May 25--Ford Motor Co. has issued a safety recall for faulty braking systems in F-150 pickups, the automaker's most popular product and the bestselling vehicle in America for most of the past 30 years.
The recall includes about 271,000 pickups in the 2013 and 2014 model years. The Michigan car company said those trucks need their master cylinders replaced to ensure that possible leakage of brake fluid does not compromise braking performance.
Ford stressed the brake fluid leak hinders only the front brakes on the affected vehicles, but said it was aware of allegations of nine accidents associated with the problem. No injuries occurred in those accidents, the company said.
Ford said the vehicles affected by the recall include 225,012 trucks sold in the U.S., 43,682 sold in Canada and 402 sold in Mexico. The trucks were equipped with 3.5-liter GTDI engines built at the company's plants in Dearborn, Mich., and Kansas City, Mo.
The recall is Ford's 14th this year. Earlier incidents involved transmission issues on some 2011 and 2012 F-150s, and 2012 Mustangs, Expeditions and Navigators, which resulted in three known accidents, and an airbag problem on some 2015 and 2016 Transit vans, with which no accidents were said to be associated.
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UPDATES:
11:43 a.m.: This article has been updated with staff reports.
This article was originally published at 9:59 a.m.
