Recall · 21V746000
Ford Motor recalled the FORD Explorer over suspension
150,723
Vehicles covered
1
Model
3
Model years
September 22, 2021
Filed with NHTSA
SUSPENSION:REAR
- The defect
- Ford Motor Company (Ford) is recalling certain 2011-2013 Explorer vehicles originally sold, or currently registered in Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. These vehicles may be equipped with a cross-axis ball joint (CABJ) replacement part that could seize, and result in a fracture of the outboard section of the rear suspension toe link.
- What it can cause
- A rear toe link fracture can result in a loss of steering control, increasing the risk of a crash.
- What the dealer does
- Dealer will inspect for the presence of a CABJ. If a CABJ of any design is found, the dealer will inspect the tightness of the CABJ, and replace the CABJ, knuckle, and/or toe link as necessary, free of charge. Interim notification letters were mailed November 10, 2021. Owner notification letters were mailed on March 17, 2022. Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford's number for this recall is 21S43.
- NHTSA's note
- 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.
The repair is free, whatever the age or mileage of the vehicle, and whether or not you are the original owner.
Which vehicles
A recall reaches a range of VINs inside these model years, not every car built in them. Yours may not be covered even if it is listed here, and the only way to find out is NHTSA's own VIN lookup .
How this campaign compares
At 150,723 vehicles this is a bigger campaign than 94% of the 19,818 vehicle recalls filed since 1995 whose size NHTSA published. The middle campaign on file covers 472. It covers model years 2011 to 2013, so the oldest vehicles on it were 10 model years old when the defect was reported to NHTSA.
Ford vehicles have been recalled over the suspension 35 times before this, most recently in July 2021 as 21V537000. That is not evidence the earlier repair failed.
This site holds the complaint record for all 3 model years the campaign names. Their owners have filed 4,250 complaints with NHTSA, 2,669 of them before this campaign was filed. 125 of those name the suspension, the system this recall is about — a count of complaints, not of this defect. The earliest of them reached NHTSA in February 2011, 10 years before this filing.
The vehicles on this campaign carry 3 other recalls published here: 24V031000 (structure), 21V537000 (suspension), 20V675000 (suspension).
Check your own car
A VIN check is the only answer for a specific vehicle, and it also shows every other open recall on it, which is usually the reason it is worth doing rather than reading one campaign.
Filed by Ford Motor Company with NHTSA on September 22, 2021 as campaign 21V746000. Every word of the defect, consequence and remedy above is NHTSA's published record of that filing, not a summary of it.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2021-09-22.
Independent developer and analyst