Ford Recalls 2 Million Vehicles Over Bum Door Latches

On Wednesday, Ford Motor Co. announced two safety recalls. One is a brake line issue involving 343,900 F-150 pickups equipped with the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6. The other relates to door latches — an obnoxiously familiar headache for the company — and encompasses a whopping 2.15 million vehicles from the 2011-15 model years.

Ford says the affected vehicles may not have had all door latches correctly replaced or replaced at all when repaired by dealerships under safety recalls 15S16 or 16S30 — both of which were done fix faulty equipment that was susceptible to failure in direct sunlight.

Apparently, the thermal threshold of the parts wasn’t all that impressive,and a few doors popped open while vehicles were in motion. While the manufacturer said it was unaware of any injuries related to the incidents, having a door randomly pop open on the motorway is universally undesirable.

Ford is going to take another whack at it.

Ford no doubt hopes it turns out better this time, as the company has already issued similar, door-centric recalls on at least 5 million vehicles since 2015 — at no small expense to itself. Swapping out a door latch may not be the world’s most costly fix, but conducting millions of them will see the bill run up pretty quickly.

The recall covers select Ford Fiesta models, the Focus, Fusion, Mustang, C-Max, Escape, and Transit Connect manufactured between 2010 and 2015. Lincoln’s MKZ and MKC were also impacted.

From Ford:

Owners will be given the option to inspect the door latch date codes and child safety locks and submit latch date codes online to confirm if repairs done under safety recalls 15S16 or 16S30 were completed correctly. The online system will provide instant validation that the door latches are OK or the latches cannot be confirmed and require dealer service.

If a customer does not want to do the inspection, has difficulty completing the inspection, or receives an indication that the latches cannot be validated, dealers will inspect the latch date codes and replace latches as needed. The Ford reference number for this recall is 20S30.

Meanwhile, the EcoBoost recall affects F-Series pickups from MY 2014-17. The trucks may leak brake fluid into the booster, which we don’t need tell you is bad. Anybody suffering from drippy master cylinder should notice warning lights illuminating on the dashboard. Serious issues will be underpinned by worsening brake performance and a pedal that really needs a good mashing to do its job. The rear brakes should be unaffected, however.

Ford said it was aware of seven low-speed accident claims, with two injuries associated with the issue. So take extra care if you’ve recently seen the red brake warning indicator. Dealers will replace the brake master cylinder and, if it is leaking, the brake booster will also be replaced. The Ford reference number for this recall is 20S31.

[Image: Ford]