Ford Recalls More Than 2.3 Million SUVs to Fix Three Separate Issues

Vehicles from the 2000 to 2006 model years are being recalled to address rear camera and wiper issues.

Recalls are good in the sense that a problem has been identified and a fix is ready (or on the way), but they can be very bad when it comes to public perception. By that metric, Ford is probably not looking so great lately in the minds of consumers, as it’s been subject to recalls to fix three separate issues that affect more than 2.3 million of its SUVs in all, including models from Lincoln, the Blue Oval’s luxury brand.

According to a report emanating from Car and Driver, the largest of the two recalls affects 889,950 Ford and Lincoln SUVs and crossovers thanks to an inverted rearview camera screen. When you select reverse on a vehicle hit by this recall, the image will flip or invert itself due to an issue with the integrated circuit found on the display’s printed circuit board.

What happens is that there is a pulse on the data bus during startup, which rewrites a register in the display microcontroller, turning everything upside down. A restart can often force the screen to recover and display the correct image, but it’s not how the problem will be fixed; Ford is working on a software solution. That patch should appear by the second quarter for the 2020–2022 Ford Escape, 2020–2024 Ford Explorer, 2020–2022 Lincoln Corsair, and 2020–2024 Lincoln Aviator.

The second recall affects vehicles from 2021 to 2026, totaling 849,310 units. The issue at hand is the Accessory Protocol Interface Module (APIM), part of the control system for the rearview camera (again). It can overheat and shut down, causing the rearward image that appears when you put your SUV into reverse to disappear. The SUVs hit are the 2021–2026 Bronco (with the lion’s share at 528,168) and the 2021–2024 Ford Edge (with 321,142 recalled). A software solution is being created, but there is no timeline on when this patch will be ready.

The final and smallest recall impacts 604,533 units of 2020–2022 Ford Explorers and Escapes as well as Lincoln Aviators and Corsairs. The front windshield wiper motor was assembled with a cover terminal that may have been inadvertently misaligned with the brush card terminal. That can result in poor connection and loss of wiper power due to the reduction of electrical continuity between the two components. There is no software fix for this recall, as the wiper motor must be replaced if it is misaligned.