Ford Just Logged Its 103rd Recall For The Year... And Counting

That's certainly a lot for one day, but something more notable happened as a result. Ford crossed the threshold of 100 recalls and landed 103 for the year. That figure goes well beyond any other automaker in the history of automobiles.

We've already covered one of those recalls, which affected 103,000 F-150 trucks that will need a new rear axle bolt. The others covered a range of issues, though most of them were, fortunately, much smaller in vehicles affected. They're potentially less catastrophic, too.

One of them covered just a single vehicle. A lonely 2024 Ford Mustang which should have been fixed under a recall issued last year was not correctly repaired. So that owner will need to go back in for an update.

Audited Recalls Are Part Of The Problem
Audited re-recalls (like the Mustang we just mentioned) have made up a significant number of Ford's recent recalls. The automaker blamed a computer diagnotic tool that wouldn't always tell the service tech if a recall had been successfully completed. "Because these recalls are audits to make sure that dealers had updated the right software on vehicles, even as far back as 2017, it’s really about a software audit to make sure the vehicles have the right software," explained Ford spokesperson Mike Levine to CarBuzz earlier this month. "And if they don’t have the right software we’ll update it."

In most of those cases, the customer won't need an actual repair, just a scan. Ford has been focusing on that issue, as well as other haunting quality issues, since at least when CEO Jim Farley first admitted Ford's quality issues in 2022. The company continues to insist there are big changes happening, with more rigor around new product launches to help dial in better quality.

But They're Far From The Crux Of Ford's Issues
But look at the other recalls from 10 days ago. One was for 21,765 Mustang Mach E, Mustang, and Lincoln Nautilus vehicles. Their LED light drivers could have been shipped with a "burnt diode" that could lead to all the front lights failing on one or both sides. On the Lincoln, the rears could have been faulty as well. All are 2025 models, meaning that even quality issues are still cropping up and slipping through the cracks.

The others are smaller, but not insignificant. Just over 100 Lincoln Nautilus SUVs from 2024-2025 could have faulty window pinch sensor systems, and 3,639 F-150 vehicles with a faulty LED controller that wasn't properly fixed in 2022, and again in 2023.

Ford continues to say it is working on issues, but in an industry where a new product cycle can last 10 years, it's tough for any impact of that work to show up immediately in the statistics. In the meantime, Ford is now 10 recalls closer to catching up with GM on the all-time list, and that overtake might happen in a matter of months. As of August 18, Ford was just 65 recalls behind. The gap was 152 recalls at the start of the year, nearly nine months ago.