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Ford Motor Co. has issued a recall on its popular Bronco Sport SUV, a surprise hot seller that just launched at the end of November.
The Dearborn automaker said 1,666 of the small SUVs have an issue with the suspension, where the rear suspension modules “may not be fully secured to the subframe.”
Loose or missing bolts affect vehicle stability and may reduce protection during rear impact. Ford said it is not aware of any accidents or injuries caused by this issue.
The company had sold 13,170 Bronco Sports in the U.S. through January, according to its sales reports. This Bronco Sport recall affects 1,640 vehicles in the U.S., 24 in Canada and two in Mexico.
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Dealers will schedule appointments during the week of April 5 to inspect the rear suspension bolts on the vehicles to make sure they’re secured.
The recalled vehicles were built in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico between July 22 and Nov. 24.
Ranger and more recalled
In addition to the Bronco Sport alert issued Thursday, Ford is also recalling 154,224 older Ford and Lincoln vehicles for ongoing issues involving Takata air bags that have a record of exploding and causing shrapnel injury.
This comes at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Ford said it is issuing recalls on select vehicles that may have had old and defective Takata air bags accidentally installed in vehicles after they were repaired in response to an earlier Takata recall. Ford said that certain defective air bags had not been “purged” from “service stock” after the new parts arrived.
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“Following extensive investigation and tracing, Ford could not account for some of the obsolete Takata service parts, indicating they may have been installed on vehicles as part of collision or theft repairs,” Ford said.
“Ford used dealer records to identify 1,117 vehicles with collision repairs that may have been done with an obsolete service part after the Takata recall was completed.”
The group comprises certain 2004-11 Ford Ranger, 2005-14 Ford Mustang, 2006 Ford GT, 2008-12 Ford Fusion, 2009-11 Mercury Milan, 2010-12 Lincoln MKZ, 2007-10 Ford Edge and 2007-10 Lincoln MKX vehicles. Of the group, 1,067 vehicles affected are in the U.S. and federal territories, 49 in Canada and one in Mexico.
This recall involves 1,067 vehicles in the U.S. and federal territories, 49 in Canada and one in Mexico. Ford dealers will inspect and replace the air bags as needed.
That’s not all
In addition to the earlier Takata situation, the inability to document the location of 45 air bag parts has led to the recall of 153,107 Rangers.
“Ford was unable to locate 45 single-stage inflators that are compatible with 2004-06 Ford Ranger vehicles. It is possible that these obsolete Takata service parts were installed for repairs after collision damage or theft,” Ford said.
All of these Rangers had an earlier Takata recall repair before bad parts were purged from the system. This affects 144,340 in the U.S. and federal territories, 8,762 in Canada and five in Mexico.
While the Takata recall is not unique to Ford, repeating the recall for an inability to keep track of faulty parts is not typical.
Ford said customers will be notified to schedule the next repair.
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The Takata air bag recall has plagued multiple automakers with deaths, injuries and high repair costs. A device designed to provide protection in a crash contains chemicals that causes an explosion to inflate the air bag. But the whole system degrades in high heat, sometimes triggering unexpected explosions.
Defective air bags have been cited by federal officials as the cause of death in accidents involving 2006 Rangers, including a 2017 death in West Virginia and a 2015 death in South Carolina, according to Reuters.
Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-222-6512 or[email protected].Follow her on Twitter@phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.
