Friday, August 7, 2026
RecallGazette

Vehicle problems, recalls & safety intelligence

1997 Ford F Series engine and engine cooling problems

21 owner complaints filed with NHTSA name the engine and engine cooling on the 1997 Ford F Series45% of all complaints for this model year.

21
Engine and Engine Cooling complaints
45%
share of all complaints
96,000 mi
median reported incident mileage
0 / 2
crash / fire reports

What owners report

  • When I first bought the truck in 2001, the engine had approximately 82k miles. I was having a hard time starting and sometimes it would not start. At first the dealer thought it was the starter and they replaced it. They told me to take it to pepboys to get the starter replaced. When they started…

    filed Apr 24, 2012

  • Engine coolant level keeps running low .truck starting to skip or misfire on cylinder. No visible leakage on the out side of motor. *tr

    filed Apr 18, 2010

Verbatim excerpts from complaints filed with NHTSA. Reports are not independently verified.

Related service bulletins

  • Rough idle, miss and various other driveability concerns on vehicles with 7.3l dit engine. This may be related to injector bore scuffing caused by fuel quality issues. *tt

    11675 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions · issued Oct 30, 2003
  • False failure of the vapor management valve (vmv). *tt *jb

    16683 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions · issued Mar 1, 2003
  • This bulletin states that some 4.6l fqr engine assemblies may have a smaller or larger knock sensor threaded hold than the one in the original engine assembly. *tt

    15901 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions · issued May 1, 2002
All 1997 Ford F Series TSBs →

Engine and Engine Cooling problems in other F Series years

YearReportsShare
2002 F Series1029%
2001 F Series1227%
2000 F Series1025%
1999 F Series1233%
1998 F Series735%
F Series engine and engine cooling problems by year →

Counts are unique NHTSA complaints naming this component group. Complaints are unverified owner reports; mileage is computed only from complaints that included a usable odometer reading.