Back in March 2022, The Blue Oval announced that the Ford F-150 would be heading to Australia, joining the Ram 1500 and Chevy Silverado 1500, which were already on sale in that truck-hungry market. There, a third-party company called RMA Automotive in Mickleham, Victoria, is completing the right-hand drive conversion on those pickups and deliveries of the Australian Ford F-150 officially began back in November. However, that process hit a bit of a snag early this month as an issue with the truck’s turbocharger prompted FoMoCo to halt sales and deliveries of the Ford F-150 in Australia. Now, the automaker has issued a recall for the F-150 in that country over a steering problem as well, according to CarExpert.
Ford has officially asked 443 Australian F-150 owners to stop driving their trucks over this issue. It’s being blamed on a problem with the remanufacturing process being completed at RMA, where the automaker discovered that the steering intermediate shaft may separate from the steering rack, which could cause a loss of steering control – potentially increasing the risk of an accident. Owners are being asked to stop driving their trucks until the problem can be rectified, which the automaker is doing free of charge.
“We picked up the issue in the re-manufacturing plant and there have been no reported incidents in the field,” a Ford Australia spokesperson said of the issue. “A total of 98 vehicles delivered to customers required an inspection to confirm that the steering shaft had been installed correctly. The vast majority of these inspections took place last weekend, with dealer technicians visiting customers at home or a location convenient to them.”
“None of these vehicles were found to have an incorrectly installed steering shaft, so those customers have now been cleared to drive their vehicle as normal. A few customers were traveling and away from their vehicles, so their vehicles are not being driven and will be inspected as soon as they’re accessible. The balance of the potentially affected vehicles is being checked by our team or dealer network before delivery to customers. We thank customers for their patience as we work through this process.”
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