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Ford F-150 recall: Fault could cause vehicle to downshift into first gear

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Ford issued three recall notices on Wednesday, February 13 covering around 1.5 million vehicles.

The largest of the safety-related recalls affects 1.48 million (1.26 million in the U.S.) F-150 pickups with 6-speed automatic transmission that could experience a sudden and unintended downshift into first gear.

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“Depending on vehicle speed, a downshift to first gear without warning could result in a loss of vehicle control, increasing the risk of a crash,” the company said in a release, adding that it’s aware of five reports of accidents, “including one report of ‘whiplash’ potentially related to this condition.”

Affected F-150 vehicles were built at Ford’s Dearborn assembly plant in Michigan between April 28, 2010 and October 28, 2013, and at its Kansas City assembly plant in Kansas between May 18, 2010 and November 18, 2013.

Dealers will update the powertrain control module software in the affected vehicles at no cost to the owners. The Ford reference number for the case is 19S07.

For more details on this and any other Ford recall, head to its recall webpage or this contact page.

The F-Series is a hugely successful range for Ford, and has been the biggest seller in the U.S. for years. In 2018 the car giant sold nearly a million of them.

But it has suffered issues along the way. Besides this week’s recall, Ford called in 2 million F-150 Regular Cab and SuperCrew Cab vehicles in the U.S. and Canada in September 2018 after discovering a fault with the seat belt pretensioner, a mechanism that tightens belt slack in a crash.

Before that, in April, the automaker recalled a number of 2018 F-150 vehicles, among others, over a transmission issue that could have resulted in the vehicle rolling away after being parked.

Two more recalls

Ford on Wednesday also recalled around 27,000 2017-19 Lincoln Continental vehicles to fix door latches that may not always engage, resulting in a risk of the door opening while the vehicle is in motion. Ford said it’s not aware of any reports of accidents or injuries related to the issue. The reference number for this recall is 19S03.

Finally, the company is calling in 4,200 Ford Mustang, Lincoln Nautilus, and Lincoln Navigator vehicles made in 2019 for a potential fault with the instrument cluster that causes it to stay blank when the vehicle starts up. The reference number is 19C03.

Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
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