Parents who own a 2021-2022 Ford Bronco may want to watch out because the child lock on the right rear door might not work as expected. The company has issued a recall and 53,103 vehicles could potentially be affected.
The defect was first noticed in the factory in March when reports came in from the assembly line that certain rear doors could be opened even when the child safety lock was set to on. Even more curiously, it only seemed to affect right-hand doors.
That led Ford‘s Critical Concern Review Group (CCRG) to open an investigation into the system, which turned out to be a little more difficult than you might expect. Its first step was to quarantine all vehicles and inspect them for the condition.
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It found that 1.5 percent of Broncos exhibited the condition at the plant (it now believes that as many as two percent may have the problem) and all of them on the right-hand rear door. The CCRG turned to the supplier of its door latches but that turned out to be a dead-end as the latches were found to be operating correctly before being put in the door.
Ford kept on looking and in May found that the door latch attachment hole locations on the right-side door sheet metal were out of design spec due to a manufacturing tolerance expansion. That could, it was found, cause the latch housing and frame plate to deform when they were attached to the door, in turn affecting the child safety lock‘s functioning.
As to why it only affected right-hand doors, that seems to have come down to luck. Although the Bronco‘s left-hand doors were also found to be out of spec, they weren’t far enough out to affect the operation of the child lock.
Fortunately, Ford caught this issue before any reports from the field came in about this potentially serious safety concern. If a child can open the door when the vehicle is in motion, there is a significantly increased risk of injury.
Ford plans to get in touch with owners about this issue starting on July 25 when they will be asked to return their vehicles to a nearby dealer and the rear door latch will be replaced where necessary. In the meantime, they will be provided with instructions on how to check that their child safety lock works.
