Ford has a long history of good engineering and reliability, but every so often a bad egg does sneak through, which contains some defect affecting the safety or emissions systems. The public is made known of these defects by way of a recall, after which the manufacturer is obligated to repair the defects at no cost to the owner.
Ford issued a recall in 2008 that affects about 1,500 Explorers and Mercury Mountaineers with 4.6L V-8 engines, produced at the company's Louisville, KY, plant between July 23 to August 14, 2007. The transmissions used with these engines may have an oil cooler line that was not tightened enough, which may result in severe oil leaks. These leaks may result in transmission damage and possible fire.
Ford diesel trucks produced in 2008 (F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550) are known to belch fire and smoke from their exhaust pipes under hard acceleration. This is due to defects in the exhaust system and faulty computer programming and can be resolved at any Ford dealer. This defect is known to affect at least 33,000 trucks.
Approximately 199,000 Ford Escape crossovers were produced in 2006 with faulty windshield wiper systems. The gearboxes used in these wiper systems are weak and are known to fracture internally at random and in heavy snow or rain conditions. This will result in non-functional windshield wipers; a dangerous condition as the wipers tend to break when needed most.
About 180,000 diesel-engine equipped F-Series trucks produced between 2004 and 2005 have faulty fuel injection control modules, which can cause random stalling. This default affects only 6.0L Super Duty and standard F-Series trucks and may result in a fatal accident if it occurs while using the engine brake to slow the vehicle.
Approximately 109,000 Crown Victorias sold to police departments from 2003 to 2005 have faulty wheels known to fall apart at high speed. These wheels have manufacturing defects that cause them to develop cracks over time and split under extreme stress. These cracks will first manifest themselves as a wobble in the steering, which will become difficult to balance. This should come of some concern to the public, as many of these used police cars have begun to hit auction blocks for sale to the public.
If you own any full-sized Ford sedan, SUV or truck produced between 1993 and 2001, Ford issued a massive recall of over 3.6 million vehicles for bad wiring. These wiring defects can cause shorting in the dashboard, which will lead to malfunction, sparks and possibly fire.
