NHTSA Complaint #11508215 — 2017 FORD F-150

While traveling down the interstate at the posted speed limit of 70 MPH in the fast lane, I experienced the vehicle immediately hesitating without pressing the brake and a loud grinding noise in the front drivers side and caused me to put on my brakes, change lanes and drive off to the side of the road. The grinding stopped and then it happened again about 20 more miles down the road. I was able to get it to the Ford dealership and was told it was a defective IWE Check Valve which attempted to put my vehicle into 4 Wheel Drive. As a result, I had to replace the Front IWE and the new & improved IWE Check Valve which was designed to prevent this from happening in the future. For obvious reasons, I became upset that a known issue with defective IWE check valves causes this event to occur. After exploring the internet for this same exact problem, I found this has been going on for more than 5 years. I now have the "corrected" part, but my major concern is that while I did not get into an accident this time, what is to prevent it from happening to someone who may not exhibit the same composure and causes their vehicle to crash into someone else and death or injury is caused and could have been prevented with a relatively cheap replacement part.