Ford Defect Investigations Expanded at NHSTA

NHTSA reported upgrading a defect investigation involving seat belt webbing on about 80,000 1999-2001 Ford Explorer XLS sport-utilities to engineering analysis.

The agency said that the case came out of a reported rollover crash in which an occupant's belt apparently did not hold and the person was partially ejected from the vehicle and killed.

In other Ford actions, NHTSA closed the case involving Ford Crown Victoria police cars, taxis and natural-gas-fueled cars and Lincoln Town Car limousines, all from the 1998-99 model years, rear axle trailing arm brackets because it did not find sufficient evidence of a safety defect. But Ford has agreed to inspect all 187,000 of the cars in service, reinforce trailing arm attachments and add welds where cracks have appeared.

NHTSA said the company demonstrated to agency investigators that, even with trailing arms fully detached, the cars do not go out of control. The agency and the company together had collected 77 complaints of cracked brackets or detached trailing arms.

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