Ford, on Wednesday, issued four recalls for its vehicles, including more than 1.2 FordExplorer SUVs, which have an flaw that could result in drivers losing steering control of the vehicles.
The automaker will alert owners of all Explorers made between May 17, 2010, through Jan. 26, 2017 (2011-2017 models) of the issue. The defect could result in a fractured rear suspension, which affects steering.
The company says it is not aware of any injuries related to the defect.
While the Explorer recall was certainly the largest issued Wednesday by Ford, it wasn’t the only one. The company also expanded the recall of certain F-150 pick-ups by another 123,000. The company has already recalled 1.5 million of the trucks due to a transmission flaw that could cause the vehicles to downshift to first gear with no warning.
The new action, says Ford, is for F-150s equipped with 5-liter and 6.2-liter gas engines. Those vehicles were not sufficiently repaired in a previous recall.
Also recalled were 4,300 Ford Econoline vans, made between 2009-2016, which could have a welding flaw and 12,000 vehicles in Canada, which also risk losing steering control. The Canadian recalls are limited to the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and include select 2010-2017 Ford Taurus, 2009-2017 Ford Flex, 2009-2015 Lincoln MKS and 2010-2017 Lincoln MKT vehicles.
Earlier this year, Ford recalled 953,000 vehicles, including 782,000 in the United States, as part of the Takata airbag inflator recall. In December 2018, it again recalled F-150 pickups, some 874,000 of them, due to fire concerns.
