Flawed Takata air bag repairs put thousands of Ford drivers at risk

Ford Motor Co. is in the midst of a complex “recall of a recall,” reinspecting more than a quarter-million vehicles after the company discovered sloppy work and false billing by dealership technicians during the required replacement of dangerous Takata air bags.

Some customers whose repair records mistakenly reflect fixes never made are at risk from the devices, which can explode without warning and spray shrapnel on vehicle occupants. Others, drivers of certain Ranger pickups, may have incorrectly installed air bags that may not deploy in a crash, putting passengers at risk.

A Free Press investigation reviewed internal company documents, dealership memos, federal regulatory filings and court papers, showing that Ford fined some dealerships whose repair techs billed the automaker for replacing Takata air bags despite installing the devices incorrectly or not doing the work at all. A federal whistleblower complaint alleges Ford invited trouble by easing repair rules to allow low-skill techs to process the repairs quickly — a charge the automaker adamantly denies.

Drivers left dealerships thinking their air bags were safe. Still, without a reinspection, they and their front-seat passengers have remained at risk of gruesome injury and even death every time they are on the road — illustrated by the case of a Texas woman who lost her left eye in a low-speed accident in 2020. Sara Mae Morgan settled a lawsuit with Ford in 2022 and the dealership in 2023. She described to the Free Press a variety of life-altering injuries from the accident in a Mustang whose owners had taken the car in for air bag replacement.

Part of the problem is that no one — not the drivers, Ford, or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — knows exactly which vehicles weren’t repaired correctly. Among the challenges is that Ford must track down current owners of vehicles as old as 2004 models and reinspect them.

“I can’t sleep at night when I think of this,” the whistleblower told the Free Press. “It makes me physically ill.”

Ford told the Free Press it is committed to finding and repairing the vehicles in question and characterized the problem as isolated. 

Most of the vehicles — nearly 232,000 — are Ranger pickups, for which Ford issued a formal recall in 2023 because of incorrect air bag installation. In this instance, Takata air bags were replaced, but those installed improperly may not deploy in a crash, leaving passengers at risk.

Another 41,600 Ford vehicles of various models “where we believe there could be issues with repairs” must be reinspected, Ford spokesman T.R. Reid told the Free Press. In those instances, Ford’s records show that air bag replacement was completed, but by technicians found to have cut corners on some recall work.

The whistleblower contends the numbers are much higher, based on information from dealers.

The problem was serious enough that Ford fined certain dealerships thousands of dollars after making the discovery. Ford will not reveal how many dealers were fined or how much, but Reid said the penalties “were substantial enough to get their attention and make clear that the behavior wasn’t acceptable.”  

Punishment for bad behavior

A Ford document reviewed by the Free Press warned dealers of fines of $10,000 per violation, and dealers told the Free Press that some dealership fines reached six figures. One dealer, whom the Free Press is not naming to avoid compromising his relationship with Ford, called it a “money grab” intended to offset a slice of Ford’s massive recall costs.

Ford’s reinspection program for the nearly 42,000 vehicles, which is not listed as a formal safety recall, runs through March 2027, according to documents filed with federal safety regulators. Reid told the Free Press in early February about 11% of that work is done. He said only about 1.5% of the reinspections turned up Takata replacement problems. 

Ford sold millions of the models from which the 41,600 was drawn, including Fusions, Edges, Mustangs and more. Reid said the company has found no reason to inspect a larger sampling of those models, even though he said during interviews and via email the 1.5% error rate may be close to normal for any repair.

‘A ticking time bomb’

Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said more vehicles should be reinspected.

“I think Ford needs to go back and do a full audit to make sure no one has received a fake Takata repair, that they don’t miss anything,” Brooks said. “They need to find every vehicle that hasn’t received the correct fix. They’re the ones ultimately responsible. These are consumers who presented their vehicles for repair and they weren’t repaired.

“After years of exposure, the failure rate of the air bags goes through the roof and becomes incredibly dangerous,” Brooks said. “If someone gets an incorrect repair, they’re going to be at risk. There’s no question. You literally have a ticking time bomb that can explode at any moment.”

Most consumers know about Takata air bag recalls. But this issue is more insidious because consumers think they’ve taken care of the dangerous problem. Their vehicle repair records indicate the problem is fixed. But in reality, the danger worsens with every passing day as the air bags age.

Risk of injury for at least 4,000 drivers

The repair failures are tied to the largest automotive recall in U.S. history, that of 67 million Takata air bag inflators, whose metal canisters degrade with age, heat and humidity and can, without warning, become bombs. Takata air bag explosions in the U.S. have killed 26 people and injured hundreds with sharp metal fragments to the face, neck and chest since the late 1990s. 

The risk of death and deformity increases with time in the millions of vehicles still needing repair. 

Ford was among 19 automakers required to recall vehicles using Takata air bags. In Ford’s case, that was nearly 4.4 million air bag inflators in an estimated 3.95 million vehicles, Ford spokeswoman Maria Buczkowski said.

In the reinspection program, based on numbers Ford provided, about 60 of the reexamined vehicles have been found so far with flawed air bag replacements. If the 1.5% error rate holds for the 270,000 designated for reinspection, about 4,000 would be found with air bag flaws that were supposed to have been fixed. 

The number is small, but each of those 4,000 vehicles holds the potential for devastating consequences — if incorrectly installed replacement air bags don’t deploy or if unreplaced Takata devices explode. 

She lost an eye

In June 2020, Morgan climbed into the passenger seat of a 2007 Ford Mustang, clipped her seat belt and settled in to ride with her boyfriend to her job as a waitress at Smithhart’s Texas Grill, south of Houston. According to the lawsuit she filed and later settled, a minor fender bender at less than 14 mph triggered an air bag explosion that discharged shrapnel into her face. 

Her left eyeball is gone. Her right eye is damaged. She has hearing loss and tinnitus.

It shouldn’t have happened — the boyfriend’s family took the Mustang to a dealership in October 2018 to replace the defective Takata air bags. But the vehicle’s repair records, obtained by the Free Press, showed only the driver-side air bag was fixed.

“Now I have to see a counselor that helps me with my mental health, or PTSD, from the accident,” Morgan told the Free Press. “It’s kind of gut-wrenching. I’m just trying to find a way to cope. 

“It’s like a feeling of grief, the way I feel when I look back. Just pain, honestly. And I’ll have flashbacks.”

Morgan, now 23, of Pearland, Texas, said she lost count of her surgeries after a dozen. She takes medicine to sleep. She takes medicine for migraines. She takes medicine for depression now. She finds it difficult to be in public. She doesn’t go underwater anymore, worried about protecting her eye socket.

“It was an air bag,” Morgan said, pausing. “That’s what’s supposed to protect you when you get in an accident. And it can seriously, drastically change your life in a matter of seconds.”

Ford launches internal audit to crack down on wrongdoing

After finding evidence of shoddy recall work, Ford in 2020 required specific dealers to audit certain safety repairs. Ford says the audit, called the Dealer Incomplete Recall Repair Process, was triggered when it discovered some technicians failed to complete door latch recall work for which they billed the automaker. 

The audit also directed the dealers to review work on air bags and seat belt components, a company document shows. The audit focused on techs whose work was flagged; the company won’t say how many workers were involved. 

As a result of the audit, Ford wrote to its roughly 3,000 Lincoln and Ford dealers on March 28, 2022, saying the company determined that vehicles claimed by dealers as repaired under the Takata air bag safety recalls may not have actually had the repairs.

That letter told dealers to inspect vehicles in the shop and ensure air bags are installed correctly. The reinspection was classified as a “quality inspection program,” which differs from a formal recall. An NHTSA representative said the quality inspection program “is an audit to ensure recall repairs, and it and other service programs were conducted as instructed. While there is no reporting requirement, Ford regularly updates the agency on the progress of such programs during meetings.”

The program includes 2004-11 Ranger pickups. In spring 2023, 2004-06 Rangers were formally recalled for air bag reinspection. Enough mistakes were found in Rangers during work that followed the March 2022 memo to prompt last year’s recall.  

Beyond the Ranger, Ford’s 2022 memo said vehicles to be reinspected included select 2007-10 Ford Edges; 2006-12 Ford Fusions; 2005-06 Ford GTs; 2005-14 Ford Mustangs; 2007-10 Lincoln MKXs; 2006-12 Lincoln Zephyr/MKZs; and 2006-11 Mercury…