As federal officials explained Mercedes-Benz’s decision regarding an older model, Ford revealed Thursday that it’s ramping up a previous recall of the F-150 stemming from an airbag deployment issue.

After voluntarily recalling 144,000 F-150s from the 2005 and 2006 model years in late February, Ford is bringing back the remaining population of F-150s built between 2003 and 2006, a total of 1.19 million units.

Company spokesperson Wes Sherwood sent a statement to Auto Remarketing insisting the recall is “to reassure our customers of our safety commitment after our review of the matter identified an increase in the number of reports of airbag deployments associated with a wiring chafe condition.”

To recap, Ford discovered that if a wiring chafe occurs, the airbag warning lamp will illuminate for an extended period of time prior to any risk of deployment, alerting owners to service their vehicle.

“We urge all of our customers to seek service immediately for an airbag warning lamp that is illuminated,” Sherwood explained “Ford has continued to share all of our data with (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and cooperated with their review.

“We understand the government’s desire to reach a broad group of potentially affected consumers and will recall the remaining population of trucks for our customers’ peace of mind,” Sherwood continued.

Ford said it intends to notify affected owners in May. An automaker memo to NHTSA indicated franchise dealers learned of the expanded recall on Tuesday.
The automaker explained owners of affected vehicles will be instructed to take their vehicles to their local dealers for repair at no cost. Ford believes the repair involves a replacement of a specific airbag wire in the steering wheel and fix is expected to take less than a half day.

“We are not aware of any accidents related to this matter,” Sherwood emphasized.

“In most cases, the reported deployments have occurred within the first few seconds following vehicle start-up,” he continued. “Our review shows the airbag warning lamp is typically illuminated for an extended period of time prior to any risk of deployment. 

“Ford is aware of one instance where a driver exited a slowly moving vehicle following a deployment in a driveway,” Sherwood added.
Meanwhile NHTSA applauded Ford’s decision.

"We are pleased that Ford shares our commitment to safety and is taking action to protect consumers by expanding its safety recall to include an additional 1.2 million Ford F-150s,” NHTSA administrator David Strickland stated.

“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration takes its mission to protect those on our roads seriously, and we hope to continue working cooperatively with auto manufacturers to ensure safety defects are addressed quickly for the driving public,” Strickland added.

Mercedes-Benz Recalls M Class

In other recall news, NHTSA officials announced Mercedes-Benz is voluntarily recalling 136,751 M Class units from the 2000 through 2004 model years to make a repair to the cruise control system.

NHTSA indicated the cruise control system in affected vehicles allows the driver to disengage the system in a number of ways, including tapping the brake pedal, using the cruise control stalk or braking the vehicle enough to reach a certain rate of deceleration.

However, Mercedes-Benz has determined that under certain circumstances, use of the brake pedal may not automatically disengage cruise control as expected by the drivers although the other means of deactivating the system remain fully operative.

Specifically, the OEM thinks if the driver pumps the brakes rather than applying consistent force, the level of force required to deactivate the system may be unusually high.

NHTSA fears difficulty or delay in disengaging the cruise control can result in a crash.

The automaker has instructed is franchise dealer to repair recalled vehicles for free. Mercedes-Benz expects to begin the recall process in September.

Owners of potentially affected units can contact Mercedes-Benz at (800) 367-6372.