Ford recall: Wheels could fall off Fusion, Mercury Milan

[Pardus]

Article

Ford is recalling 2010-11 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan vehicles that were equipped with 17-inch steel wheels because the wheel studs may fracture, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. No other wheels sizes or styles are affected.

In the 128,616 vehicles with these wheels, multiple stud fractures could occur at the wheel location, and the driver may experience vehicle vibration and, if you ignore the vibration, "wheel separation," NHTSA says.

In other words, the wheel would fall off, obviously increasing the risk of a crash. But Ford says it's not aware of any crashes or injuries caused by the problem so far.

The recalled vehicles were built April 1 through April 30, 2009, and Dec. 1, 2009 through Nov. 13, 2010. You can see when your car was built by checking a label affixed to the driver-side door jamb.

Owners will be notified the week of Jan. 24. Dealers will inspect the rear brake disc surface and replace the discs at no charge if necessary. The lug nuts will be replaced on all four wheels as well.

Owners can call Ford at 866-436-7332 or NHTSA's vehicle safety hotline at 888-327-4236 for more info.

 

[BoomerD]

Oops...they must have forgotten to put the "non-fracturable wheel studs" on the options list.

 

[Crono]

Wow.

Glad my Ford isn't affected.

 

[kranky]

Would love to know where the wheel studs were manufactured.

 

[alevasseur14]

Haha, those poor Ford techs are going to have to pull studs out for 100K's worth of cars. Sucks to be them.

This is ripe for a parody of the "Wheels" song off the Foo Fighters Greatest Hits album. You're welcome.

 

[rcpratt]

Surely, I have never heard of a car recall before.

 

[Rubycon]

Time to cue "You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me Loose Wheel" by Kenny Rogers. 😉

 

[kranky]

You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel
Got an ominous vibration
I'm starting to feel
I've had some bad cars
Driven some some sad cars
But now I got studs with bad steel
You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel.

 

[AmdEmAll]

Why does the article say they will inspect and replace brake discs and lugs if necessary.. those have nothing to do with the issue and even if one stud fails it would really cause nothing but vibration. LETS BE SCARED MORE NEWS.. LIVE IN FEAR OMGZ

 

[pcgeek11]

Why does the article say they will inspect and replace brake discs and lugs if necessary.. those have nothing to do with the issue and even if one stud fails it would really cause nothing but vibration. LETS BE SCARED MORE NEWS.. LIVE IN FEAR OMGZ

This:

" In the 128,616 vehicles with these wheels, multiple stud fractures could occur at the wheel location, and the driver may experience vehicle vibration and, if you ignore the vibration, "wheel separation," NHTSA says."

What do you mean they have nothing to do with it? The stud that fractures is the lug and it is pressed through the disc hub.

 

[Minerva]

Any bets on where the steel came from? Fucking Chinese shit strikes again. This country is quickly going to shit with this ruthless outsourcing. :thumbsdown:

 

[DaTT]

Any bets on where the steel came from? Fucking Chinese shit strikes again. This country is quickly going to shit with this ruthless outsourcing. :thumbsdown:

I certainly hope that we will learn our lesson one of these days...

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Surely, I have never heard of a car recall before.

Its one thing to do a recall on some sort of new technology. But if Found On the Road Dead cars can't count on the +100 year old technology of wheel studs then sucks to be a FORD owner.

FORD, screwing up the most simple things.

 

[waggy]

Its one thing to do a recall on some sort of new technology. But if Found On the Road Dead cars can't count on the +100 year old technology of wheel studs then sucks to be a FORD owner.

FORD, screwing up the most simple things.

no shit. you would think they could get the wheel on right. same thing with brake systems!

Honda Recalls Gold wings due to brake failure

actually i could go on but what's the point. EVERY car manufacturer does it and anyone that knocks them for it is a idiot. At least they are doing something about it instead of trying to hide it.

 

[Wyndru]

Shamelessly stolen from Kadarin's post in the Hume thread, but gif is somewhat related.

 

[jupiter57]

Would love to know where the wheel studs were manufactured.

Any bets on where the steel came from? Fucking Chinese shit strikes again. This country is quickly going to shit with this ruthless outsourcing. :thumbsdown:

I certainly hope that we will learn our lesson one of these days...

"OEM" parts are typically Chinese made. (Though some modular units are "assembled" in Mexico).
Will not improve until someone can beat their prices.
Ain't gonna happen.

 

[waggy]

"OEM" parts are typically Chinese made. (Though some modular units are "assembled" in Mexico).
Will not improve until someone can beat their prices.
Ain't gonna happen.

sadly you are right.

i would rather pay more for non Chinese parts. The US really needs to start making more in the country.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Well, I guess A * B * C was > D.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

If you drive with a ford to the service station then you normally say check the gas and fill up the oil

 

[Squisher]

I'm trying to figure out why this is noteworthy. This is a pretty small recall by auto standards and there are recalls issued every week by one manufacturer or another.

In all, there were 136 recall campaigns in the U.S., affecting 17.2 million vehicles. But that still didn’t make 2010 the worst year as far as the number of cars affected, according to WardsAuto.
That unceremonious title belongs to the year 2000, when a total of 24.3 million cars were recalled, a great many of them being called back due to potentially faulty Firestone tires on Ford Explorers and other vehicles

 

[Raduque]

Time to cue "You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me Loose Wheel" by Pinkard and Bowden. 😉

Fixed.