Ford Motor Co. is recalling nearly 1.4 million vehicles in four separate recall campaigns, including 1.1 million Ford Escapes, Mercury Mariners and Ford Explorers in North America for power steering problems.
Three of the four recalls came under pressure from U.S. and Canadian auto safety regulators seeking repairs of the vehicles — a sign that government agencies are taking a harder line with automakers in the aftermath of General Motors Co. recall crisis. Ford opted to recall the vehicles rather than fight the regulators.
The Dearborn automaker said it is calling back 915,000 2008-2011 Escapes and Mariners in North America under pressure from Canadian auto safety regulators, who have been investigating the issue since late 2011. Ford told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration it has reports of five crashes and six injuries in U.S. crashes connected to the issue. Ford said because of poor signal-to-noise issues in the torque sensor, the vehicles’ power steering system may shut off and default to manual steering, which could make it harder to steer and lead to a crash.
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