The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has initiated a probe into nearly a million Ford midsize sedans following multiple reports from owners about problems with the vehicles' power steering.
The investigation involves around 938,000 Ford Fusion, Lincoln MKZ and Mercury Milan from model years 2010 to 2012, including the gas-electric hybrid versions of the Fusion and the MKZ, according to a document posted on the NHTSA website.
The NHTSA says it has received 508 complaints dating back from 2010 of loss of power-assisted steering. Four of these complaints alleged that the steering failure led to "increased steering efforts that contributed to a loss of control and crash." No injuries or casualties were reported, but the car safety regulator says many complainants said they have had a close call.
"As the vehicle was attempted to be turned right into driveway, the power steering completely failed and the driver nearly hit another vehicle," writes one owner who wrote to the NHTSA in 2013. "Every bit of the 120-pound female's strength was needed to manually steer the vehicle into the parking lot."
In some cases, the problem was resolved by restarting the vehicle, says the NHTSA, but many owners say the issue came back again after a while. The agency also says that many drivers saw a power steering warning message during failure.
The agency has also identified information related to the power steering failure submitted by Ford in an Early Warning field report.
The investigation is the first step in a process that could lead to a safety recall if the NHTSA finds that the problem poses a safety hazard for owners of the vehicles in question. If the initial evaluation finds additional cause for concern, the NHTSA will upgrade the probe to an engineering analysis, which may or may not lead to a recall.
Ford has so far recalled 3.9 million vehicles in 2014, including two power steering-related recalls made in May. The first was initiated by a probe launched by Transport Canada, Canada's equivalent to the NHTSA, which prompted Ford to recall around 915,000 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner vehicles with 2008 to 2011 model years. Around 736,000 of the affected vehicles were located in the United States. The second recall was for 195,500 Explorers from model years 2011 to 2013, 178,000 of which were found in the U.S.
Kelli Felker, spokesperson for Ford, says the company is cooperating with the NHTSA's investigation.
