PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, September 2026 Topic: Ford F-150 engine noise (knock, rattle, tick) -- complaints and manufacturer communications License: CC BY 4.0. Attribution: "PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, September 2026". SOURCE FILES NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation public flat files, downloaded 17 September 2026 into a local SQLite database: - COMPLAINTS: 777,040 owner complaints received 1 January 2015 through 8 September 2026. - MANUFACTURER COMMUNICATIONS (TSBs, SSMs, program bulletins): one row per make/model/ model-year per document; documents counted DISTINCT by NHTSA ID. Manufacturer documents were then opened as PDFs from static.nhtsa.gov (listed below). CASE SENSITIVITY (important) NHTSA complaint narratives are ALL CAPS for filings up to 2020 and mixed case from 2021 on. Every text query here is case-insensitive (Python re.IGNORECASE; SQL LIKE, which is case-insensitive in SQLite). A case-sensitive uppercase regex or an uppercase GLOB would silently drop most post-2020 complaints -- roughly half of this particular file. THE COMPLAINT SET Universe: make FORD, model F-150 -- 21,296 complaints, all model years, received 1 January 2015 to 8 September 2026. (F-150 HYBRID and F-150 LIGHTNING BEV are separate models in this file and are NOT in the universe; they are counted separately where the article says so.) First pass: narratives containing a noise word knock|rattl|tick|ping|tap|clank|clatter with an engine-context word within 90 characters -> 808 complaints. Thirty random matches read in full: 7 were false positives (transmission shifts, a brake master cylinder, a sunroof rattle, a pinion bearing, an alignment complaint), i.e. 23%. Tightening, in three steps: 1. "check engine light / lamp / indicator", "engine warning light" and "service engine" are masked out before matching, so the word "engine" in a dashboard-light sentence can no longer anchor an unrelated noise; 2. the noise list drops bare "ping" and loose "tap" -> knock|rattl|tick|clank|clatter|tapping|tapped; 3. the window shrinks from 90 to 50 characters, and the anchor list becomes engine|motor|phaser|camshaft|cam|valve|piston|lifter|timing chain|crankshaft|cylinder| turbo|vct|rod. Result: 522 complaints. This is the published set. Thirty fresh random matches read in full: one false positive (a transmission engagement complaint), i.e. 3.3%. WHAT THE SET SHOWS (headline figures) - Towed 9 (1.72%), crash 1 (0.19%), fire 0 (0.00%), 1 injury, 0 deaths -- against all-complaint baselines of 5.11% towed, 4.37% crash, 1.82% fire. - Mileage: 331 usable odometer figures (>0 and <400,000); median 75,000; quartiles 54,500 and 110,000; 12.7% at or under 36,000 miles. - Model years 2017-2020 account for 375 of 522 (71.8%); model year 2018 alone 160. - Cam phaser or VCT named in 291 (55.7%); a cold start or startup described in 246 (47.1%); timing chain in 72 (13.8%). - Told it was normal, or nobody could reproduce it: 121 (23.2%). - Model years 2021 and later: 11 complaints in the whole set; the 2.7L engine is named in 4. OWNER-REPORTED DOLLAR FIGURES Within the 522, a figure was kept when it is between $300 and $30,000, has a repair or component word within 80 characters (phaser|vct|engine|motor|timing chain|repair|replac|quote| estimat|cost|charge|paid|bill) and does NOT have bought|purchase|loan|financ|owe|trade in| worth|down payment|lease|transmission in the same window. -> 51 figures. Median $4,000; quartiles $2,634 and $6,300; highest $21,491. Ten of the 51 sit in a cam-phaser context; their median is $5,578. Ten is a small sample and is reported as one. These are owner reports typed into a complaint form, not invoices. MANUFACTURER COMMUNICATIONS Query: make FORD, model F-150, summary LIKE any of '%noise%', '%rattle%', '%knock%', '%tick%' -> 185 distinct documents dated 2015 to 2026, of which 109 name an engine component. Counts by year are in f150-noise-bulletins.csv. DOCUMENTS OPENED (PDF, read as text) - Ford SSM 51665, 29 May 2023, "2.7L/3.0L Engines - Upper Engine Thump/Knock Noise": https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2023/MC-10236688-0001.pdf - Ford SSM 53878, 11 June 2025, "Rattle/Scraping Noise At Startup" (bellhousing): https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2025/MC-11019494-0001.pdf - Ford SSM 54338, 4 November 2025, "Rattle/Scrape Noise From Starter Upon Startup": https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2025/MC-11024900-0001.pdf - Ford TSB 23-2143, 31 May 2023 (2017-2020 3.5L EcoBoost, worn VCT units): https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2023/MC-10236037-0001.pdf - Ford SSM 52772, 16 August 2024 (2020-2024 2.7L/3.0L cold-soak tick): https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2024/MC-11006443-0001.pdf -- the PDF's embedded text does not extract cleanly, so this one is quoted from its entry in the manufacturer communications flat file rather than from the rendered page. LIMITATIONS - Complaints are self-reported and unverified, and counts are NOT failure rates: this file carries no denominator of trucks on the road. - Keyword presence measures what an owner wrote, not what was wrong with the truck. "Cam phaser" in a narrative usually reports what a shop said, not a confirmed teardown. - Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The 2021-2022 2.7L intake-valve recall population barely appears in this set; the federal investigation found those failures concentrate in the first few thousand miles, and a truck whose engine was replaced free under warranty gives its owner little reason to file. - Zero fires in this set is a statement about these 522 narratives, not about the F-150. FILES f150-engine-noise-by-model-year.csv counts, median mileage and three keyword columns per year f150-engine-noise-context-shares.csv subset counts with the all-complaint baseline f150-noise-bulletins.csv 185 Ford F-150 noise-related manufacturer communications f150-owner-reported-amounts.csv 51 owner-reported dollar figures