Ford announced Thursday a recall of some 1.4 million vehicles, including more than 1 million SUVs with a power steering defect and nearly 200,000 Taurus sedans with a corrosion problem. The company also said it was recalling 82,576 sedans with floor mats that could interfere with the accelerator.
The Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker said the recall involves 915,000 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner SUVs. A separate recall covers 196,000 Ford Explorer SUVs. The SUVs affected are from model years 2008 to 2011.
The 200,000 Taurus sedans are from model years 2010 to 2014. The floor mat issue involved Ford Fusions, Mercury Milans, Lincoln Zephyrs and MKZ sedans in model years 2006 to 2011.
The majority of the recalls are for the United States and Canada.
Reuters reports that the loss of power steering, which occurs at lower speeds, can increase the risk of a crash. Ford has acknowledged that it is aware of at least 15 accidents including two minor injuries related to the power steering problem.
"Dealers will perform one of three service fixes, depending upon what diagnostic codes are shown when the vehicle is taken to the dealer," said a Ford spokeswoman. "They will either update software for the power steering control module and the instrument cluster module; replace the torque sensor; or replace the steering column, which includes upgraded power steering control module software."
Ford's announcement on Thursday follows its recall of 700,000 Escape SUVs and C-Max hybrids for a software problem that could prevent side air bags from inflating in some rollover crashes.
It also follows the recall of nearly 2.5 million GM vehicles over ignition-switch problems and Chrysler's worldwide recall of some 470,000 Jeep SUVs.
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