Federal safety regulators are investigating complaints of sudden brake loss in newer Ford F-150 trucks.
DETROIT - Federal safety regulators are investigating complaints of sudden brake loss in newer Ford F-150 trucks with 3.5-liter engines.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation said it's looking at F-150s from the 2015 and 2016 model years, which total about 282,000 trucks in the U.S., after receiving 25 complaints related to the issue.
The probe follows a similar issue in model-year 2013-14 F-150s that resulted in a recall 271,000 trucks with 3.5L engines.
In new NHTSA documents, the ODI said 10 consumer reports concerning the 2015 F-150s "allege symptoms of brake pedal going to the floor with sudden and complete loss of brake effectiveness, brake warning lamp illumination, and/or low or empty brake fluid level, which are consistent with the symptoms associated with the aforementioned recall, while the MY 2016 complaints allege a sudden and complete loss of brakes without the brake warning lamp illumination and low brake fluid level."
At the same time, some of the 15 complaints concerning the 2016 F-150s says that repair facilities diagnosed the problem as a failure of the master cylinder, the ODI said.
There have not been any crashes or injuries reported. NHTSA said a recall query has been opened to assess the scope, frequency and safety-related consequences of the alleged defect.
In an emailed statement, a spokeswoman for the Dearborn automaker said it's cooperating with federal regulators.
"Ford is committed to delivering top quality in our vehicles," she said. "We continuously evaluate our processes for potential improvements and when the data indicates a safety recall is needed, we move quickly on behalf of our customers."
In the recall of 2013-2014 F-150s, Ford said in some cases brake fluid had leaked from the brake master cylinder into the brake booster, affecting brakes to the front wheels, but not to the rear. On affected trucks, dealers replaced the brake master cylinder at no charge, and would replace the brake booster if necessary.
In general, if you're wondering if your vehicle is affected by a recall, you can plug your vehicle identification number into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's VIN look-up tool at vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/.