The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Friday revealed it is launching two separate preliminary investigations into customer complaints related to the 2011
Ford Explorer and
Chrysler 200. There are 83,000
2011 Explorers covered by the recall, along with 87,288
Chrysler 200 and Chrysler 200 convertibles.
The Explorer faces 15 complaints due to steering problems and a complete loss of power steering assist in vehicles with the Electric Power Assisted Steering system. This is backed up by Ford's own field reports in the carmaker's Early Warning Reporting data submissions. A warning message sometimes accompanied the fault on the vehicle's dashboard screen, and some of the issues were resolved with a restart of the engine.
The Chrysler with the new Pentastar V6 engine saw low-speed engine stalls. There are 15 complaints filed with the NHTSA that the cars stalled during deceleration when coming to a stop light or sign,
The Detroit News reported.
None of the reported issues resulted in crashes or injuries, however. Both automakers are cooperating with NHTSA officials.
