The Blue Oval is facing a new headache over older pickup trucks. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary investigation into 2015-2017 Ford F-150 trucks on 21 March 2025 due to reports of issues with 6R80 or 10R80 automatic transmissions that may unexpectedly downshift without warning or driver input. The NHTSA has now upgraded that query into a full investigation, covering 1,270,970 examples of the pickup, after more than 60 percent of surveyed owners reported problems to the NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI). While this is not yet a recall, the frequency of complaints may lead to one.
The Problem Ford F-150 Owners Are Reporting
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According to the NHTSA, affected vehicles would suddenly downshift, “often to 1st or 2nd gear,” with customers surveyed saying this would happen regularly and repeatedly. Some owners have chosen to stop driving their vehicles because they worry the transmission issue could be a safety hazard, and that seems prudent, since 43 percent of consumers “reported experiencing at least one wheel lockup event, during which the rear tires locked, screeched, or skidded” during the unexpected downshift. Ford says that this issue is different from the problem associated with 2011-2014 Ford F-150s, which have already been impacted by four separate recalls, tracing the fault on 2015-2017 vehicles to degraded electrical connections within the lead frames. This degradation was allegedly caused by thermal cycling and vibration over an extended time, and as these connections degraded, the transmission range sensor’s signals were being lost. NHTSA testing has revealed that the issue could also cause the transmission to shift to neutral, which could cause a change in direction if the vehicle is on an incline.
More Work to Be Done
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The NHTSA’s ODI has now moved the investigation up to an engineering analysis, which will involve component-level testing and vehicle testing, among other evaluations, to confirm that the alleged cause of the defect has been found. This isn’t the only open investigation for Ford, either, with one opened in December last year due to timing belt failure on 2015-2017 Ford Fiesta and 2015-2018 Ford Focus vehicles with a 1.0-liter engine and a manual transmission. In this case, fragments of timing belt material reportedly wear off and accumulate inside the oil pump, causing the pick-up screen to be clogged, ultimately resulting in oil starvation and engine seizure. We’ll report back if and when either investigation turns into a recall.
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