Savings Over Safety? Ford Under Fire For Recall Fix That Doesn’t Solve The Problem

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Ford’s reputation has been going up in smoke over a seemingly endless stream of recalls. The situation isn’t getting any better as the government is now taking issue with a recall that involved two popular crossovers.

In an e-mail sent last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation informed Ford that it had “identified significant safety concerns” regarding a recall remedy involving the 2022 Escape and 2022-2023 Bronco Sport. Both models were equipped with defective fuel injectors that can crack and cause fuel or fuel vapors to accumulate near ignition sources. This is a disaster waiting to happen as the vehicle could potentially catch on fire and cause injury or death.

More: Ford Thought It Fixed Bronco Sport And Escape Fuel Leak, But 5 Fires Show Problem Persists

Digging deeper, the recall noted a “cracked fuel injector in the engine allows for fuel to leak at a high rate (19L/ hour) into the cylinder head, which can travel out via a drain hole and down onto hot surfaces on the exhaust/turbo system.”

While the obvious solution would be to replace the faulty fuel injectors, that wasn’t Ford’s answer. Instead, the company wanted to mitigate the fire risk while leaving the bad injectors in place.

In particular, the remedy called for updated engine control software that would detect a drop in fuel rail pressure which signifies a leak. A message would then show on the instrument cluster, while the vehicle would also “invoke a strategy to disable the high-pressure fuel pump, derate engine power output and reduce temperatures of possible ignition sources in the engine compartment.” On top of that, a drain tube would also be installed to direct fuel away from hot surfaces and onto the ground.

The government wasn’t impressed and noted the “remedy program does not address the root cause of the issue and does not proactively call for the replacement of defective fuel injectors prior to their failure.” In effect, Ford comes off as wanting to save a few bucks instead of wanting to fix the issue. That’s not a good look, especially considering the models have been involved in more than four dozen fires.

It remains to be seen if Ford will buckle under pressure, but the government has decided to “investigate the adequacy and various safety concerns of the remedy program.” As a result, they’re asking for a slew of information as well as a “summary of Ford’s assessment of the root cause and consequences of the alleged defect” and a “summary of Ford’s assessment of the remedy program’s effectiveness.” Speaking of the latter, the NHTSA wants a “summary of any test programs conducted that validated the remedy was sufficient in resolving the alleged defect” and “any associated cost-benefit analyses that were conducted when selecting the remedy program.”

The latter is pretty telling as it implies the government believes Ford might have put costs savings ahead of safety. That remains to be seen, but they’re essentially looking to see if the automaker decided a drain tube and a software update were cheaper than replacing the injectors, and that’s why they went that route.