Recall · 26V011000
Ford Motor recalled 3 models over equipment
116,672
Vehicles covered
3
Models
15
Model years
January 15, 2026
Filed with NHTSA
EQUIPMENT:ELECTRICAL:ENGINE BLOCK HEATER
- The defect
- Ford Motor Company (Ford) is recalling certain 2013-2018 Focus, 2013-2019 Escape, and 2015-2016 MKC vehicles equipped with a 2.0L engine. The engine block heater may crack and develop a coolant leak, causing it to short circuit when the block heater is plugged in.
- What it can cause
- An electrical short circuit can increase the risk of a fire.
- What the dealer does
- Owners are advised not to plug in their block heater until the vehicle is remedied. Dealers will replace the block heater, free of charge. Owners will also have a alternative option to replace engine block heater element with a threaded plug, and remove the block heater electrical cord. Interim letters, notifying owners of the safety risk, were mailed March 6, 2026. Additional letters will be sent once the final remedy is available. Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford's number for this recall is 26S01. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall became searchable on NHTSA.gov on January 16, 2026.
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 116,672 vehicles this is a bigger campaign than 93% of the 19,818 vehicle recalls filed since 1995 whose size NHTSA published. The middle campaign on file covers 472. It covers model years 2013 to 2019, so the oldest vehicles on it were 13 model years old when the defect was reported to NHTSA.
Ford vehicles have been recalled over the equipment 58 times before this, most recently in October 2025 as 25V685000. That is not evidence the earlier repair failed.
This site holds the complaint record for all 15 model years the campaign names. Their owners have filed 20,848 complaints with NHTSA, 19,585 of them before this campaign was filed. 30 of those name the equipment, the system this recall is about — a count of complaints, not of this defect. The earliest of them reached NHTSA in July 2012, 13 years before this filing.
The vehicles on this campaign carry 14 other recalls published here, the newest being: 26V376000 (power train), 26V374000 (visibility), 26V369000 (fuel system, gasoline), 26V012000 (equipment).
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 January 15, 2026 as campaign 26V011000. 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 2026-01-15.
Independent developer and analyst