Ford issued a series of massive recalls this week, which have brought the total number of vehicles recalled in the last week close to one million. The problem comes as Ford is boasting the opening of their Silicon Valley research center. The issues at the heart of the recalls are not minor cosmetic issues, either. They are serious safety issues that could have a profound impact on drivers. The vehicles impacted include, 520,000 Ford Fusion’s and Lincoln MKZ’s from the years 2013-2015, as well as 2015 Ford Edges, and 2015 Ford F-150’s. Those were the vehicles with the most recalls associated with them in this batch of recalls.
However, other vehicles included in the recall were the Ford Edge, Escape, Fiesta, and Focus. The biggest problem with the Fusion and MKZ was that Ford said that the bolts that hold the steering gear motor in place could potentially become compromised. This would cause imminent problems and would ultimately cause complete steering failure. Ford said in a statement regarding the faulty bolts that, “If the steering gear motor bolts fracture, the steering system may default to manual steering mode, making the vehicle more difficult to steer, especially at lower speeds. This would not result in a loss of steering, but could result in an increased risk of a crash.”
The second recall involves a batch of bad fuel pumps, which were produced by Bosch. These fuel pumps have already been recalled in a few other vehicles, including Nissan cars – but the same issue has been found in these Ford Vehicles now. While this recall is significantly smaller – it’s still something that could cause dramatic issues with the function of the vehicle.
The smallest recalls were related to a missing or improperly installed heat shield, and faulty parking lamps. Both of these issues are mainly cosmetic though Ford points out that the heat shield creates an increased risk for fire. However, Ford also was quick to point out that they don’t know of any issues to this point with heat shields that have actually led to fires. Moreover, this series of recalls is just the latest to rock the automotive world.
