It’s springtime here in the United States and that means rain showers and thunderstorms across the nation. If you’re driving a large Ford truck or SUV though you might want to double-check your windshield wipers because a new recall says that they might break off. More than 600,000 vehicles are affected.
Ford says that the wipers could fail without breaking off altogether as well. A manufacturing issue at the parts supplier has led to the issue which involves the bulk of the F-Series lineup along with the Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator.
According to the recall “Worn wiper arm spline tooling core inserts at the supplier resulted in insufficient spline tooth height, which can cause the arm attachment to strip when used with a certain wiper motors with higher torque.”
Related: VW Recalls 2018-2021 Tiguan Because The Rear Spoiler Might Fall Off
From what it sounds like, owners might be able to check for issues just by wiggling the wiper arm to see if it’s loose already. The Blue Oval says that symptoms include erratic or slow wipe speeds so be on the lookout for that. Regardless, Ford will replace both the driver and passenger wiper arms at no cost to the customer.
More than half of the 652,996 vehicles involved in the recall come from the F-Series of trucks. Included in it are 156,276 F-150s and a further 381,797 Superduty trucks from the F-250 to the F-550 range. The Superduty trucks are the only ones in the recall that are affected from 2020 to 2022. Every other vehicle included is limited to 2020 and 2021.
95,915 Ford Expeditions are also being recalled as well as 19,008 Lincoln Navigators. As in most major recalls, Ford will reimburse any owner who has already paid to fix this problem after suffering a related issue.
The concern was first reported in February of 2020 and it’s taken Ford this long to confirm exactly what the issue was and how to mend it. Thankfully, no reports of accidents or injuries associated with this defect have been made to Ford at this time.
If you want to know if your vehicle is affected you can contact your local Ford dealer but also keep an eye out for a letter starting on May 23rd, 2022. Until then, maybe be ready to pull over if you get caught in a bad rain storm.
