Another Ford F-150 downshift recall may be required

March 25, 2025 – The Ford F-150 downshift problem has led to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s investigation into nearly 1.3 million trucks.

Safety regulators haven’t released many details, but the Ford F-150 downshift problem will affect the 2015-2017 Ford trucks.

Nearly 140 complaints about sudden and unexpected downshifts have been filed while driving highway speeds. The F-150 driver complained that they did not warn before the gearbox suddenly downshifted to lower the gear.

A sudden failure to use the transmission downshift cam causes the rear wheel to lock and the tires to slide off instead of calculating what it does to the driver’s nerves. No crashes or injuries occurred in the 138 Ford F-150 downshift complaints.

Ford has been on the road before the automaker recalled the 2012 F-150 truck in September 2011-2012, following a complaint about a sudden downshift of the transmission. These trucks are equipped with a 6-speed (6R80) automatic transmission.

It is said that due to circuit board soldering problems, the problem is caused by the loss of signal from the transmission output shaft speed sensor.

However, NHTSA investigated the issue of downshifting of the Ford F-150 in December 2017 to determine if the recall repair is good enough. This led to another Ford F-150 downshift recall of about 1.2 million trucks.

This time, Ford dealerships were told to reprogram the powertrain control module to prevent sudden downshifts, which was ineffective repairs.

This led to another Ford F-150 downshift recall in June 2019.

But the F-150 downshift problem continues, as does the complaint from the truck owner, sending NHTSA back to the questionnaire to check the sudden downshift of the 2014 F-150 truck.

Recalling another Ford F-150 downshifted back to the list, which led to a shutdown of the investigation by the safety regulators.

At that time, Ford received nearly 2,200 complaints about the F-150 downshift problem, including the incident of locking the rear wheel.

CarComplaints.com will update our website if another Ford F-150 downshift recall is announced.