The owners of 18 2023 Ford Edges and one 2023 Lincoln Nautilus might not want to put their small children in the back seat until a safety recall has been completed. That’s because the vehicles were mistakenly equipped with seat frames that were actually rejected stock.
The problem pertains to 19 vehicles built at Ford’s Oakville Assembly plant in Canada. It received bad seatback frames for the second row, on the wider side of the fold-down split. These were sent in error by a tier 2 supplier called Cam-slide.
Ford first became aware of the issue on February 28, when its tier 1 supplier, Magna, notified it that there might be an issue. On March 2, the automaker issued a stop ship, and by March 7, its Critical Concern Review Group was looking into the problem.
Read: Car Crashes Number 1 Cause Of Death Among Children Aged 1-13
It found that the child seat tether on the parts in question have welds that could degrade, and the anchorage load capacity might be compromised. Ford found that the root cause of the issue were welds that didn’t get hot enough because the electrode tips at the weld station were not replaced in time.
That means that if an accident occurs, they may not be able to keep a child in the seat in place. Ultimately, that increases the risk of an injury in the event of an accident.
As of March 14, Ford was not aware of any injuries, incidents, or even warranty claims related to this issue. Starting on May 8, it will start getting in touch with the owners of the 19 vehicles with the faulty components as part of this recall campaign.
They will be asked to return their vehicles to their nearest service centers, where the wider section of the split folding second-row seatback will be replaced. The service will be performed at no cost to the owners.
