NHTSA closes investigation into Ford Super Duty steering failures

Amid a handful of recall announcements this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has closed its investigation into steering problems with Ford Super Duty pickups. After receiving only six complaints and reviewing incident records, the agency has found no defects.

In its closing summary, the NHTSA references an earlier investigation of 1999-2001 Super Duty pickups and Excursion SUVs. The 2003 investigation–based on 169 complaints–concluded that steering gear failures were actually due to “extraordinary, possibly multiple, impacts and not the result of fatigue.”

Ford is said to have increased the shaft diameter beginning in 2005, increasing the steering gear assembly’s torsional overload resistance by approximately 48 percent. The stronger design was utilized in over a million 2005-2009 Super Duty pickups, including the models named in the recent complaints.

“Laboratory analysis found no evidence of fatigue or material property defects in any of the fractures,” the NHTSA said in its closing summary regarding the recent investigation. “Furthermore similar to the condition investigated [in 2003], a number of incident records include evidence of impact loads (e.g., curb strikes) and several alleged crashes include incidents in which information suggests that the steering gear failure was most likely a result of crash forces, rather than the cause of the crash.”

After essentially placing the blame on drivers rather than the trucks, the NHTSA concludes that “further use of agency resources does not appear to be warranted.”