Manufacturer Recalls for August 2019

Here are the global recalls that were announced during the month of August.

If you think you’ve been unlucky, listen about a chap who has bought his new 2019 Ram 1500 pickup truck. Ram’s new recall for the 2019 Ram 1500 truck affects just this one truck. Not a single model. Just one single truck. And it might have an instrument cluster that could stop working. The owner of this truck will be notified by Ram about his exclusive recall. Talk about privilege.

About 679,000 Volkswagen vehicles in the United States are being recalled for an electrical issue which can cause these vehicles to roll away from their parked position. The vehicles affected by these recalls include Jetta, Beetle, Beetle Convertible, Golf, Golf Sportwagen and GTI from 2011 to 2019. The vehicles with an automatic gearbox, Manual handbrake and no keyless entry are involved in this recall. As per Volkswagen, the owners of these cars may be able to remove their keys even without slotting the vehicle into park. If left in Neutral, the car could easily roll away. VW blames the buildup of silicate on the shift lever micro switch contacts for this issue. Dealers will install an additional switch along with a new circuit board and disable the existing microswitch.

In 2016, 603,392 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ vehicles were recalled for faulty seat belts. Now though, the same recall is happening again. This time, 108,399 2015 Ford Fusions and Lincoln MKZs are under the scanner. According to Ford, the heat produced during the deployment of the seat belt pretensioner could reduce the tensile strength of the cable. This may leave the seat belt unable to restrain an occupant in the case of a collision. Dealers will add an extra coating to the pretensioner cable for shielding it from the heat.

The 2020 Ford Explorer and 2020 Lincoln Aviator getting recalled due to two different issues. Ford says that out of 14,135 SUVs that are being recalled, some units may have instrument clusters stuck in their factory mode, which is a mode used when the vehicle is on the assembly line at the factory. The clusters stuck in the factory mode may not show most alerts, chimes and the gear selector indication. The rest of these SUVs might be lacking a parking brake cover. Without the cover, the manual park release could be accidentally actuated, letting the vehicle move on its own. The chances for this to happen are quite less though. And the issue has been caught before the models debut in the GCC.

Another recall affecting the 2020 Explorer and Lincoln Aviator also include other models. The 2018-2020 Ford F-150s, 2019-2020 Ford F-Series Super Duty trucks, 2018-2019 Ford Explorers, and 2019-2020 Ford Expeditions are all a part of this recall amounting to a total of 550,186 vehicles. Ford says that the seats of these vehicles might be missing a “third pawl required for seat-back strength.” This may fail to keep a person in place during a crash. If found faulty, the entire seat structure of the affected seats will be replaced by dealers, free of cost.

That’s all for August 2019. If your car is in the list, call up your dealer to see if your car is eligible.