Ford is once more recalling a bunch of trucks. This time, it’s almost 1.4 million F-150 pickups, after an investigation was opened by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) way back in Marcy 2025. The investigation covered F-150s from 2015-2017 with Ford’s 6R80 six-speed automatic transmission that may suddenly downshift from sixth to second gear, abruptly or driver input. That may cause the rear wheels to lock up temporarily, further causing the truck to skid or lose control, which… is not great.
In keeping with the NHTSA report, Ford is aware of 444 warranty claims, 121 field reports, 105 customer support reports, and 316 Vehicle Owner Questionnaires (VOQs) about these sudden downshifts, between April 24, 2015 and November 3, 2025. A complete of 891 different VINs were involved and Ford knows about two injuries, in addition to one accident, potentially attributable to this issue.
Why is it happening and the way is Ford going to repair it?
Through the initial investigation, Ford found the reason behind the difficulty: faulty electrical connections within the lead frame, which houses the Output Shaft Speed sensor (OSS), resulting from degradation from years of thermal cycling and vibration. Those faulty connections cause signal loss to the Transmission Range Sensor (TRS), which is what causes the transmission to make “unexpected” shifts. It won’t only cause the truck to downshift from sixth to second gear, that is just the utmost downshift allowed by the transmission and the worst-case scenario. It could possibly cause any form of unexpected downshift inside range, upshift, and even shift into neutral.
In some cases, the TRS degradation may cause a bit of wrench light pop up within the owner’s gauge cluster, warning them of a transmission fault they usually can take their truck to the dealer. That won’t all the time the case, though, so sometimes the shifts can truly come out of nowhere.
Ford already began notifying dealers of the recall fix on April 15, and can rollout interim owner notifications on April 27. Treatment owner notifications will probably be sent between July 13-17, but affected VINs are already searchable for owners seeking to see if their truck is affected. In case your truck is considered one of the faulty ones, you may be notified when to take it to the dealer, where its lead frame will probably be checked and replaced if essential, freed from charge, and you will be good to go. Until the following Ford recall, in fact.
This Article First Appeared At www.jalopnik.com
