Ford Motor Company is recalling 2020-2023 Escape and 2021-2023 Bronco Sport vehicles equipped with 1.5-liter engines because a fuel injector may crack and leak fuel inside the engine compartment starting a fire. More than 521,000 vehicles are affected.
Ford in the required filing made public today by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the safety defect concerned prior under-hood fire reports from oil separator inspections associated with NHTSA Recall 22V-19. Ford reviewed two under-hood fire reports from a 2022 model-year Escape and 2022 model-year Bronco Sport vehicle with the 1.5-liter ‘Dragon’ engine.
“Ford assessed the report findings as inconclusive; however, the vehicle inspections raised concern there may be a contributing cause for under-hood fire in addition to the oil separator recall,” the filing said.
“Ford is aware of no fatalities, four alleged injuries from two separate incidents, and (43) legal claims from a fire potentially attributable to this condition,” it told NHTSA.
Ford dealers will update the engine control software to include fuel injector leak detection and install a drain tube. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed 19 December 2022.
Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford’s number for this recall is 22S73. This recall includes all vehicles previously recalled under 22V191. Vehicles previously remedied under 22V-191 will need to have the new fire prevention fix performed. Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.nhtsa.gov.
Chronology
August-October 2022
On August 18, 2022 an issue pertaining to under-hood fire on 2020-2022 MY Escape and Bronco Sport vehicles was brought to Ford’s Critical Concern Review Group for review. That issue concerned prior under hood fire reports from oil separator inspections related to recall FSA 22S21 (NHTSA Recall No. 22V191). Specifically, Ford reviewed two under hood fire reports from a 2022MY Escape and 2022MY Bronco Sport vehicle with the 1.5-liter engine. Ford assessed the report findings as inconclusive; however, the vehicle inspections raised concern there may be a contributing cause for under hood fire in addition to the oil separator recall.
As of August 18, 2022, there were (36) total reports of under-hood fire for 2020-2022 MY 1.5-liter Bronco Sport and Escape, approximately ten of which had occurred after the oil separator production change and since FSA 22S21 (NHTSA Recall No. 22V-191) inspection was performed and passed.
Ford CCRG and Engineering groups investigated the under-hood fire reports and inspected available vehicles. Based upon Ford Engineering’s observations of a fuel smell upon inspection of a 2020MY Escape with limited fire damage, the fuel injectors were removed for additional analysis. The fuel injectors from three (3) other repurchased vehicles that experienced under-hood fire were also removed for analysis. The fuel injector supplier provided an analysis for four (4) of the vehicles’ returned fuel injectors, finding one (1) injector cracked from each of the vehicles.
November 2022
As of November 1, 2022, there were 54 reports alleging under-hood fires on 2020-2022 MY Bronco Sport and Escape vehicles, equipped with the 1.5-liter dragon (sic, yes dragon as in fire breathing mythological creature) engine, in North America inclusive of incidents previously reported under FSA 22S21 (NHTSA Recall No. 22V-191), which were re-evaluated.
A complete accounting of all 54 1.5-liter under-hood fire reports known to Ford includes:
- Four of them have had one confirmed cracked fuel injector determined from the fuel injector supplier tear-down analysis.
- Ford Engineering assessed the fifty (50) remaining reports, determining: approximately thirteen (13) others were likely caused by a leaking fuel injector (based upon customer reports and available vehicle information), three (3) involved previous fuel system related repairs which may have been mis-diagnosed and potentially involved a leaking fuel injector, one (1) was attributed to incomplete repair from a previous crash event, one (1) was attributed to arson, three (3) were related to potential electrical system concerns, five (5) were attributed to oil separator leaks, and twenty-four (24) are of an undetermined origin.
On November 2, 2022 and November 9, 2022 the investigation findings were reviewed, which included:
- Warranty data last accessed on October 19, 2022 included (143) reports of fuel injectors with external leak failures reported for 2020-2022 Escape and Bronco Sport vehicles with the 1.5L engine in the U.S. and Canada.
- Based upon these warranty claims, Ford is projecting a low failure rate for fuel injectors experiencing external leak(s) at 15 years/150,000 miles (approximately 0.38% for 2020MY vehicles and 0.22% for 2021-2022MY vehicles).
Ford is aware of (8) VOQs and (1) Transport Canada complaint describing under-hood fire in 2020-2022 Escape and Bronco Sport vehicles with the 1.5L engine. Of the (8) VOQs and (1) Transport Canada complaint, it is Ford’s estimation that (5) are potentially attributable to the defect condition. The earliest known report of under-hood fire on 2020-2023 Escape or Bronco Sport with the 1.5-liter engine occurred on September 9, 2020. The cause for this occurrence is unknown.
Ford is aware of no fatalities, four alleged injuries from two separate incidents, and (43) legal claims from a fire potentially attributable to this condition. The claims of injury were reported to Ford on July 5, 2021 and November 26, 2021.
On November 10, 2022, Ford’s Field Review Committee (FRC) reviewed the concern and approved a field action. The population recalled through this action includes all vehicles originally included in FSA 22S21 (NHTSA Recall No. 22V-191) and expands the population to include vehicles produced up through October 17, 2022.
Ford Expands Escape, Bronco Sport Engine-Fire Recalls
Ford Motor Company is recalling 2020-2023 Escape and 2021-2023 Bronco Sport vehicles equipped with 1.5-liter engines because a fuel injector may crack and leak fuel inside the engine compartment starting a fire. More than 521,000 vehicles are affected.
Ford in the required filing made public today by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the safety defect concerned prior under-hood fire reports from oil separator inspections associated with NHTSA Recall 22V-19. Ford reviewed two under-hood fire reports from a 2022 model-year Escape and 2022 model-year Bronco Sport vehicle with the 1.5-liter ‘Dragon’ engine.
“Ford assessed the report findings as inconclusive; however, the vehicle inspections raised concern there may be a contributing cause for under-hood fire in addition to the oil separator recall,” the filing said.
“Ford is aware of no fatalities, four alleged injuries from two separate incidents, and (43) legal claims from a fire potentially attributable to this condition,” it told NHTSA.
Ford dealers will update the engine control software to include fuel injector leak detection and install a drain tube. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed 19 December 2022.
Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford’s number for this recall is 22S73. This recall includes all vehicles previously recalled under 22V191. Vehicles previously remedied under 22V-191 will need to have the new fire prevention fix performed. Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.nhtsa.gov.
Chronology
August-October 2022
On August 18, 2022 an issue pertaining to under-hood fire on 2020-2022 MY Escape and Bronco Sport vehicles was brought to Ford’s Critical Concern Review Group for review. That issue concerned prior under hood fire reports from oil separator inspections related to recall FSA 22S21 (NHTSA Recall No. 22V191). Specifically, Ford reviewed two under hood fire reports from a 2022MY Escape and 2022MY Bronco Sport vehicle with the 1.5-liter engine. Ford assessed the report findings as inconclusive; however, the vehicle inspections raised concern there may be a contributing cause for under hood fire in addition to the oil separator recall.
As of August 18, 2022, there were (36) total reports of under-hood fire for 2020-2022 MY 1.5-liter Bronco Sport and Escape, approximately ten of which had occurred after the oil separator production change and since FSA 22S21 (NHTSA Recall No. 22V-191) inspection was performed and passed.
Ford CCRG and Engineering groups investigated the under-hood fire reports and inspected available vehicles. Based upon Ford Engineering’s observations of a fuel smell upon inspection of a 2020MY Escape with limited fire damage, the fuel injectors were removed for additional analysis. The fuel injectors from three (3) other repurchased vehicles that experienced under-hood fire were also removed for analysis. The fuel injector supplier provided an analysis for four (4) of the vehicles’ returned fuel injectors, finding one (1) injector cracked from each of the vehicles.
November 2022
As of November 1, 2022, there were 54 reports alleging under-hood fires on 2020-2022 MY Bronco Sport and Escape vehicles, equipped with the 1.5-liter dragon (sic, yes dragon as in fire breathing mythological creature) engine, in North America inclusive of incidents previously reported under FSA 22S21 (NHTSA Recall No. 22V-191), which were re-evaluated.
A complete accounting of all 54 1.5-liter under-hood fire reports known to Ford includes:
On November 2, 2022 and November 9, 2022 the investigation findings were reviewed, which included:
Ford is aware of (8) VOQs and (1) Transport Canada complaint describing under-hood fire in 2020-2022 Escape and Bronco Sport vehicles with the 1.5L engine. Of the (8) VOQs and (1) Transport Canada complaint, it is Ford’s estimation that (5) are potentially attributable to the defect condition. The earliest known report of under-hood fire on 2020-2023 Escape or Bronco Sport with the 1.5-liter engine occurred on September 9, 2020. The cause for this occurrence is unknown.
Ford is aware of no fatalities, four alleged injuries from two separate incidents, and (43) legal claims from a fire potentially attributable to this condition. The claims of injury were reported to Ford on July 5, 2021 and November 26, 2021.
On November 10, 2022, Ford’s Field Review Committee (FRC) reviewed the concern and approved a field action. The population recalled through this action includes all vehicles originally included in FSA 22S21 (NHTSA Recall No. 22V-191) and expands the population to include vehicles produced up through October 17, 2022.