Ford's Door Latch Recall Balloons by Another 1.5 Million Vehicles

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Ford Motor Company’s multi-model door latch recall, which started out relatively small earlier this year, is growing in leaps and bounds.

The automaker announced today that it has recalled another 1.5 million vehicles to prevent doors from flying open, nearly tripling the previous tally of 828,053, the Associated Press reports.

As before, the affected vehicles are: 2012 through 2015 Ford Focus, the 2013 to 2015 Ford Escape and C-Max, the 2015 Ford Mustang and Lincoln MKC and the 2014 through 2016 Ford Transit Connect van.

The open-door issue cropped up this past spring, when Ford recalled 390,000 Ford Fiesta, Fusion and Lincoln MKZ models. The recall ranks expanded in August, with new models to the list. Because temperature and sun exposure plays a role in the faulty latches, Ford’s repair efforts focused on vehicles bought or owned in warmer U.S. states.

According to AP, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration pressured Ford to expand the scope of the recall. It now covers nearly 2.5 million vehicles, the vast majority of them in the U.S. Unlike the previous regional recall, this one covers vehicles nationwide.

Ford claims the pawl spring tab in the side door latch could break, preventing the door from latching. If the doors are still able to latch, they could fly open while the vehicle is moving. One crash and three injuries could be related to the defect.

The recall is now large enough to impact Ford’s bottom line. The automaker expects to add $640 million in expenses to its third quarter balance sheet, lowering profits.

[Image: Ford Motor Company]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • APaGttH APaGttH on Sep 08, 2016

    13 replies later and not one snarky comment about the irony that the Ford Escape has bad door latches. I'm disappointed.

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    • Vulpine Vulpine on Sep 09, 2016

      VoGo, I was. I personally don't care what you believe about the company; my personal experience has demonstrated that the company is absolutely working to destroy that reputation. However, just as Rome was not built in a day, or even a decade, fixing Daimler's screw-ups is taking at least as long. How would you like it if you discovered your handbrake lever was made out of cheap pot metal and breaking off ratchet teeth every time you applied it? Now put that lever in a heavy Jeep and see how comfortable it makes you. FCA replaced that lever for me with a true, steel, lever by demanding the dealership stop replacing it with the Daimler-specified part. I would also note that said dealership (and others carrying the FCA brands) in my area go out of their way to screw their customers by repairing symptoms rather than troubleshooting causes. For one Daimler-engineered problem, I had to talk directly to the technician because after several visits for weird electronic issues where switches were replaced ("this will certainly fix your problem, sir", only to return 3-6 months later with some other screwy issue) one of the computers was replaced--after which ALL the electronic issues disappeared and hasn't recurred now in over four years. Yes, the Jeep was out of warranty but when I explained the issue to the FCA regional manager, the cost of that computer replacement was refunded as the issue had obviously, by the dealership's reported paperwork, begun before the warranty expired. As such, I give FCA kudos for the products they're designing and producing but pan their local dealerships AND the remaining Daimler-designed products. The nearest dealership I trust is over 40 miles away and there are a minimum of six FCA dealerships closer to me than that one.

  • EBFlex EBFlex on Sep 08, 2016

    Typical Ford. Big Al really did a lot of damage to this company. "Profits now, recalls later" is no way to run a business.

  • Giltibo Giltibo on Sep 09, 2016

    Have you dissected a door latch, lately? It is a darn complex part, more than many can imagine. Levers, springs, switches , gears, motors, rivets and screws; upwards to more than 100 parts in certain cases.. Do defects happen? Rarely, but they do...

  • Vulpine Vulpine on Sep 11, 2016

    You said it yourself, ajla, "marketing term". It means nothing more than the fact that it is a 3800cc or 3.8L V6 engine. And how many times to I have to tell you it was an Oldsmobile engine, not a Buick engine, that shredded its gear?

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