Owner-reported complaints naming the exterior lighting system, filed with NHTSA
Data refreshed
Reports naming headlights, tail lights, turn signals and other exterior lighting. Every record below is an owner-reported complaint about the 2021 Ford F-150 submitted to NHTSA — not a confirmed defect, not a recall and not a manufacturer bulletin. 107 reports on file name it.
Complaints are reports submitted by owners and drivers to NHTSA. They are not verified and do not establish that a defect exists.
The 25 most recent of 107, in the owner's own words
Daytime Running Light failure in headlight assembly. Second time it occurred. Had the first headlight assembly replaced while under warranty. I am now outside of the warranty mileage and the other side's headlight DRL has failed.
Left side headlight went dark. Started dimming now is full out
Both factory LED headlamp assemblies are experiencing premature LED failures. The vertical LED/DRL section has failed on both headlights, and the horizontal LED section has failed on one and is beginning to fail on the other. These are factory-installed upgraded LED headlamps and the LED components are not individually replaceable, requiring replacement of the complete headlamp assembly. The failures occurred before the vehicle reached five years old. Ford was contacted regarding the issue and declined goodwill assistance. I am concerned about the premature failure of the factory exterior lighting and the potential safety implications if additional portions of the headlamp assemblies fail. It does affect viability for other vehicles and both went out within 3 months of each other. I have noticed several other vehicles on the road specifically with my headlights with the same issue.
The safety daytime running lights are failing prematurely. My car has 32,000 miles and my DRL is burnt out on the passenger side. Online forums confirm that this is happening to many, many people. It’s a safety hazard for other drivers because the cost to repair is substantial and people aren’t fixing them. Ford should fix this as a recall.
Outer LED light burned out. Makes for lights to seem dimmer at night while driving.
*Brake system failure, complete shut down of vehicle. *Vehicle unable to start. *Vehicle was taken directly to Peoria Ford ( 9130 W Bell Rd, Peoria, AZ 85382) via tow truck on XXX Confirmed when dropped off of brake system failure and vehicle not functioning. *Vehicle was inspected on XXX which we were originally told it was the battery. Although the vehicle was in for trailer software recall on XXX and during inspection at that time battery was in good health. *No warnings until attempting to use the vehicle on XXX and received the brake system failure alert. Vehicle would also not lock. *After battery was replaced by Peoria Ford I was then told the brake system would not release and would need Actuator misalignment reset/replaced.
Day Running Lights in headlights fail. The side LED fails completely requiring the entire headlight housing needing to be replaced. This is a common failure and Ford is not doing anything to help the thousands of customers this is affecting. This failure is widely reported online, in forums and chat rooms. Dealer acknowledges it is a part failure but Ford will not pay for replacement even though it is a design or manufacturing problem with this particular year and style of headlights.
Passenger side LED Headlight assembly daytime running LED's, the vertical led has gone out in my 2021 Ford f150, while not a major problem, LED daytime running lights increase visibility of other drivers to help in safety. From research, it seems that many of these headlights, the led daytime running lights in the 2021 year model are failing.
The verticals led daytime running light (DRL) on the passenger side has stopped working.
The contact owns a 2021 Ford F-150. The contact received notifications of NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 25V455000 (Fuel System, Gasoline) and 26V104000 (Electrical System, Exterior Lighting); however, the parts to do the recall repairs were not yet available. The dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure.
The passenger side running light in the headlight has gone out. Not the entire part just the vertical section of the running light
The passenger side light has the outer-most vertical LED segment out (not lit up). This appears to be common on this model truck after researching.
The problem and or issue on my 2021 Ford F150 is the Day Running light on the Upper Passenger side went out and does not work anymore. I reported it to the Dealer. I believe it to be a safety issue if all Day Running lights are not fully operational. This happened with about 66,026 miles on my vehicle.
Vertical Daytime Running Lamp is out and from doing multiple hours of research it looks as if it was a quality control issue. The LED board was not secured internally and it caused an LED to touch the tube and burned it. It is very common on 2021-2023 models and the manufacturer changed it for 2024. Please we need to get this as a recall.
My 2021 Ford F-150 has been having trouble with the transmission. Hard shifting, shifting to 10th gear at 40mph and unable to downshift after slowing down. I have also had issues with the daytime running lights not working since around 45k miles. My truck only has 59K miles at the time of me typing this.
Both of the Daytime Running Lamps (DRLs) on my 2021 F150 have failed. They cost `$2,000 each to replace. They are LEDs, and were billed as never needing replacement, and certainly not under 50k miles. A quick search shows that this is a common issue with 2021+ F150s, and looking around on the road, I notice many with the same issue. This failure of safety equipment reduces visibility and could contribute to accidents.
My 2021 Ford F-150 Lariat has a repeated failure of the front LED daytime running/perimeter lighting (Driver's Side). The light was intermittently dim before failing completely. This occurred around 94,000 miles. Because this lighting is part of the truck’s front visibility system, the failure creates a safety concern, especially in daylight, rain, fog, and low-light conditions. Based on owner reports, this may be a widespread defect affecting other 2021+ F-150 trucks. I request NHTSA evaluate this issue for a possible defect investigation and recall.
Daytime Running Lamps, vertical beam on driver side does not function after 4 years. Research shows it's likely melting the headlight assembly components during overheating and burnout.
DRL led strips premature failure. The vehicle is only 5 years old and the DRL on the fog lights and the headlight assembly are failing. Multiple f150s in this year range are experiencing similar issues. This poses a safety risk due to not being able to properly see and be seen due to poor lighting.
I have a 2021 F150. The vehicle has LED day time running lights (DRL's). Several of the lights have overheated and melted the plastic internally to limit the transmittance of light. Thus it appears that the light is not functioning, but the reality it has burnt the plastic. This is a known issue that can be seen everyday on the road in other F150's and in the FORD F150 forums. FORD has realized this design issue and has changed the design of the headlight assembly in newer vehicles. In order to get the (DRL's) repaired, you must replace the entire headlight assembly at a cost of $1500 just for the assembly according to the FORD dealership when I brought the vehicle in routine service. Also, when the DRL first failed, it was believed that FORD had sent an over the air software update that included increasing the intensity of the LED for the DRL. This software update was changed back to the setting that it originally came with the vehicle. The first LED that failed was approximately 2 years ago. A second DRL failed about 6 months later. I have changed the settings so the DRL's do not come on during the day to minimize future DRL's from burning the plastic. In theory, if I wanted to have my vehicle perform properly with the DRL's operating for safety, I would need to replace both assemblies at a cost of over $3000. That seems very excessive. I should have submitted this complaint sooner, but now that I receive several recalls per year for my F150 for other issues, I felt it was time to add this one to the list since the issue is so widespread. If DRL's are not important for safety while driving, why are they installed on vehicles? A quick search on YouTube for diagnosing videos, clearly indicates that the problem exists and its a design issue.
The contact owns a 2021 Ford F-150. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 26V104000 (Electrical System, Exterior Lighting); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted but the vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure.
Daytime running lights are failing.
The passenger side day time running light is dimmed drastically and almost not visible anymore on the upright section. After doing research , this seems to be a very common issue and not a cheap repair. Some states day time running lights are mandatory to work to pass inspection. Ford has not acknowledged this issue and/or making profit from changing out the whole headlight assembly to fix. It seems like it is a bad design or low quality product for a supposed safety issue.
Daytime running light just went out one side.
Led Daytime running lights burnout. No repair by ford without replacing whole housing. No covered under warranty.
Higher-selling and older vehicles accumulate more reports. Counts are not failure rates and are not directly comparable between vehicles that sold in very different numbers.
Categories with enough reports to have a page of their own
Data on this page last refreshed .