The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has concluded its investigation into 2011 Ford Mustang vehicles equipped with manual transmissions. The agency looked into a total of 364 reports of shift quality issues supplied by Ford and they’ve reportedly determined that owners have experienced no loss of mobility or any unreasonable safety risk due to the problems. According to Inside Line, Ford identified several possible issues that could have contributed to difficulty shifting, including cold transmission fluid, clutch stay-out at high engine speeds, gear clash and loosening clutch plate bolts in early production vehicles. Ford has since replaced those fasteners with new hardware currently used in production.
The automaker said that the majority of the gear shift issues were due to the transmission not being up to operating temperature while driving and that the problems sorted themselves out after the drivetrain warmed up. Had NHTSA found any glaring issues with the transmission or clutch in the 2011 and 2012 Ford Mustang models, Ford may have been forced to issue a recall.
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