Dearborn, MI — October 13, 2015 — Ford has begun the new month with several recalls affecting some of its most visible brands, including the Ford Escape, F-150, Taurus and Explorer models. The manufacturer has currently received a minimal number of reports in response to five different Ford recalls, but dealers are taking action to fix the issues for free.
Ford announced these recalls in one single press release on September 30, explaining the individual conditions that have collectively affected hundreds of thousands of vehicles. While the recalls encompass all of North America, the United States is the source of most of the recovered units.
Model years range as far back as 2001 for the transmission issues associated with Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner vehicles. This particular recall concerns a shift control lever bolt that could be loose. The transmission systems in these vehicles were actually remanufactured between this June and July, and will concern nearly 70 individual autos.
The largest of the five recalls involves a range of 342,271 Ford Windstars produced between 1997 and 2003. These were built at the company’s Oakville Assembly Plant and will have the rear axle replaced if the reinforcement brackets are found to have been installed improperly. The rear axle in these vehicles could fracture despite the effects of a previous recall meant to address this issue by adding safety brackets.
Other issues that prompted this recall include fuel tank noncompliance, adaptive cruise control radar and shift control brackets in stripped chassis vehicles. All told, the combined recalls reportedly involve as many as 380,000 vehicles, according to MLive.
