Recall Register

1978 Ford Thunderbird: recalls and complaints

NHTSA lists 3 recall campaigns for the 1978 Ford Thunderbird. The newest campaign is 78V108000. NHTSA received the report on 15 May 1978. The NHTSA record gives the component Seat Belts / Front / Retractor. NHTSA has 1 complaint on file for this model year.

The NHTSA recall file shows no do-not-drive advisory and no park-outside advisory on these campaigns.

This page cannot show if a recall applies to one vehicle. The NHTSA VIN lookup shows the unrepaired recalls of one vehicle.

Remedy of the newest campaign, 78V108000, in the NHTSA record

The dealer will replace the seat belt assemblies if necessary, without charge to owner.
NHTSA VIN lookup

Complaint information entered into NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation vehicle owner's complaint database is used with other data sources to identify safety issues that warrant investigation and to determine if a safety-related defect trend exists.

NHTSA publishes these words. Source: NHTSA Datasets and APIs, section Complaints, read on . Complaint file through . Recall file through .

Since the last update

No tracked figure of this page changed in a data update. What the log tracks

All updates to the register

Recall campaigns

3 campaigns, newest first. 129,400 units in total.

  1. 78V108000Received . 110,000 units.

    Seat Belts / Front / Retractor

    Defect, in the NHTSA record
    The involved vehicles are equipped with shoulder harness retractors that may not lock. Should the vehicle experience a sudden deceleration or impact, the front seat occupant may not be restrained by the shoulder harness portion of the three-point seat belt system. Furthermore, the shoulder harness retractors may not allow extraction of the shoulder belt webbing due to a pre-locked condition. This is a non-compliance to the emergency locking retractor performance requirements of federal motor vehicle safety standard no. 209, "seat belt assemblies".
    Remedy, in the NHTSA record
    The dealer will replace the seat belt assemblies if necessary, without charge to owner.

    Report filed by FORD MOTOR COMPANY. Owner notification date in the NHTSA record: .

  2. 77V199000Received . 400 units.

    Wheels / Lugs/Nuts/Bolts/Studs

    Defect, in the NHTSA record
    The involved vehicles may have been equipped with cast aluminum wheels with inadequate lug nut counterbore depths. This condition may not provide sufficient lug nut thread engagement. The lug nuts may loosen and fall off, allowing the wheel to separate from the vehicle.
    Remedy, in the NHTSA record
    Dealer will inspect and, if neessary, will replace the wheels without charge to owner.

    Report filed by FORD MOTOR COMPANY. Owner notification date in the NHTSA record: .

  3. 77V185000Received . 19,000 units.

    Power Train / Automatic Transmission / Lever and Linkage / Column Shift

    Defect, in the NHTSA record
    On the involved vehicles, the park actuation support plates are defective due to their susceptibility to cracking due to improper heat treatment during manufacture. As a result, fragments from a broken plate can become lodged in the transmission parking pawl mechanism. This could prevent the transmission parking pawl from engaging when the selector lever is placed in the "park" position, or prevent the pawl from being disengaged from the park gear.
    Remedy, in the NHTSA record
    The dealer will replace the park actuation cam support plates, free of charge, on all affected vehicles.

    Report filed by FORD MOTOR COMPANY. Owner notification date in the NHTSA record: .

The campaign number opens the NHTSA record. Each quotation is the text of the NHTSA recall file.

Recall campaign: One recall in the NHTSA recall file, with one campaign number. A campaign can name many makes, models and model years.

Units: The number of vehicles or products that a recall can include. The manufacturer or the firm reports the number to the agency.

Complaints by component

1 complaint, 1 component mentions.

A complaint can name more than one component. Each component that a complaint names is one component mention. This model year has fewer than 50 component mentions, so the table shows the number of mentions only.

1978 Ford Thunderbird: component mentions in complaints
ComponentMentions
Electrical System1
Complaints that report a crash
0
Complaints that report a fire
0
Injuries in the complaints
2
Deaths in the complaints
0
Date of the newest complaint
22 Nov 2000

These figures are the entries of the persons who sent the complaints.

Complaint: A report about a possible safety problem that a person sends to NHTSA. This site shows the number of complaints and not their text.

Complaints about the 1978 Ford Thunderbird, by the year NHTSA received them. The largest year is 2000, with 1 complaint.

Investigations

The NHTSA investigation file has no investigation that names this model year.

Investigation: A study of a possible safety defect by the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation. An investigation with no closing date in the NHTSA file is open.

Other model years

The number under each year is the number of recall campaigns.

  1. 19600
  2. 19650
  3. 19674
  4. 19701
  5. 19711
  6. 19723
  7. 19734
  8. 19741
  9. 19754
  10. 19761
  11. 19774
  12. 19783
  13. 19793
  14. 19801
  15. 19833
  16. 19841
  17. 19851
  18. 19861
  19. 19871
  20. 19882
  21. 19894
  22. 19903
  23. 19913
  24. 19923
  25. 19933
  26. 19940
  27. 19950
  28. 19962
  29. 19970
  30. 19980
  31. 19990
  32. 20021
  33. 20030
  34. 20041
  35. 20051

A year without a link has fewer than 2 campaigns and fewer than 25 complaints. It has no page.

Official channels

Cite this page

Recall Register. 1978 Ford Thunderbird: recalls and complaints. https://recallregister.com/vehicle/ford/thunderbird/1978/. Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation, recall, complaint and investigation files. Data through .

Sources

Source
NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation
Licence
US government work, public domain
Recall file through
30 Sep 2026
Complaint file through
29 Mar 2018
First complaint in the file
1 Jan 1995
Manufacturer in the recall file
FORD MOTOR COMPANY

The NHTSA record is the authority. A complaint count is the number of different complaint numbers for the make, the model and the model year. How the register is made. Report an error.

Questions

How many units are in the recall campaigns for the 1978 Ford Thunderbird?
129,400 units in 3 campaigns. A campaign can name other models and model years, and its units include them.
How many recall campaigns does the Ford Thunderbird have for all model years?
NHTSA lists 50 recall campaigns for the Ford Thunderbird, model years 1960 to 2005. 3 of them name the 1978 model year.
Which component do the complaints about the 1978 Ford Thunderbird name most often?
Electrical System: 1 of 1 component mention.
Is an NHTSA investigation of the 1978 Ford Thunderbird open?
The NHTSA investigation file has no investigation that names this model year.