Multiple Ford Ranger Takata Airbag Repairs Were Botched
Your trouble with dangerous Takata airbags could be far from over. If you took your Ford Ranger in for service to have the Takata airbag replaced, thanks for doing your part to be safer. However, your Ford Ranger repair may have been botched.
Ford is trying to clean up botch Ford Ranger Takata airbag recalls
The Ford Ranger is only one of the hundreds of vehicles involved in deadly Taka airbag recalls. The airbags have claimed at least 12 lives and have caused various injuries.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the Ranger problem hasn’t been correctly handled after finding internal reports about botched repairs.
Roughly 270,000 Ford vehicles, mostly Ranger models, may need to return to a local dealership for service after the replacement Takata airbag inflators were improperly installed. The airbags may not deploy correctly if they even deploy at all.
Ford admits that about 40,000 customers may need to return for service because the work may have been completed by a Ford technician who submitted false recall claims.
So, the replacement airbag may have been installed incorrectly or pairs were never made at all. Those impacted by the recall 22B05 in 2022 should return for service out of an abundance of caution.
A whistleblower claims that Ford provided easier repair rules to allow low-skill techs to process things at a faster rate. Ford denies this allegation.
Many people drove away from dealerships thinking that the Takata airbag was removed, leaving them in danger. For example, one Ford Mustang owner who went in for the repair lost her eye after a Takata airbag exploded in a low-speed accident.
Ford is fining dealerships $1,000 per botched repair and some entities face over $100,000 in fines. Ford shared that about 600 owners may still be driving with Takata airbags equipped, not 4,000.
Also, Ford is attempting to reach owners of impacted vehicles to correct the issue. But Ford, owners, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are unclear which vehicles and Ranger trucks have improper repairs. Some of the current vehicles are as old as 2024 models.
The whistle-blower claims the number of people in danger is much higher than Ford estimates. The cut corners, botched repairs, and danger make them physically ill and they can’t sleep at night.
