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Ford Is Yet To Identify the Root Cause of an Issue That's Affecting Half a Million SUVs

Earlier today, Ford announced that it’s recalling the 2020 to 2023 model year Bronco Sport and Escape to address a potentially cracked fuel injector. The issue affects 518,993 vehicles in the United States, vehicles equipped with the 1.5L three-cylinder turbocharged powerplant.
Ford Bronco Sport 50 photos
Photo: Ford
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The Ford Motor Company will address the potentially broken fuel injector by updating the engine control software to notice whether the injector is cracked. If a pressure drop is detected in the fuel rail, engine power will be automatically reduced. The automaker’s dealership network has been instructed to check for excessive fuel odor near the top of the engine and to install a tube that drains fuel from the head away from any hot surface.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provides a few more details in regard to this recall. The recall report published on the federal watchdog’s website reads that “the root cause is still under investigation.” In other words, the aforementioned software and tube will have to suffice for the time being. There currently is no component part number for the updated software. The drain tube, however, is listed as NX6E-8A507-AA.

Ford’s press release didn’t mention any planned owner notification date, whereas the recall report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration lists it as the period between December 19th and December 23rd. Dealers were instructed two days ago, on November 22nd.

The report provides a detailed breakdown of the population of affected vehicles. The Escape is recalled to the tune of 333,342 examples of the breed. The Bronco Sport, on the other hand, numbers 188,436 units. Indeed, the recall report's total is higher than the total provided by the Ford Motor Company in the press release: 521,778 units compared to 518,993.

Ford says, “the affected design was introduced into production on 11/19/2018 (earliest production date for 2020MY Escape” even though the first photos of the 2020 Escape were published on April 2nd, 2019. The affected design was taken out of production on October 17th, 2022.

Last but certainly not least, Ford still hasn’t explained to the federal watchdog how and when the recall condition was corrected in series production.
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 Download: Ford Bronco Sport and Escape recall (PDF)

About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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