasting for over a mile and picked an off-ramp that I expected to be empty before getting off the highway. Upon exiting the highway, I pressed the brake pedal all the way down and at 90-95% of the pedal compression the brakes finally engaged but locked up the rear wheels leading us to skip and skid across two lanes. We were able to come to a stop in the middle of the ramp and then gently moved over to the side of the exit, again locking up the rear wheels when we came to a stop. Upon turning the truck off and turning it back on again everything went back to normal suggesting that it was some subsystem that caused the electronic brake booster and ABS to become unresponsive. After a week at the local Ford dealer, the service technicians were able to find the error code C05CF. This error code appears to be officially only triggered by "Brake Master Cylinder Piston Position Sensor "B" -This DTC sets due to incomplete or improper module programming procedures." Which suggests this problem may have been lingering for over 30k miles of use. Ford technicians updated the traction control module firmware, body control module firmware, and then reproduced the issue leading them to perform an ABS system calibration which they claim fixed the issue. It is claimed that no component replacement was necessary, only software updates and calibration. Full dealer notes attached as .pdf It's crazy to think a software bug caused our brake system to almost entirely fail on the highway, particularly with an error code that should only have been able to been generated at the factory. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2022 | POWER TRAIN | Drive shaft on 21 F150 broke in half while driving on 07/01/2022. I was traveling at 35+ MPH. This could have been much worse at a higher speed. Truck has been to local dealer (Mac Haik) for service twice in last few months, they never mentioned the recall. Dealer contributed to failure by not evaluating issue for over 20,000 miles. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | The contact owns a 2021 Ford F-150. The contact stated while using windshield wipers, the wiper arms detached. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The VIN was not included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V250000 (Visibility). The approximate failure mileage was 15,200. | Crash: No Fire: No | 15,200 |
| Jul 2022 | POWER TRAIN | truck lurches and shudders when sifting, been back to dealer several times but they can't fix the problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | During early morning hours and in the late evening during sunset the navigational screen goes blank for several minutes . The radio still works been nothing can be seen on the screen. If using the navigation this could create a problem because you can see where to turn .The problem has not been reported to a dealer but I have a video of the problem with date and time. This has happened several times already. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2022 | VISIBILITY | The contact owns a 2021 Ford F-150. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V250000 (Visibility) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2022 | AIR BAGS,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On June 17, 2022 while driving to work on highway in Nee York Stare, I put the adaptive cruise control on so I could adjust my drivers side rear view mirror. The truck suddenly lunged to the left striking a guard rail and overturned several times. Despite being a direct high speed impact to the guard rail and overturning , the steering airbag did not deploy. See police report attached. Due to this , I sustained major internal tissue damage including: a broken sternum, punctured lung bruised aorta, 4 fractures to the vertebrae in both my upper and lower spine and 4 broken ribs in my upper rib cage. I spent a total of 11 nights in the hospital including 4 nights in the ICU. I have not been cleared to return to work and instill under medical care. I understand there was a airbag/steering column recall on other F150s but I strongly suspect that the reveal needs to be expanded to mite vehicles such as mine. All the Doctors that treated me said my injuries were the direct result of the steering wheel airbag not deploying. The state trooper that reined me from my vehicle , as well as one of the witnesses both told me that my steering airbag did not deeply. I also have pictures as well. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed | Unknown |
| Jun 2022 | POWER TRAIN,STRUCTURE | The contact owns a 2021 Ford F-150. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V986000 (Power Train, Structure) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated upon parking the vehicle, he noticed that the underbody heat and noise insulators had detached and was hanging on the ground. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who informed the contact that the parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and a case was opened. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 7,000. VIN tool confirms parts not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | 7,000 |
| Jun 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | The windshield wiper arms are defective as pieces of metal from the splines have come off and I do have them. I asked the dealership to check it when I had the last recall and oil change and evidently they did not even check it. I called Ford customer service today and the customer service rep said that my particular vehicle was not covered under the recall as it did not apply. Evidently they don't understand that there are more vehicles with the problem as mine is very evident. Consumer's vehicle was not part of the recall as they did see and have the parts that have fallen out of the wiper arms. They said that they can replace it under warranty but are not able to get the parts as they are going to the recall vehicles. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | My truck was parked in my driveway when i noticed a slight bulge like curve in my rear window. When I opened the door the rear window completely shattered. My local Ford dealership confirmed that the Ford f150's have had this problem for years. They sent pictures to Ford about covering the replacement of the window. Ford refused | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES | Have had squeeking breaks since receiving the truck a year ago. Brought in and was told to watch for a letter they don't have the part that my breaks are safe but the squeeking has gotten a lot worse. Also the dash board lights turn on and off when the car is off. The other day driving at speed on the expressway the whole dash board turned off all gages went to zero than rebooted. I was coasting trying to figure out what was happening so not sure if I lost power. 3 faults were sent to my phone. Restraint fault abs fault and tire pressure fault all showed up. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |