I don’t know about you, but every now and then I’m struck by how insane it is that we’re all driving around with huge containers of highly flammable liquid strapped to the undersides of our car. Most of the time we don’t give it a second thought, but when that fuel starts leaking out we’re reminded that it’s really dangerous stuff.
That’s why Ford is recalling some 2024MY Maverick trucks. Though the automaker says it has received no reports of gas leaking from customer vehicles, a leak was detected on one 2024 Maverick at Ford’s Hermosillo Assembly Plant in Mexico and that was enough to trigger a full investigation.
The problem was traced to an open pinch joint caused by a manufacturer defect. A power outage at the facility where the tanks are made resulted in a misalignment of the tank mold and the extruded sheets used to make the tanks. Ford first noticed the issue on February 6, then issued an order to prevent trucks potentially fitted with the faulty tanks from being sent to dealers. And now it’s recalling those which may have received the duff tanks before the issue was spotted.
Related: Nearly 63,000 Ford Mavericks Face Instrument Cluster Blackouts
It’s not a big recall, and certainly not the kind of thing that’s going to cause a scheduling headache for your local Ford service department. Only Mavericks built between January 19 and January 26 of this year are affected, the total coming to 217 trucks. That compares with 190,000 Mavericks affected by a body control module failure in a December 2023 recall and 63,000 covered by a February recall to fix instrument cluster blackouts.
Owners will be contacted from March 18 and invited to make an appointment at their dealer to have the tank replaced. While they’re waiting for that repair, they’re being advised to shut off their engines as quickly as possible if they get a check engine light on the dash, smell gasoline, or notice it pooling on the ground.