Ford announces recall for 30,000 F-150 Lightning in the USA

The car manufacturer Ford is recalling almost 30,000 F-150 Lightning electric pickups sold in the USA. However, the background to the action has nothing to do with the model's electric drive.

Rather, it is a recall for safety-related reasons: It is possible that a nut on the ball joint of the upper wishbone was not tightened correctly at the factory. This could lead to the nut loosening while driving and possibly even coming loose completely. An important part of the suspension would then no longer be correctly mounted, and the steering knuckle could detach from the upper wishbone.

A total of 25,501 F-150 Lightning vehicles built between 15 February 2024 and 14 April 2025 are affected, as can be seen from the feedback document from the responsible authorities, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), specifically including 20,528 vehicles from the 2024 model year and 8,973 from the 2025 model year. During the workshop visit, it is checked whether the nut in question was tightened to the correct torque during assembly – if not, this is corrected. According to the Safety Recall Report, the NHTSA assumes that one per cent of vehicles are affected, so around 295 units.

So far, only one case is known in which the nut has actually come loose. On 6 March 2025, a 2024 vehicle suffered a defect on the right front wheel. Since production on 4 March 2024, the vehicle had only covered 1,020 kilometres (original specification: 634 miles). In the workshop, a technician discovered that the wishbone had come loose from the steering knuckle because the ball joint nut was missing.

If this nut is loose or missing, the driver can hear rattling or rattling on bumps, and the vehicle can vibrate while driving. Ford has therefore already improved the tool used to tighten the nut. Therefore, vehicles built after 14 April are no longer affected.

The F-150 Lightning has not yet developed into the success story that Ford hoped the model would be – Executive Chairman Bill Ford even spoke of the ‘Model T of the 21st century’ at the market launch in April 2022. Production of the e-pickup has had to be cut back or even paused several times, most recently in November 2024. However, improvement is in sight: in the first quarter of 2025, the F-150 Lightning was the best-selling electric pickup in the USA with 7,187 units, narrowly beating the Tesla Cybertruck. In 2024 as a whole, the Cybertruck was still ahead.

insideevs.com, nhtsa.gov (Safety Recall Report as PDF)