— Ford has recalled more than 53,000 model year 2021-2022 four-door Bronco SUVs because the passenger-side rear doors may be opened from the inside when the child safety locks are engaged.
This makes the rear passenger child safety lock useless for its intended purpose even though the lock says, "ON."
According to Ford, an investigation was opened in March following reports of 2021-2022 Bronco child safety locks that weren't working.
Engineers found instances where the Ford Bronco passenger-side rear doors could be opened with the child safety locks engaged.
Ford quarantined the Broncos and found 1.5% exhibiting the condition on rear right-hand latches and no reports on rear left-hand latches.
The rear door latch module supplier also inspected the components because the rear door latch module includes the child safety lock mechanism. The supplier inspection found the child safety locks worked as intended prior to installation in the sheet metal doors.
"Further...investigation identified that the right-hand rear door latch attachment hole locations on the door sheet metal were out of design specification due to a manufacturing tolerance expansion. The resulting variation in sheet metal attachment hole locations could cause deformation of the latch housing and frame plate when attached to the door, potentially affecting proper function of the child safety lock."
Ford engineers also found the left-hand rear door sheet metal attachment hole locations were out of design specification, but at a level that did not affect child safety lock performance on the left-hand rear doors.
Ford is not aware of any reports of crashes or injuries related to the Bronco child safety locks.
Ford Bronco recall letters are expected to be mailed July 25, 2022. Ford dealerships will inspect the rear passenger-side child safety locks and latches and replace them if needed.
Ford Bronco owners may contact Ford at 866-436-7332 and use recall number 22S44.
