Ford Recalls Escape, Corsair Hybrids To Repair High-Voltage Battery Problem

There are times when the car-making process breaks down for one reason or another. For example, a wiring harness fails to provide a good ground contact. If you know anything about B+ voltage, you know that you not only need a good B+ contact, but you also need an equally good B- contact, or else the circuit in question won't work.

Today’s Vehicles Require Good Grounds

What circuits might they be? Any circuit that requires good contact -- that is 100 percent – requires good, reliable contacts for things to work correctly. It follows like day follows night. Some ancient car systems require the exact opposite setup. However, those systems are usually in veteran vehicles from the last century. Today, every vehicle on the road requires good negative ground. Whether your vehicle is standard internal combustion, hybrid, or fully electric, the watchword is still negative grounding.

Sometimes, though, with even the best planning and execution in the industry, obtaining a good ground isn't possible for one reason or another. The reason for this could be manufacturing issues or something similar. Whatever the reason, the issue remains the same. There's no ground return path, so the circuit in question isn't completed, and the vehicle fails.

This is the case in a few 2020 Ford Escape and 2021 Lincoln Corsair models equipped with hybrid powertrains. More specifically, Ford has recalled 27 SUVs equipped with 2.5-liter hybrid powertrains.

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The vehicles in question have insufficient welds in their high-voltage batteries, so those batteries may fail – not a good thing in a hybrid as it might leave them powerless. With a loss of drive power, the vehicle would stop, creating the potential for a crash. However, according to the paperwork filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), none has occurred.

Consumer Information Discussed

Ford will begin notifying owners of the affected vehicles on July 5, 2022. At that time, owners will be able to schedule service appointments with their dealers. Dealer technicians will look at and replace the high-voltage battery free of charge.

For more information, owners can contact Ford customer service at 866-435-7332. The Ford identifier on this is 22S33. Or, owners can contact the NHTSA's Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236 or visit the agency's website at www.nhtsa.gov. The NHTSA identifier is 22V331.

Photo courtesy Ford Motor Co.

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 the usual number of misspent hours hanging out at gas stations Shell and Texaco (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 that I handled faithfully for 32 years. Not many people know that I also handled computer documentation for a good part of my living 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 Facebook.