There were four recalls from Ford today, including two big ones affecting 1.1 million SUVs sold in North America. The trouble for Escape, Explorer and Mercury Mariner owners is a power steering system that could fail.
The NHTSA has reportedly connected the problem to five crashes and six injuries in model year 2008-2011 Escapes and Mariners, according to The Detroit News. The recall affects about 915,000 of those vehicles.
Ford apparently knew about the problem in 2009 and issued a fix in 2010, but hadn't updated older cars. It will notify customers by July 25 and dealerships will replace the power steering control module and an instrument cluster module.
The second recall affects about 195,000 2011-2013 Explorers and an electrical glitch that could cause the power steering to stop working.
UPDATE: Ford's recalling another 280,000 vehicles.
This concerns about 200,000 2010-2014 Tauruses for the rusty licenese plate light that is connected to 18 reports of fires from customers in cold weather states, according to the NHTSA.
And 82,000 2006-2011 Ford Fusions, Lincoln MKZs and Zephyrs and Mercury Milans are being recalled over floor mats that could interfere with the pedals.
Photo: AP