In separate releases issued Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its Office of Defect Investigations (ODI) was looking into complaints about a seat belt retractor, as well as ones about loss of motive power in recent model-year Ford Broncos and Ford Mavericks.
ODI said it had received three complaints about the retractors in model year 2019-20 Ford Expeditions.
“The complaints allege hearing a loud sound immediately followed by the seat belt rapidly tightening,” the release says. “The complaints do not allege a crash or impact occurred that may have resulted in the deployment of the pretensioner system. Additionally, the seat belt remains in a locked position after the deployment event.”
ODI said that Ford already issued a recall related to this issue but that the Expeditions, as well as potential issues affecting model year 2018-19 Lincoln Navigator vehicles, were not included in it.
The separate motive-power probe is in response to 15 notices submitted by Ford vehicle owners about remedies to a previous recall that may have failed to effectively address the issue, according to a release.
Last week, Ford agreed to pay the second-largest civil penalty ever issued by the NHTSA to resolve charges that it failed to timely and accurately file recall information.
Ford, America’s second-largest automaker, has been beset by quality control issues in recent years, which CEO Jim Farley has said the company is focused on addressing.
