Recall Date: 3/31/2026
NHTSA ID: 26V204
MFr. Campaign Number: 26S24
Manufacturer: Ford Motor Company
Affected Components: Windshield Wiper Arm Assembly
Potential Number of Units Affected: ~422,613
This recall covers three Ford and Lincoln truck and SUV nameplates produced between October 2021 and December 2022. Wiper arms on affected vehicles were manufactured by Tier 1 supplier Trico Componentes SA de CV and share the same suspect assembly design.
The defect affects approximately 3% of the 422,613 vehicles in the population, an estimated 12,678 units carrying a confirmed wiper arm defect. The Super Duty population is by far the largest component of this recall, accounting for roughly 77% of the total affected units.
The root issue is a manufacturing defect at the supplier level. The windshield wiper arm’s latch retention plate may have been incorrectly staked during production. That plate is responsible for keeping the arm head properly seated on the wiper arm. Compounding the problem, the engagement between the knurl and the wiper arm head may be reduced due to dimensional variability in the parts. Together, these two conditions create an insufficient connection between the wiper arm head and the knurl, leading to stripping of the engagement surfaces over time.
Ford’s supplier improved its production processes in December 2022, which is why the recall population ends there. Vehicles manufactured after that date are not included.
A wiper arm with a degraded latch retention plate and insufficient knurl engagement may operate erratically, become inoperable, or detach from the vehicle entirely. If the arm detaches while driving, particularly in rain or low-visibility conditions, driver vision can be severely impaired, increasing the risk of a crash.
The warning sign to watch for is erratic wipe speed on either the driver or passenger wiper arm. If an affected vehicle’s wipers begin behaving inconsistently, that’s an indication the arm may be compromised.
The remedy is inspection and replacement. Ford is developing an inspection process to determine which vehicles carry defective wiper arms. Arms that fail inspection will be replaced with corrected units, produced with proper staking of the latch retention plate and wiper arm splines within specification. As of the recall submission date, the full remedy process was still under development.
Dealers were notified on April 1, 2026. Interim owner notification letters are scheduled to be mailed between April 13 and April 17, 2026. VINs became searchable on the NHTSA recall database beginning April 1, 2026. Owners can check whether their vehicle is affected by visiting nhtsa.gov/recalls or calling Ford’s toll-free line at 1-866-436-7332. The repair will be covered at no cost to the owner.
This recall has roots in a prior Ford action. In 2022, Ford issued safety recall 22S26 (NHTSA 22V250) for stripped wiper arm splines on Expedition and Navigator vehicles. That recall addressed a specific production window. When Ford conducted its three-year recall lookback, required under the Consent Order entered into with NHTSA in 2024, engineers found elevated warranty claim rates for Expedition and Navigator vehicles produced just after the 22S26 cut-off date, through December 2022. The reports described stripped wiper arm splines and wiper arms detaching from the vehicle.
Ford opened a formal review on January 15, 2026, and spent the following two months conducting a read-across assessment — evaluating field performance data across all vehicles sharing the same knurl driver design and supplier, inspecting returned parts, running engineering stress analysis, and reproducing the failure in controlled testing. That read-across expanded the investigation from Expedition and Navigator to include Super Duty trucks manufactured in the same production window.
By March 2026, Ford had confirmed the root cause and verified findings through statistical life warranty projections. Ford’s Field Review Committee approved a field service action on March 24, 2026, and the recall was formally submitted to NHTSA on March 31, 2026. Ford is aware of 1,538 warranty reports and 11 field reports associated with this issue, representing 1,533 unique VINs globally. No accidents, injuries, or fires have been reported in connection with this recall.
For a full view of Ford’s recall activity and other major OEM recalls this quarter, see BizzyCar’s most recent quarterly recall report.
Read the latest BizzyCar Quarterly Recall Report →
With 422,613 vehicles in the population and an inspection-first remedy still being finalized, this recall is going to take time to work through. Owners won’t receive final remedy notification until Ford completes development of the inspection process, meaning the recall timeline is open-ended. For dealers, that creates a prolonged window of inbound calls, owner uncertainty, and service scheduling complexity across three of Ford’s highest-volume nameplates.
BizzyCar’s Recall Outreach product helps dealers get ahead of that volume. By identifying which vehicles in a dealer’s customer database are affected and reaching those owners through automated two-way SMS, dealers can start scheduling inspections before the waiting room fills up on its own. For Ford and Lincoln dealers with deep Expedition and Super Duty customer bases, proactive recall outreach is how open units become booked appointments, and how service teams manage the workload without getting buried. Book a Demo to learn more.