A software glitch is leading to a recall of 464 Ford Mustang Mach-Es. The problem affects the powertrain control module and may lead to unintended acceleration.
According to a manufacturer’s notice to dealers, the problem relates to the Functional Safety Monitor, which may fail to detect or may falsely detect a software error. That may, in turn, lead to unintended acceleration, deceleration, or general unintended vehicle movement, depending on the specific issue.
Ford has found that the system could ignore unintended movement on the secondary axle or may incorrectly detect a lateral hazard on the primary axle, leading to this condition. Naturally, that’s bad because a random movement or a reduction of motive power could increase the risk of a crash.
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Ultimately, the blame for the issue lies with software that was incorrectly updated to a later model year program file. That caused the functional safety software to always report a torque value of zero on the secondary axle. Fortunately, you may be made aware of the issue thanks to a malfunction light or a wrench light in the dashboard.
Starting on May 30, Ford will reach out to customers about the issue, which it expects to fix with an over-the-air update. This can be done from their driveway, but if a customer wishes, they can return their vehicle to a dealership to have the update installed by a technician, at no extra cost.
The updated powertrain control module software will be updated to correctly report secondary axle torque values. This issue only affects certain vehicles made between October 3, 2020, and May 26, 2021.
