Ford Is Recalling 1.4 Million F-150s Over Unexpected Downshifts

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Ford is once again recalling a bunch of trucks. This time, it's almost 1.4 cardinal F-150 pickups, aft an investigation was opened by nan National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) way backmost successful Marcy 2025. The investigation covered F-150s from 2015-2017 pinch Ford's 6R80 six-speed automatic transmission that tin abruptly downshift from sixth to 2nd gear, without informing aliases driver input. That tin origin nan rear wheels to fastener up temporarily, further causing nan motortruck to skid aliases suffer control, which... isn't great. 

According to nan NHTSA report, Ford is alert of 444 warranty claims, 121 section reports, 105 customer work reports, and 316 Vehicle Owner Questionnaires (VOQs) astir these abrupt downshifts, betwixt April 24, 2015 and November 3, 2025. A full of 891 different VINs were progressive and Ford knows astir 2 injuries, arsenic good arsenic 1 accident, perchance caused by this issue. 

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During nan first investigation, Ford recovered nan origin of nan issue: faulty electrical connections successful nan lead frame, which houses nan Output Shaft Speed sensor (OSS), owed to degradation from years of thermal cycling and vibration. Those faulty connections origin awesome nonaccomplishment to nan Transmission Range Sensor (TRS), which is what causes nan transmission to make "unexpected" shifts. It won't only origin nan motortruck to downshift from sixth to 2nd gear, that's conscionable nan maximum downshift allowed by nan transmission and nan worst-case scenario. It tin origin immoderate benignant of unexpected downshift wrong range, upshift, aliases moreover displacement into neutral. 

In immoderate cases, nan TRS degradation tin origin a small wrench ray popular up successful nan owner's gauge cluster, informing them of a transmission responsibility and they tin return their motortruck to nan dealer. That isn't ever nan case, though, truthful sometimes nan shifts tin genuinely travel retired of nowhere. 

Ford already began notifying dealers of nan callback hole connected April 15, and will rollout interim proprietor notifications connected April 27. Remedy proprietor notifications will beryllium sent betwixt July 13-17, but affected VINs are already searchable for owners looking to spot if their motortruck is affected. If your motortruck is 1 of nan faulty ones, you'll beryllium notified erstwhile to return it to nan dealer, wherever its lead framework will beryllium checked and replaced if necessary, free of charge, and you'll beryllium bully to go. Until nan next Ford recall, of course.