Huge S197 Mustang Recall

Ford is recalling 434,593 2005+ Mustangs. Why? Well, a test on a 2007 car revealed that the airbag deployment force was a bit too strong for "an unbelted, front passenger 5th percentile female anthropomorphic test device." Ford is asking affected Mustang owners (check your VIN here) to bring their cars in so that the dealer can "update the software in the restraint control module (RCM)."

The whole concept of having little sensors that weigh front passengers and tell the airbags how hard to deploy sketches me out. I’ve heard plenty of stories of airbag lights flickering while people drive thier modern cars over bumpy roads with light front passengers. Have you guys ever seen this in your cars? Creepy.

Anyway, there’s a good thread on the recall over at Stangnet. Apparently some guys have already taken their cars in for the fix, and it was quite painless (though some owners are paranoid to take their heavily modded Stangs to a dealer, fearing the dealer might attempt to void their factory warranty). Az Pete at Stangnet reports:

Took my ’07 Vert in today. They hook up a scan tool the the PCM, run it for about 35 min, unplug it and return the car. Car was in my sight the entire time, hood was not opened nor was anything else disturbed. Real simple. No effect on any performance.

I assume Az Pete meant RCM and not PCM, but you get the idea. It’s easy as pie.