Ford has issued a recall in the North American market for a Brake component issue. The affected Ford vehicle is the 2020 Ford Mustang with only the Automatic Transmission variant. The Manual Transmission model is not affected by this recall. According to the NHTSA report, more than 38,000 units of 2020 Ford Mustangs are potentially involved with an estimated 100% defect.
The recall is for a defective brake pedal bracket that was introduced into production on 4th March 2019 and taken out of production on 13th August 2020. These Ford Mustangs were not produced in VIN order. The brake bracket is likely to fracture during operation or when used suddenly in a situation that requires sudden braking. If the component fractures the driver may lose brake pressure and primary braking capability.
The cause for the failing component is due to “insufficient design margins for noise factors within brake pedal engineering specification”. The manufacturer changed the brake pedal bracket material from nylon to polypropylene on the automatic transmission vehicles resulting in the reduced ‘spike stop robustness’ of the particular design.
The brand as of 9th September found that there had been four reports in the European market and two reports in the North American market of brake pedal bracket breaking at pivot location during spike stop braking. But it is important to note that no reports of injuries or deaths have been reported pertaining to this recall.
Ford or Lincoln dealers will replace the faulty part with the remedy free of charge and customer will be further notified by the dealer when the remedy part is available. Considering that Ford Mustangs sold outside the United States are sourced from the same Michigan manufacturing plant the faulty component could be installed in any 2020 Mustang anywhere in the world.
It is important to not that the recall is only for 2020 Ford Mustangs with Automatic transmissions on both the Coupe and Convertible models.
