WASHINGTON– U.S. authorities have closed their seven-year investigation into steering wheel mechanism problems in Ford Fusions without calling for more recalls.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in documents released Monday, said its tests found only small changes to steering power if the assist mechanism failed. It also found a downward trend in failures, and a lower incidence of failures in Fusions that were not recalled.
The agency opened the investigation in September 2016 after receiving more than 500 complaints. The investigation covered almost 263,000 Fusions from 2010.
In 2017, the investigation was escalated to an engineering analysis to find out the magnitude and frequency of the problem, after the agency and Ford received thousands of additional complaints, including reports of 59 crashes and 13 injuries.
But documents released Monday say the agency found no trend that the problem is increasing.
The agency noted that in 2015, Ford recalled more than 394,000 Fusions and other vehicles from model years 2011 to 2013 to repair the steering wheel mechanism, which could bind due to a sensor defect.
Source: AP.
