Car recalls continue to be an issue for automakers and the latest to have some issues with their vehicles is none other than Ford. The American automaker is known for having reliable cars but in the past few months it has had some issues with their Ford Broncos and now it is the Mustangs that are being recalled.
While the Broncos had suspension issues that made off-roading unadvisable, the Mustangs have a more pressing problem as it interferes with driving. The problem seems to be with the steering, which they were supposed to have fixed already, but is creeping up once again. As it turns out, the fix from a previous recall was not done right on all of the cars, which means those Mustangs are back on the recall list for round two.
The new Ford Mustang recall
This time around the problem is not as widespread, only 332 cars are affected, and the issue seems to have come down to a secondary steering torque sensor that is out of sync. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the sensor might cause the steering wheel to randomly shimmy side to side, which is not ideal when driving as you need to keep the car straight on the road without having to constantly adjust steering.
The problem initially was detected last year, when Ford first recalled over 30,000 Mustangs built between mid-September 2022 and early April 2023 to implement a simple software update to the power steering control module. Since the problem was so simple to solve, drivers were told that once dealers installed the update, the problem should be fixed, and they would have no more issues with the steering. Although for most drivers that seems to be true, a small percentage of those updates did not take.
The problem was that all cars that went through the process were firmly declared as fixed and no other testing was performed to ensure that this assumption was correct. After all, the dealership techs correctly followed the instructions to upload new software using a special Ford service tool that was meant to correct the issue. There was nothing in the process to suggest that more testing would be needed, especially since the tool is designed to automatically grab the newest software from Ford and push it into the car’s system.
Since most cars did accept the update without any issues, no one thought to perform any other checks after the fact and now there are some Mustangs out there that show up in Ford’s records as fully repaired, but they still have the potential for the steering to act out. Luckily the problem was detected once again before any accidents occurred and any loss of life was caused, but it is still an inconvenience to the affected drivers as they, once again, will need to swing by their dealership again to finally get the correct software installed.
Since all the pertinent authorities have been contacted, there is nothing left to do except to fix the issue on the affected cars. According to Ford, the Mustang owners affected will start getting notices after March 31, which is when notices will start being mailed out. For those with active issues that do not want to wait, it would be a good idea to reach out to Ford’s customer service team and give them the recall number 25S11 to get redirected to the correct service that can help them point them towards a dealership that can take of the problem. For free once again, of course.
According to Ford, this time around the problem will be solved and there will be no more issues with the steering in the Mustangs.