Ford recalls over 550,000 pickup trucks because transmissions can suddenly downshift to 1st gear

jballs@sh.itjust.works to News@lemmy.world – 258 points –
Ford recalls over 550,000 pickup trucks because transmissions can suddenly downshift to 1st gear
apnews.com
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Porsche just recalled every Taycan as well for a brake hose that can leak.

Tesla, Ford and Porshe all back to back.

Someone, university or something looked into this once, and found that something like 70% of the time recalls happen in groups like this as OEMs wait for others to announce their recalls first as they take the bigger stock /media hit. Then anyone else who had one but hadn't announced it yet jumps in and doesn't suffer as much.

Add Honda CRV fuel pumps to that. Can cause the engine to just shut off at any time. And Honda won't even have the parts available until the fall unless you are currently experiencing issues related to the fuel pump.

I wonder how long they can "hold onto" a recall like this while waiting for others to announce one first.

Is it just like, oh there's so much paperwork so we have a 6 month window, and it doesn't even matter since the parts aren't available until the fall anyway?

There should probably be better rules on holding info back.

Probly need to make em longer.

That'll probably fix it.

Yyyep.

They'll just flash the computer to default to be 4th gear upon signal loss instead of 1st gear. Danger problem averted. Cost is only 30 minutes of labor.

Gotta love how corporations can just put dangerous deathmobiles on the street and just pull a "oopsie daisy" when people start complaining

I hate the car industry so much. Oh no you can't put on a muffler on your car, it's too loud.

Except obviously when you can afford a Lamborghini, because rich people can be as loud as they want.

Uh no that that rear spoiler looks dangerous, that's not allowed.

But you can sell cars that just hop into 1st gear, that's a honest mistake

Can't have pop up headlights or hood ornaments because they're dangerous to pedestrians.

But you can have a hood that's six feet tall because that's totally safe for pedestrians.

Fix Or Repair Daily

Ford stands for Fix It Again, Tony

So, like teenagers learning to drive stick.

Eh, not really. The tricky part (which isn't even that tricky) of learning to drive stick is modulating the clutch, not somehow accidentally downshifting

If you dont know the shifter well you can definitely put it in the wrong gear though.

Maybe, if you're also driving an antique that doesn't have high-RPM lockouts to prevent overspeeding the engine. But even my old cars going back to the '90s have those.

06 Subaru has no problem pulling a money shift, the reason you'll never accidentally hit first isn't because of lockouts but first not having a synchro. Now grabbing second from fifth on the highway, yea, that can happen

I'm more worried about beating the transmission to death, but I didn't know about high rpm lockouts so thanks for sharing that.

Nah, the only thing that might be worth worrying about learning to drive stick is the clutch, and that's a wear item designed to be replaced anyway. (Not necessarily often or cheaply, but still, a wear item.)

Even then, unless somebody's truly hopeless, they'll figure it out well before putting on any noticeable excessive wear. (Source: I've taught at least five people to drive stick using my own cars, including myself, and haven't had to replace a clutch due to wear yet.)

To be fair nearly all my concerns about manuals are from stories others have told me. We have had two manual cars for maybe a decade now and haven't had a single bit of trouble with the transmissions or clutches.

I even taught myself to drive stick driving one of them home from the dealership. Plus I didnt become proficient at it for a bit of time after that.

I really prefer manuals at this point. Feels simpler.

One of the first lessons from my instructor was to push the gear stick from the right with your palm for 1/2, top for 3/4, and left for anything else.

That way, there is less chance of shifting from one section to another. Useful when you car sometimes needs a downshift on the motorway, and 4th is adjacent to R.

For me it was only a problem when I had to drive two cars:

A pickup with the shifter on the steering column (makes me sick thinking of it, horrible design)

A jeep with an absurd shifting handle which made the gears miles apart.

I accidentally shifted from 4th to 1st instead of 3rd when I was first learning. Shit happens.

Going from the last gear to first by mistake is impressive

Driver Returned On Foot

Found on road dead

Fix or repair daily

Failure of Research/Development

Fucker only runs downhill

Yo dawg, we heard you like engine braking so we gave you engine breaking in your engine braking!

And yet I can't buy a kei truck because that is supposedly unsafe.

Can buy a motorcycle, can buy a pedestrian killer, can buy a SUV that seems to beg to want to rollover, but can't buy a small truck.

I bet ford regrets not being able to OTA update software…

Yes, because the computer can fix the physical gears in the transmission.

Article literally says it’s a software update that needs to be applied to the transmission computer.