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NHTSA closes Ford F-Series Super Duty steering probe without recall

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's investigation into 2008 Ford F-250 and F-350 Super Duty pickups, which was originally opened last year, has now ended without a recall. NHTSA was looking into steering failures on some 336,000 trucks.
The issue rested with the steering gear - NHTSA received five complaints of failures - which was redesigned in 2005. According to the report on the matter, investigators "found evidence of broken sector shaft gear teeth and piston damage consistent with incidents of single event overload."
NHTSA investigators, however, "found no evidence of fatigue or material property defects in any of the fractures. Analysis of complaint rates by vehicle build month showed no patterns indicating potential manufacturing quality issues and no difference before and after Ford introduced design changes to the input shaft and sector shaft seals in July 2007 to address potential leak concerns," according to the report, obtained by The Detroit News.

Ford starting up 2.0L EcoBoost engine production in Ohio

Joe Hinrichs, Ford's President of The Americas (pictured above), announced today that in late 2014, the automaker will be building the 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder at its Cleveland Engine Plant, a move requiring a $200-million investment and the hiring of 450 new employees. European-built Ford products will continue to source this engine from the Valencia, Spain plant where all of these EcoBoost four-cylinder engines are currently built, and the new Cleveland engines will be used for all North American-made models.
Ford is planning to build its popular EcoBoost engines regionally to maximize production capacity and meet customer demand. Last year, Ford sold 334,364 vehicles with EcoBoost engines in the US alone, and that number is expected to swell to more than 500,000 by the end of this year, with global sales expected to total 1.6 million. By 2015, Ford says that 95 percent of its nameplates will offer an EcoBoost engine.
One such vehicle that could be adding an EcoBoost engine, according to Automotive News, is none other than the 2015 Ford Mustang. The report says that Ford could use either the 2.0-liter EcoBoost or an upcoming 2.3-liter EcoBoost in the sixth-generation pony car.

Ford's Mulally makes shortlist for Microsoft CEO

Ford CEO Alan Mulally has made the short list to take over tech giant Microsoft, lending further credence to rumors that the 68-year-old former Boeing exec would ditch Dearborn and move to Redmond.
The report comes from Reuters, which claims that alongside Mulally, former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and three candidates from within Microsoft are on the short list to succeed Steve Ballmer at the company's helm, although previous reports claim the Ford exec is the number one candidate. Mulally is currently working without a contract, although Bill Ford seems to believe that he isn't likely to depart. Despite this belief, Ford was quoted just last month talking about the depth of talent on the Blue Oval's executive team.
"There is no change from what we announced last November. Alan remains fully focused on continuing to make progress on our One Ford plan. We do not engage in speculation," said Ford spokesman Jay Cooney.