Over 1.3 million Ford F-150 pickup trucks are put on an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding an issue that’s connected with their automatic transmission. Those vehicles included in the investigations include 1,270,970 Ford F-150s from the years 2015, 2016, and 2017.
The investigation was opened on January 30, 2026, and the investigation clearly focused on trucks that were equipped with Ford’s 6R80 six-speed automatic transmission, whereby the issue could arise from signal loss in the output shaft speed sensor. The loss of sensor signal may be as a result of degraded electrical connection in the lead frame, also causing additional signal loss in the Transmission Range Sensor.
What’s the problem that lead to Ford F-150 investigation?
According to the document by NHTSA, signal loss from the TRS can result in the car shifting to neutral, upshifting, or downshifting without the driver engaging. So the shifts are regulated by Ford’s gear “shift map,” and the maximum allowed downshift at speeds between 35 and 64 mph is programmed to allow the car to shift into second gear.
The “shift map” design is described as the worst-case scenario for the affected vehicles. Ford also acknowledges that another worst-case scenario due to the downshift may involve temporary rear wheel lockup leading to the tires screeching or skidding during transmission downshift.
The NHTSA Office of Defect Investigation (ODI) stated that they have identified 329 vehicle owner questionnaires (VOQs) filled out by owners of the affected vehicles, with 60 percent confirming details of their allegations and 40 percent of owners reporting at least one wheel lockup event.
Ford’s Response to the Investigation
Ford claims that the OSS failure associated with the earlier recall of the F-150 models from the years 2011 to 2014 is so distant from the current investigation.
what the NHTSA added on
ODI identified additional defects on the affected vehicles after the tests performed by the NHTSA Vehicle Research Test Center (VRTC), finding out another outcome of the TRS defect, which can cause a change in the vehicle’s direction. When TRS signal loss occurs and the vehicle is reversing on an incline, the vehicle may shift to neutral, causing the vehicle to roll forward.