Ford Motor has issued two safety recalls for nearly 350,000 new F-150 pickup trucks—the company’s best-selling vehicle—as well as Ford Expedition SUVs for a transmission issue that could allow the vehicles to slip out of gear, even when in park.
The safety recalls, which affect model year 2018 Ford F-150, Expeditions, F-650 and F-750 vehicles with 10-speed and 6-speed automatic transmissions, follow reports of one injury related the problem, the company said. Ford said it’s aware of one reported accident and injury related to this issue.
In all, the recall issued Friday involves 347,425 vehicles in North America, including 292,909 in the United States, 51,742 in Canada, and 2,774 in Mexico.
The issue is with a potentially unseated transmission gear shift cable clip. The clip that locks the gear shift cable to the transmission may not be fully seated on some of these vehicles. Over time, a partially clip or a clip that becomes dislodged may allow the transmission to be in a gear state different from the gear shift position selected by the driver, Ford said Friday.
This could allow the driver to move the shifter to park and remove the ignition key, while the transmission gear may not be in park. If the parking brake isn’t applied this could allow the vehicle to move.
Ford’s reference number for the recall is 18S10.
The notice from Ford follows an even larger recall issued in March of more than 1.3 million cars, covering the 2014 through 2018 models of Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ cars built in Michigan and Mexico. Cars in Canada and Mexico were also recalled.
In that recall, the steering wheels of the cars are at risk of detaching from the steering column, which could cause the driver to lose control. Ford noted that the steering wheel bolts can loosen over time, but plans to replace the the bolts of affected cars with a longer bolt to offset the issue at no cost to the customer.
