Ford Ranger owners will want to pay attention to this important safety recall.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently published a report outlining Ford’s decision to recall every current generation (2024-2026) Ranger truck built before July 29, 2025. This latest recall campaign covers 100,900 trucks in the United States, as all affected vehicles were built with side curtain airbags that may split and lose pressure after deployment, mitigating their usefulness as a safety device and putting trucks out of compliance with federal safety standards.
Back in June, a 2025 Ford Ranger technically passed a third-party test of its “ejection mitigation” capability (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard [FMVSS] 226) on behalf of the NHTSA. However, the deployment test showed results for the right-hand side curtain airbag that were close to federal limits. Ford and the lab removed the suspect airbag and found a 12-millimeter slit near the top of the airbag cushion during a visual inspection. Over the next two months, Ford’s internal testing determined the right side curtain airbag could come into conact with a B-pillar inner reinforcement flange, which could tear the airbag and cause a pressure loss — and pose a safety risk to the passenger.
Ford says it is not aware of any warranty claims, field reports or customer service reports where this cropped up as a concern. Nevertheless, it is putting out the recall to address the issue before it does result in injury or death.
How is Ford going to fix it?
The automaker notified dealers about the problem between August 25 and 29. An interim notice outlining the problem should go out to owners next week, but won’t yet contain the actual fix. Once Ford sources the necessary parts, another notice will go out to owners around December 19, instructing them to take their truck to their Ford or Lincoln dealer to have a protective shield installed between the side curtain airbag and the inner sheet metal on both sides, not just the right side, free of charge.
Ford introduced the new protective shielding to prevent tears to the side airbags into production on July 29, 2025. So, if you buy a Ranger built after that date, you do not have to worry about this recall repair. If you own any 2024-2026 Ranger built before that date, on the other hand, you’ll want to keep an eye out for the notices, then take your truck in to have the repair done as soon as Ford sends out the actual remedy notice.
As dealers cannot sell new vehicles that fail to comply with federal safety standards, this recall also incorporates a stop-sale that will prevent you from buying a Ranger that’s currently on a sales lot, as long as that truck hasn’t had the repair work done. Again, that stop-sale should end around mid-December, but it will depend on how quickly dealers can get parts and get affected trucks back into FMVSS compliance. The automaker itself hasn’t issued a “Do Not Drive” warning, for the time being.
If you’re looking for more information on this recall, you can plug your VIN into the NHTSA website or Ford’s recall page, and look for recall numbers 25V-451 (NHTSA) or 25C41 (Ford).
As you’ve likely noticed throughout the year, Ford hasn’t had a great time when it comes to recalls. So far this year, it’s launched 109 recall campaigns, putting it well ahead of the industry average, and we still have three months left in 2025.
