DETROIT (Dow Jones)--The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has upgraded its investigation into some of Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - News)'s heavy-duty pickup trucks and Excursion sport utility vehicles.

NHTSA is looking into claims that an engine throttle control sensor can malfunction, causing the 2002 and 2003 F-series super duty trucks and Excursions to continue idling when the accelerator is stepped on, or cause the trucks to unexpectedly slow down.

Ford has had 1,270 warranty claims associated with the defect, according to NHTSA. Six complaints were made to the government agency, and one accident was associated with the problem.

NHTSA upgraded the probe from a preliminary investigation to an engineering analysis. Many of the cases it upgrades eventually become recalls.

The government agency said about 100,100 of the trucks are on the road. Some of the sensors were replaced after Ford issued a field service bulletin on the problem in February 2003.

NHTSA is also looking into 15 reports of headlamp failures in 1999 and 2000 Mercury Villager and 1999 and 2000 Nissan Quest minivans. Drivers said the headlamp bulb socket overheats and melts, causing the headlights to stop working. The investigation is a preliminary look at the issue, NHTSA said.

The Villager and the Quest are sister vehicles, according to Ford. The automaker built the Quest on behalf of Nissan. There have been 174,328 sold.

Ford spokesman Glenn Ray said the company is aware of the investigations, and is cooperating fully with NHTSA. He said it would be premature to speculate as to how the investigations will turn out.

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