Ford is once again recalling a bunch of trucks. This time, it’s almost 1.4 million F-150 pickups, after an investigation was opened by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) way back in Marcy 2025. The investigation covered F-150s from 2015-2017 with Ford’s 6R80 six-speed automatic transmission that can suddenly downshift from sixth to second gear, without warning or driver input. That can cause the rear wheels to lock up temporarily, further causing the truck to skid or lose control, which… isn’t great.
According to the NHTSA report, Ford is aware of 444 warranty claims, 121 field reports, 105 customer service reports, and 316 Vehicle Owner Questionnaires (VOQs) about these sudden downshifts, between April 24, 2015 and November 3, 2025. A total of 891 different VINs were involved and Ford knows about two injuries, as well as one accident, potentially caused by this issue.
Why is it happening and how is Ford going to fix it?
During the initial investigation, Ford found the cause of the issue: faulty electrical connections in the lead frame, which houses the Output Shaft Speed sensor (OSS), due to degradation from years of thermal cycling and vibration. Those faulty connections cause signal loss to the Transmission Range Sensor (TRS), which is what causes the transmission to make “unexpected” shifts. It won’t only cause the truck to downshift from sixth to second gear, that’s just the maximum downshift allowed by the transmission and the worst-case scenario. It can cause any sort of unexpected downshift within range, upshift, or even shift into neutral.
In some cases, the TRS degradation can cause a little wrench light pop up in the owner’s gauge cluster, warning them of a transmission fault and they can take their truck to the dealer. That isn’t always the case, though, so sometimes the shifts can truly come out of nowhere.
Ford already began notifying dealers of the recall fix on April 15, and will rollout interim owner notifications on April 27. Remedy owner notifications will be sent between July 13-17, but affected VINs are already searchable for owners looking to see if their truck is affected. If your truck is one of the faulty ones, you’ll be notified when to take it to the dealer, where its lead frame will be checked and replaced if necessary, free of charge, and you’ll be good to go. Until the next Ford recall, of course.
