Ford launched a new recall campaign covering a wider band of F-150 trucks for a possible wiper motor issue.
Back on March 4, the automaker first recalled 157,036 F-150 trucks “to address a pattern of inoperative wiper motors that could result in a reduction or loss of visibility in certain conditions.” A supplier-related issue could cause the front wiper motor to fail after a few months’ use, and Ford started that campaign to cover F-150s built at the Dearborn Truck Plant between January 8, 2020 and March 22, 2021 and the Kansas City Assembly Plant between February 12, 2020 and March 22,2020.
The primary factors causing the issue include “wiper motor integrated circuit board damage due to high transient voltage spikes and poor-quality wiper motor electrical terminals”.
Now, Ford is expanding that earlier action to include 453,650 more trucks in the 2021 and 2022 model years. The new recall population affects F-150s built between March 23, 2021 and August 8, 2022. There is a caveat, though, as the campaign does not include trucks built at the Dearborn plant between May 3, 2021 and September 10, 2021. According to a report Ford filed with the NHTSA, it assembled those trucks with a different wiper motor design due to the microchip shortages at that time.
Ford also notes that the affected vehicles are not produced in VIN order, so you will need to check and see whether your F-150 is part of the recall population. You can do that by calling Ford’s customer service line at 1-866-436-7332, or checking with your local dealer. The automaker’s recall numbers for this issue are 22S12 (for the March recall) and 22S71 (for November’s recall). The NHTSA’s number for this campaign, should you want to check their site, is 22V-842.
The automaker says it is not aware of any injuries or accidents related to the issue.
While the total recall population now includes more than 600,000 trucks, it believes only 1% of that population are actually impacted by the problem.
What is Ford doing to fix the issue?
Ford dealers will replace the front windshield wiper motor free of charge, under warranty. Specifically, technicians will install a new wiper motor with a manufacturing date of August 1, 2022 or later, when the supplier put permanent corrective actions in place to address the problem. Ford started using the new, certified good stock in serial production on August 8, so you should not have this problem if you bought a truck built after that date.
The automaker says it will notify dealers on the problem by January 3, 2023, and will mail out notifications to owners by January 6.
