Ford Motor (NYSE: F) is recalling almost 1.4 million F-150 pickup trucks in the US after regulators and the company tied a gearshift-related defect to sudden unintended downshifts, a fault that can abruptly cut wheel speed and raise crash risk.
Ford said it is aware of two injuries and one crash potentially linked to the issue.
The recall covers F-150 light trucks with six-speed automatic transmissions produced from March 12, 2014 through August 18, 2017. In practical terms, that captures affected 2015 through 2017 model-year trucks equipped with the 6R80 transmission, the same population that had already been under escalating federal scrutiny.
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NHTSA said the defect centers on an intermittent selection signal from the transmission range sensor to the powertrain control module. When that signal drops out, the truck can temporarily and unintentionally downshift into second gear.
As of early April, the company had logged 444 warranty claims and 105 customer service reports potentially tied to the condition. That sits on top of a broader defect record assembled by NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation, which said it had identified 329 vehicle owner questionnaires tied to the probe and 226 manufacturer reports, for 999 total incidents in its January engineering analysis resume.
NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation on March 21, 2025, then upgraded it to an engineering analysis on January 30, 2026 covering 1,270,970 model-year 2015 to 2017 F-150s with the 6R80 transmission. Regulators said complaints described sudden downshifts without warning or driver input, often paired with temporary rear-wheel lockup, seizure, or skidding.
What likely pushed the issue toward recall was the consistency of the pattern. NHTSA said 43% of consumers in the engineering-analysis file reported at least one wheel-lockup event. Owners described repeated occurrences, and some said they had stopped driving their trucks because of safety concerns.
The agency also found that 114 of the 329 consumers reported replacing the molded lead frame or valve body assembly, with 80 of those repairs confirmed through submitted invoices.
Ford told investigators the alleged failure mechanism in these trucks differs from the signal-loss problem that drove earlier 2011 to 2014 F-150 recalls. In the newer population, Ford traced the problem to degradation of electrical connections within the lead frame from thermal cycling and vibration over time, leading to signal loss from the transmission range sensor. According to Ford’s shift map cited by NHTSA, the worst-case downshift at vehicle speeds between 35 and 64 mph is a jump into second gear from as high as sixth.
Ford’s remedy is a software fix rather than a hardware replacement. Owners will be notified by mail and told to bring affected trucks to Ford or Lincoln dealers, where technicians will update the powertrain control module calibration at no cost. The recalibration is intended to prevent the unintended downshift behavior tied to the faulty sensor signal.
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