Dearborn, MI — March 3, 2016 — As part of a pair of recent recalls, Ford Motor Company recently announced possible safety risks connected to Transit vehicles produced between 2014 and 2016, with the 2015 and 2016 model years.

Across the entire North American continent, approximately 51,470 of these vehicles may contain vulnerable seat belt buckles. The vehicles were manufactured at the same assembly plant in Kansas City. In a press release on the new Ford recalls, the manufacturer stated that dealers will inspect and repair the faulty buckles, replacing them if needed.

While no injuries have been connected to this issue, the press release did explain the possible danger to occupants posed by this defect.

“The rear seat belt buckles are being damaged when heavy objects are placed on top of them, which could cause the buckle not to latch completely, increasing the risk of injury in a crash,” the release said. The same statement also referenced a recall for 3,700 Ford F-150 trucks, most of which are in the United States as well. A seat massage function could disable the airbag system in the passenger seat. Dealers will address this issue by updating the module software to fix the vehicle’s classification systems.

These recent Ford recalls come after a previous action targeting 2015 Transits for a seat belt assembly issue. The belts required a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard violation because they didn’t bear the correct labels, which normally list the belt model and model year.

This represented a risk to owner safety because it made it potentially difficult for users to read crucial model information on the belt itself. The manufacturer officially launched this earlier recall on June 12, 2015 for fewer than 50 units.

Dearborn, MI — February 04, 2016 — In a continuation of the Takata airbag recalls, Ford is recalling 361,692 vehicles equipped with the potentially dangerous airbags. The recall includes 2004-2006 Ford Rangers.

Recall summary

As a chronology document from Ford notes, a tenth death was recently connected to the inflator issue after a 52-year-old man from South Carolina was struck by shrapnel from the exploding airbag inflator canister. While the root cause of the possible defects in these vehicles is not known, the source says that driver-side airbag inflators could rupture in a crash after “excessive internal pressure.” Owners are instructed to take their vehicles to the nearest dealer to have the inflator replaced. The vehicles included in this recall were manufactured as far back as March 24, 2003.

“On January 22, 2016, Ford participated in a vehicle inspection coordinated by NHTSA’s Special Crash Investigation team and observed an inflator anomaly in this vehicle,” this statement reads. “NHTSA requested that Ford file a defect notification based on a defect notification filed by Takata.”

The document notes that Takata had previously tested more than 1,940 airbag inflators “without incident” for vehicles in the 2004 and 2005 model year ranges.

The repair

Ford will notify owners included in this recall beginning March 7. The dealer notification date was scheduled for January 26. The recalled vehicles will receive an “interim repair”⏤essentially the same Takata airbag, but not as old, so less of a risk⏤and will eventually be replaced with an entirely different airbag altogether.

Is your vehicle part of the recall?

Over 360,000 Ford Rangers were originally part of this recall. As of July 28, 2017, only 528 cars had gotten an “interim” airbag installed. On December 11, 2017, the final repair became available. As of April 9, 2021 – the last date information was available – 193,653 airbags had been replaced. To see if your car still needs to be repaired, use MotorSafety’s free lookup tool.

Detroit, MI — September 2, 2015 — According to Trucking Info, Ford will recall more than 182,500 vehicles this year in the United States for a problem related to the instrument clusters onboard. A single recall action centers on two specific brands of vehicles produced by plants in very different locations, one in Spain and one in Kentucky. 

All total, the whole recall concerns 203,445 units in North America, specifically the Transit Connect Vans and Escape SUV’s built within the past year. The source says that affected vehicles could trigger a malfunction in multiple systems, including warning chimes. The same article mentions another, comparatively more minor recall for Transit Connect vehicles concerning improperly labeled seatbelts. 

While this second action only focuses on a group of fewer than 50 vehicles and hasn’t led to any known damages or injuries, the source says that the belts are still a violation of regulations and need to be replaced.

“These vans, acquired by a single fleet customer, have a special-order front passenger seat belt,” it states. “Though these seat belts work properly, the supplier mislabeled them. The labels don’t include all the information required by federal safety standards.”

Ford has issued other recent recalls for unrelated concerns in their vehicle lines, including a group of 393,623 vehicles with electric power steering problems. As Consumer Affairs reports, this issue requires dealers to investigate the Power Steering Control Module within the cars and replace them accordingly, along with the steering gear as necessary. This recall will take effect at the end of July and apply to several models, including the Lincoln MKS and Ford Taurus.

Issuing recall statements within a tight timeframe will bring consumers and dealers more accurate information about the most recent and pressing manufacturer decisions.

Dearborn, MI — August 19, 2015 — In a new press release, Ford Motor Company recently announced a safety compliance recall that will encompass several thousand vehicles in the United States and Canada. According to this source, the seat belt anchorage defects in certain F-650 and F-750 stem from the Escobedo Assembly Plant where they were put together.

Only 417 of the recalled autos are in Canada: more than 25,940 of them are in the United States, and the model years include 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015. The affected vehicles were produced between 2011 and 2015, and a proper remedy procedure is reportedly “still being developed” in the wake of the large volume of recalled vehicles.

Though the improper alignment of seat belt systems that prompted this recall has not led to any known incidents yet, the manufacturer stated that the current position in these vehicles does leave them liable for possible injury in certain situations.

“In these vehicles, the front passenger and center seat belts might not be anchored in the correct position relative to the seat, increasing the risk of injury in a crash,” the statement reads. The Detroit News put this action into a greater context by noting that Ford has recalled nearly 4 million total vehicles in more than 20 different recalls. Ford is said to be shifting its production away from this plant.

This compares to the national statistics, which have encompassed 32.4 million vehicles within a series of “nearly 500 campaigns” this year so far. Last year, more than 800 campaigns were issued for a total of nearly 64 million.