Ford Recalls Half-Million Bronco Sport, Escape SUVs For Fire Risk

Ford has submitted a new voluntary recall, involving over half a million SUVs manufactured as far back as 2018. The recall points to a defective component under the hood that could lead to a fire.

The recall involves 333,342 Ford Escape units and 188,436 Bronco Sport units for a total of 521,778 potentially involved vehicles. The culprit of this recall is said to be the fuel injector, which may crack and could then result in fuel or fuel vapor leaking. When situated near ignition sources, this could lead to a potential fire under the hood. 

According to the analysis listed on NHTSA recall 22V-859, the “cracked fuel injector in the engine allows for fuel to leak at a high rate (19L per hour) into the cylinder head, which can travel out via a drain hole and down onto hot surfaces on the exhaust/turbo system where it may combust.”

This defective design was introduced into production on November 19, 2018 (the earliest production date for the 2020 Escape) and was taken out of production on October 17, 2022 (the latest production date for the 2023 Escape and Bronco Sport).

The Ford Escape and Bronco Sport units that fall under these production dates are part of the said voluntary recall.

According to the document, the remedy for this will be an updated engine control software that detects a pressure drop in the fuel rail and inform the driver through the instrument cluster. There will also be a drain tube installed to route fuel from the cylinder head drain hole – away from surfaces that may initiate combustion, to the ground below the vehicle.

This isn’t the first recall for the said Escape and Bronco Sport units. In April of this year, the same batch of SUVs was recalled for a fire risk but involving a different component: the engine oil separator housing, which could crack and develop an oil leak.