Daily Auto News F-150 Airbag Complaints Prompt Investigation
Daily Auto News
It’s long been one of the best-selling vehicles in America — which makes complaints about its safety all the more worrying.
Left Lane News reports, “The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has made it public that they are investigating the 2004-06 F-150 trucks concerning a possible issue that can cause the driver’s airbag to deploy unexpectedly. So far, there have been over 300 complaints regarding this issue.”
Pickuptrucks.com says, “According to NHTSA’s investigation summary, Ford reports that the inadvertent airbag deployments are most likely caused by a sharp edge on the airbag’s horn mounting plate that can chafe an airbag wire leading to an electrical short that may trigger a deployment.” The statistics related to the deployments are sobering. “So far, 225 deployments have been reported with 66 injuries, including two owners being knocked unconscious and one owner who suffered a broken tooth. Ninety-eight of the reports are related to the airbag warning light activating to warn of a potential problem.”
According to Reuters, NHTSA has “upgraded the investigation of the best-selling F-150 to an engineering analysis, which can precede a recall. The government gave no indication that a recall was the next step.” Also, “Ford believes the problem is most likely caused by an electrical short in the airbag/horn assembly. Ford made design changes for 2007 model year F-150s.” So if you have a 2007 or later F-150, the problem likely won’t apply to your truck.
Inside Line says, “as many as 1,563,098 F-150s may be involved.”
Right now consumers don’t have any action to take, as the incidents are still under investigation and no recall has been made. However, keep checking back. If a recall is issued, we’ll let you know what to do.
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