Ford Motor Company announced on Tuesday, September 9th, that it is recalling 1.9 million vehicles worldwide due to defective rear-view cameras. This is the latest recall action taken by the company in response to this issue.
The recall, as stated in a document submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the United States, covers models from 2015 to 2019, including Lincoln MKC, Lincoln Navigator, Mustang, F-250, F-350, F-450, F-550, Expedition, Edge, Transit, Transit Connect, Econoline, and Ranger. When these vehicles are in reverse, the rear-view camera may display inverted, distorted, or blank images.
Approximately 1.45 million vehicles in the United States, 122,000 in Canada, and around 300,000 in other markets are affected by this recall.
Ford has reported receiving 44,123 warranty claims related to this recall issue globally, along with 18 incident reports. Fortunately, there have been no injuries resulting from these incidents.
The NHTSA stated that the malfunctioning rear-view camera could affect the driver’s visibility, increasing the risk of collisions. The automotive safety regulatory agency also mentioned that dealers will be responsible for inspecting and replacing the faulty cameras for free.
The first batch of notification letters informing owners of the safety risk is expected to be sent out on September 22nd. Upon confirmation of the feasibility of the remedies, Ford will issue more notification letters.
This recall is the latest in a series of issues involving Ford’s rear-view camera systems. In April of this year, the automaker recalled 160,000 vehicles from the 2015 model year due to rear-view camera problems.
In November of last year, Ford agreed to pay a $165 million civil fine after an NHTSA investigation found that the automaker had failed to promptly recall vehicles with defective rear-view cameras.
In August 2021, the NHTSA initiated an investigation to determine whether Ford took timely action after recalling 620,246 vehicles in 2020 for rear-view camera issues. Ford later expanded the recall in March 2022 and 2024, increasing the number of vehicles recalled by approximately 24,000.
In another announcement, the NHTSA mentioned that Canadian automotive parts supplier Magna International is recalling over 250,000 rear-view cameras installed in certain models of Ford and Stellantis vehicles.
(Reference: Reuters)