Ford Recalls 1 Million Super Dutys, SUVs To Fix Headrest Issue

In the second major recall of the last couple of days, Ford is recalling about 1 million Super Duty heavy-duty pickups and three-row SUVS -- the Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator -- because the documentation for the headrests is incomplete.

You would think that as automakers have trimmed – often radically – the number of vehicles that they offer, they would be able to ensure that significant – and embarrassing – mistakes don’t happen. Here’s a case: Ford recently announced a major recall of many pickups and two SUVs. Indeed, Ford has recalled 979,797 Super Duty models for a rather embarrassing problem.

Problems Involves Vehicle Headrests

The problem involves the documentation of a vehicle’s headrests. According to the paperwork filed by the automaker with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the three-place front bench seats used in various Super Duty and pickups three-row SUVs (Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator). The Super Duty models include:

• The F-250
• The F-350
• The F-450
• The F-550
• The F-600

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In their paperwork, Ford identified the problem for which the nearly 1 million vehicles were recalled as incomplete documentation. The three-person front bench seat needs to be updated to include the documentation that tells you how to adjust the middle headrest. There’s the documentation for the right, and there is the documentation for the left, but the documentation or the center is missing.

Though one would think that by looking at the documentation for the right and left headrests, you might have a good idea of how to adjust the center headrest, NHTSA requires documentation for all three headrests. Not having the center headrest documentation sets the automaker in violation of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 202, Head Rests.

Ford has recalled some 2018 to 2023 Expeditions and Navigators plus some 2019 to 2023 Super Duty pickups. Without the key pages of documentation in the owner’s manual, the automaker notes that the middle headrest may be incorrectly installed, which, the automaker notes, can increase the risk of a crash.

Ford Notification Plans

Ford will notify the owners of the affected pickups and SUVs on July 10, 2023. At that time, the automaker will begin sending addendum pages for the documentation that covers the missing information.

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For more information on this recall, owners can contact Ford customer service at 866-436-7332. The Ford internal identification number is 23C20. Or, you can contact the safety agency through its phone or website. The phone number is 888-327-4236. The website is www.nhtsa.gov. The NHTSA identification number is 23V420.

Ford Motor Photo

Marc Stern has been an automotive writer since 1971 when an otherwise normal news editor said, “You're our new car editor," and dumped about 27 pounds of auto stuff on my desk. I was in heaven as I have been a gearhead from my early days. As a teen, I spent many misspent hours hanging out at gas stations (a big thing in my youth) and working on cars. From there on, it was a straight line to my first column for the paper "You Auto Know," an enterprise I handled faithfully for 32 years. Only a few people know that I also handled computer documentation for most of my earnings while writing YAN. My best writing, though, was always in cars. My work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated, AutoWeek, SuperStock, Trailer Life, Old Cars Weekly, Special Interest Autos, etc. You can follow me on: Twitter or .mstern001">