Complaint 1804550

Complaint Summary

SERVICE BRAKES

Owner Narrative

My wife backed my vehicle out of the garage and began her drive to work. She stopped a few times at stop light through town before she got to the freeway. Driving on the highway she notice/got a message on the dash that stated Low Brake Fluid. She wasn't sure what that meant as the brakes were working fine. On her drive to work she has 2 stop lights that are on the highway. Coming up to the first stop light she was unable to stop as the brake pedal went all the way to the floor. Her inability to stop caused to to run the red light at around 40 mph. I am a mechanic of 20 years. I went to her work to inspect the vehicle. There were no leaks or broken hoses, the master cylinder was empty except for the front of the reservoir that had maybe an 1/8" of fluid in it. Upon doing some internet research I found that 2013 - 2014 F-150 had the exact same problem with the master cylinder leaking into the brake booster causing the loss of the service brake system to function properly. More research found that the master cylinder in question is the same part number used on all f150 and expeditions from 2010 -2014. The recall number is 16s24. I called Ford customer service and was told that my vehicle had no open recalls. I explained to the agent that I understood recalls are VIN specific but my vehicle has the same master cylinder (based on part number) as the ones failing in the F150 and it has failed in the exact same way (brake fluid leaking, or being sucked into the brake booster) as described in the recall for this issue. This is a serious issue as the brakes worked as designed one minute and there was no brakes the next when needed. The only warning was a low brake fluid light/message. My wife could have been killed or killed someone else had there been another vehicle entering the intersection. There easily could have been a crash/fire/injury or fatality. How many failures/deaths do there need to be before a recall is issued and Ford does the right thing.

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.