Ford’s First Fire Risk Recall of 2026 Leaves Owners Waiting Months for a Fix

Ford almost went three weeks without seeing its name appear on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recall list for 2026, but today, it announced three at once, catapulting it to the top of the leaderboard as the most recalled automaker in the country to date, overtaking Rivian on the way. All three recalls raise the same concern of a fire risk and are attributed to an engine block heater that may short-circuit, with one recall for equipment (impacting 2,633 devices sold as accessory parts for certain 2013-2019 Ford and Lincoln vehicles equipped with 2.0-liter engines) and the other two affecting a total of 119,075 vehicles from 2013 to 2024.

Which Vehicles Are Named in Ford’s New Recalls and Why

The first recall concerns the Ford Focus and Ford Escape, along with the Lincoln MKC, while the second recall adds the Explorer to the list. Affected model years are listed below:

2013-2018 Ford Focus
2013-2019 Ford Escape
2015-2016 Lincoln MKC
2019 & 2024 Ford Explorer

According to the NHTSA, affected vehicles’ engine block heaters may develop a coolant leak through their element pins. This could result in a resistive short circuit while the engine block heater system is plugged in, and that increases the risk of an underhood fire. The problem has been traced to solder joints that may develop cracks around the element base. This lets the coolant seep into the block heater-to-cord interface, and when this coolant evaporates, electrically conductive salt deposits remain. As these accumulate over time, they can form a salt bridge or corrode electrical connections, and either outcome can create an electrical path to ground, ultimately leading to a resistive short circuit.

Numerous Signs of Failure, But Ford Owners Must Wait for a Fix

Fortunately, this potentially fiery problem exhibits warning signs, with the NHTSA saying that customers may notice coolant spots under the vehicles, a loss of cabin heat, an overheating engine, or a low coolant warning indicator. In extreme cases, a burning odor or even smoke may become apparent. The good news is that owners of affected vehicles haven’t been advised to park outside, just to refrain from plugging in their engine block heaters until a solution is provided. Ford first became aware of the issue more than a year ago, on January 16, 2025, but it is far from ready to provide a remedy.

Customer VINs are searchable on nhtsa.gov, but interim owner notifications are only planned to go out from February 9-13, and remedy notifications are only expected to begin on April 13. With Ford nearly doubling the previous record number of recalls in 2025, the new year is already off to a bad start, but it’s reassuring to see that the Blue Oval is constantly monitoring any issues its cars develop and works diligently to provide solutions as quickly as possible.