Ford has issued a recall for select 2021-2022 F-150 trucks. The windshield wiper motor may fail, causing the wipers to become inoperable, which may result in an accident. The recall affects 453,650 trucks.
The recall does not affect models built at the company’s Dearborn Truck Plant from May 3, 2021 to September 10, 2021. During this time, Ford built these trucks with a different wiper motor design due to a microchip shortage caused by the pandemic. Ford is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to this matter. However, the automaker said it was aware of 1,378 warranty reports globally related to windshield wipers not operating or working intermittently.
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Ford will be contacting affected truck owners, with the automaker sending owner notices by Jan. 3, 2023. Dealers will replace the windshield wiper motors free of charge.
A microchip shortage in 2021 is crippling large parts of the industry as automakers struggle to build vehicles. Ford had to halt some vehicle production, pause Mustangs, and build an F-150 pickup with missing features. And that’s on top of high truck demand from consumers flocking to the new pickup, which Ford is redesigning for the 2021 model year. General Motors is also struggling with production, halting construction of its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra plants.
Ford had to issue several recalls this year, including several for the F-150. In September, Blue Oval recalled certain F-150 Raptors due to loose lug nuts. In June, FoMoCo issued a safety compliance withdrawal for the electric F-150 Lightning. The truck tire pressure monitoring system on models with 20 or 22 inch wheels may not turn on.
Ford recalled the F-150, and several other vehicles, earlier this year because of a damaged wiper blade. However, the 600,000 cars affected by the new recall were not covered by the previous one, which also involved Expedition, Super Duty and Lincoln Navigator. It’s been a tough year for the Dearborn-based automaker, which has had to recall thousands of popular models such as the Mustang Mach-E, Bronco and Maverick.
