Ford expands F150 airbag recall to almost 1.2 million trucks

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Ford Motor Company and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have announced that the Ford F150 airbag recall announced in late February has been expanded from the initial 144,000 units to almost 1.2 million after pressure from the US government.

When Ford issued the recall of 144,000 2005 and 2006 F150 pickups over a concern of airbags opening suddenly and without reason, they restricted that recall to a very small group of the 1.2 million vehicles that could be affected by the same wiring issue. However, since the vast majority of the 238 occurrences happened on vehicles built Norfolk, Virginia production facility while the majority of the F150s built in 2005 and 2006 were built at Ford’s other truck facilities; they slimmed the number of vehicles included in the recall.

The NHTSA didn’t seem to appreciate the logic behind how Ford arrived at the original recall number and as soon as the F150 airbag recall was announced in February, the government was reportedly in talks with the Motor Company to make sure that 144,000 was an adequate number. Evidently, Ford was unable to show that 144,000 was not enough so in cooperation with the government’s wishes, that recall has officially been expanded to roughly 1.2 million F150s built from 2003 (2004 model year) to 2006 – along with 2006 model year Lincoln Mark LT pickups.

The full Ford F150 airbag recall is expected to begin in May, with owners being asked to return to dealerships with their trucks where a new airbag wire will be installed. Ford claims that this repair should take less than half a day. If you own a 2004-2006 F150 or a 2006 Lincoln Mark LT pickup and you are concerned about this problem, you can contact your local Ford dealership for more information. It should be noted that in the event that the airbag wiring causing this recall should occur, the airbag light will illuminate prior to the unexplained airbag deployment so if your airbag light is on in your 2004-2006 F150, it might be a good time to call your dealership.

Also see: Ford recalls 150,000 F150 pickups over airbag deployment risks