The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has expanded its investigation into 1.5 million Ford SUVs for defective transmissions. The investigation, which now includes 2002-05 model year Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer models and Lincoln Aviators from 2003-05, originally launched in 2009.
The agency has received hundreds of complaints involving the vehicles in question rolling away after the driver had put the vehicle in park. The complaints include 85 crashes and 32 injuries. No fatalities have been linked to the transmission defect.
“We have expanded the scope of the investigation to include components other than the brake shift interlock system,” NHTSA’s director of defects investigation, Frank Borris, said.
The NHTSA’s probe is focusing on the vehicles’ transmission parking pawl assembly components. The pawl is a device that allows the transmission to lock into park.
In addition to the rollaway reports, the NHTSA has also received 883 complaints of drivers having difficulty or not being able to shift the vehicle into park.
In a separate case, Ford is facing the recall of 1.3 million F-150 models. Ford recalled 135,000 F-150s earlier this year for an airbag defect, but has refused to comply with the NHTSA’s request to recall 1.3 million addition units. The NHTSA says the F-150’s airbags can deploy without warning.
References
1.’Feds expand probe…’ view
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