Yahoo Autos Ford Recalls More Than Half a Million F-150s Over Unexpected, Dramatic Downshifts
Talk about an unexpected shift. The Ford Motor Company is recalling some 552,188 F-150 pickup trucks from the 2014 model as a result of automatic transmissions that can downshift into first gear unprompted, regardless of the truck's speed.
According to the recall notice, the issue is specifically related to an intermittent issue with a signal from the Ford F-150's transmission Output Shaft Speed sensor, or OSS. The resulting brief loss of communication with the Powertrain Control Module (a.k.a. PCM) has the potential to cause the truck’s transmission to drop back into first gear, regardless of how fast the vehicle is going. Depending on the speed at which this fault takes place, the vehicle may become difficult to control, or the gearbox may become unresponsive. Not surprisingly, this situation poses an increased risk of a crash or potential injury.
Ford believes that there are a number of potential reasons for the issue, including — but not limited to — corrosion on the connector, incorrect outputs from the OSS sensor, a power short to ground, or contamination of the sensor itself. The impacted vehicles do not belong to a specific build batch, nor are individual VINs impacted.
That said, Ford has reviewed its manufacturing records in an effort to determine which PCM calibrations are installed on the 2014 models. It expects less than one percent of the recalled vehicles to actually be impacted by the fault. Dealers were notified about the issue on June 17, with customer communications expected to begin on July 1.
Owners will be tasked with bringing their F-150s to either a local Ford or Lincoln dealership, where staff will update the PCM software. Owners of a 2014 Ford F-150 can contact the automaker’s customer service line at 1-866-436-7332 for more information. This recall is known as 24S37 in the automaker’s internal system. You can also head over to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) at the link provided here for more information about the recall.
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