San Francisco, Jul 30 (IANS): Ford Motor has issued a recall notice for 870,701 F-150 trucks in the US that could potentially experience a wiring-related problem with their electric parking brakes.
In a safety recall report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the automaker said the rear axle wiring harness bundle may contact the rear axle housing in the affected vehicles, leading to unexpected activation of the electric parking brake.
"Damaged electric parking brake wiring may lead to inadvertent parking brake application while driving, potentially resulting in loss of control of the vehicle and increasing the risk of a crash," NHTSA mentioned.
The 870,701 trucks that could be affected are from the model years 2021 to 2023 and have single exhaust systems. The recalled automobiles were manufactured during a three-year period.
According to the report, owners of impacted F-150 pickups will receive letters advising them of the recall and the repair for the issue beginning September 11, the same date dealers will receive a notification.
On February 23, 2023, Ford's Critical Concern Review Group (CCRG) opened an investigation into reports describing unintended parking brake applications on 2021 model year F-150 vehicles.
The warranty and field reports both revealed that the wiring containing the rear electric parking brake circuits had been damaged.
As of July 11, 2023, Ford is aware of 918 warranty and three field reports for the wire chafing condition in North America, received within the range of August 2021 and July 2023.
In March, Ford Motor issued a recall notice for 18 electric F-150 Lightning pickup trucks with faulty battery cells that caused at least one truck to catch fire.
On February 4, a fire broke out in a holding lot during a pre-delivery quality check while the vehicle was charging. Ford halted production and issued a stop-shipment order to dealers.
According to Ford, the "root cause" of the problem was at the Georgia plant of South Korean battery supplier SK On.