Ford Recalls Previously Recalled Explorer SUVs Over Rear Axle Bolt Failures

Care to guess how the Dearborn-based automaker fixed this condition? Police-rated vehicles received brand-new bolts, rear subframe bushings, and rear axle covers. However, civilian Explorers were treated to a software update for the powertrain control module. How does that solve the problem?

According to Ford, the PCM software update is designed to engage the electronic parking brake when park is commanded. Obviously enough, it does not fix the aforestated condition. None other than FoMoCo told the federal watchdog that the joint design isn’t robust enough to handle peak torque under acceleration, which – in turn – means that someone did a terrible job designing this part.

But wait, there’s more! On May 10 this year, the Ford Motor Company issued NHTSA safety recall number 23V-199 for 674 examples of the Explorer due to incomplete updates. In other words, the vehicles in question could rollaway if the driveshaft disconnects due to rear axle mounting bolt failure.

You can’t make this up. The chief executive officer of Dearborn’s favorite son recently said that quality is priority number one at Ford, yet Ford still makes rookie mistakes. Worse still for the Blue Oval, the American automaker has a thing for fixing mistakes on the cheap. Hence the PCM update in question.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation observed how cheap the Ford Motor Company is on this occasion, which is why ODI decided to investigate Ford’s remedy for the civilian-spec Explorer. Not exactly a surprise, huh?

NHTSA recall query RQ 23-002 was opened on June 20 this year by the Office of Defects Investigation. The federal agency received no fewer than two complaints alleging a loss of motive power and loss of transmission torque to the rear wheels from owners of Explorer vehicles that had been remedied with the PCM software update.

Better late than never, the Office of Defects Investigation forced the Ford Motor Company to fix these vehicles properly. Enter NHTSA safety recall number 23V-675 for no fewer than 238,364 civilian- and police-spec vehicles. As expected, Ford dealers have been instructed to replace both the rear subframe bushing and the iffy rear axle bolt.

Dealer techs are further tasked with inspecting the rear axle cover for damage around the bolt hole’s location. If any is found, the cover will be replaced at no cost to the customer as well. The remedy bushing features an improved design from the original. More specifically, Ford’s engineering department modified this part to increase the fastener length to avoid any material deformation.

Owners can expect to be informed via first-class mail between November 6, 2023 and November 10, 2023. The vehicle population comprises the 3.3-liter gas and hybrid Police Interceptor Utility, 2.3-liter RWD, 3.0-liter PHEV (which isn’t sold in the United States), 3.3-liter hybrid, and Explorer ST.

Suspect vehicles were produced in the period between October 22, 2018 and July 6, 2022. Thus far, the Ford Motor Company is aware of 396 reports of rear axle bolt failures in the US market. For more information about the recall and the investigation that resulted in said recall, please refer to the attachement below.