DEARBORN, Mich. – Ford Motor Co. overruled its own safety engineers’ recommendations to recall up to 4.1 million pickups and sport utility vehicles that they found had substandard door latches, court documents indicated.

A Ford safety engineering team determined in March 2000 that door latches on certain 1997-2000 light trucks didn’t meet federal safety standards. The trucks include the popular F-150, F-250, Expedition and Lincoln Navigator models, according to internal Ford memos made public as part of court cases.

After the recommendations, Ford ordered immediate design changes for future vehicles. But the automaker decided against a recall, which could have cost up to $527 million. The company determined instead that the latches could pass a rarely used alternative compliance test, The Detroit News reported Sunday.