German transmission supplier ZF has taken a lot of flack for its rough-shifting, occasionally misbehaving nine-speed automatic across multiple automakers. Now comes word that the shifter it designed and supplied to some automakers who use its eight-speed automatic transmission has been subject to a large recall.
After an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fiat-Chrysler is recalling 811,586 vehicles to update the transmission software and include more visual warnings and chimes that the vehicles are not in park. All eight-speed 2012?2014 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans and 2014?2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee models are included. FCA says it knows of at least 41 related injuries, while NHTSA?which had been investigating the cars since August 2015?has recorded at least 314 complaints of rollaways, 121 crashes, and 30 injuries.
The shifter in question always returns to a center position after gear selection and has very small detents that can make it difficult to select a gear; some drivers were then inadvertently leaving their vehicles in gear when they intended to select park. The vehicles also have ignition-button programming that won’t shut the engine down if the vehicle is not in park, meaning that some vehicles rolled away even after drivers exited them. FCA recently replaced the shifter with a more traditional PRNDL lever (pictured above) that has separate stops for each gear, a change made effective for the 2015 m...