It’s a day ending in “Y,” which means it’s time for another Ford recall. According to NHTSA, this one only affects 1,048 vehicles, but it’s a doozy: a potential for unintended acceleration in 2024 and 2025 Mustang GT and Dark Horse models equipped with the dealer-installed (and factory warrantied) Ford Performance supercharger kit that boosts horsepower to 810 ponies. People already get into enough trouble while peeling out of Cars and Coffee, they don’t need any extra help from an issue like this.
To be fair, there have been no reported instances of this worst-case scenario actually happening. Pretty much any Cars and Coffee crash involving a Mustang remains the driver’s fault. Additionally, there are no defects in the Whipple supercharger or any hardware included with the kit. The problem? A glitch in the engine tune included with the kit that lets the 5.0-liter V8 take full advantage of the extra boost, which may trigger a check engine or wrench warning light on the dashboard. Dealers will install a free software patch that will eliminate the bug.
A simple matter of programming
The software issue is not that an 810-hp supercharged Mustang will spontaneously accelerate out of control, but that a software subroutine specifically designed to prevent this from happening isn’t functioning properly. You can read the recall report for the technical details, but essentially, the software has a safety check that compares what it thinks the throttle level should be to the actual throttle setting. If these don’t match, the computer knows there’s a problem with the throttle and takes measures to prevent unintended acceleration from happening.
This part of the program is working fine. A secondary software check compares the expected engine torque to the actual torque to ensure the throttle position checks are working properly. This secondary check appears to have been accidentally disabled in the engine tune included with the Ford Performance supercharger kit for the Mustang. (A similar kit for the F-150 with the same Coyote V8 is not mentioned in this recall, so it should be fine.) Even with this bug, unintended acceleration could only happen if there is a problem with the electronic throttle, and the throttle’s automatic safety check also fails. The chances of this are quite small, which is likely why Ford isn’t telling owners to park their supercharged Mustangs until further notice.
Still, with great power comes great responsibility, even when everything is working perfectly. Please follow the steps in our guide to leaving Cars and Coffee without crashing, and only unleash all 810 ponies in a safe, controlled manner.
