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WASHINGTON, D.C. – In August 2020, Ford Motor Company agreed to recall approximately 500,000 vehicles to address front brake hoses rupturing. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) has opened an investigation –potentially impacting more than 1.7-million vehicles — on whether that original recall was premature and inadequate.
The ODI investigation covers an estimated 1,729,319 model-year 2013-2019 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ cars (beyond the original recall which covered 488,594 2015-2018 Ford Edge and 2016-2018 Lincoln MKX crossovers) plagued by the same issue.
According to the ODI Resume for Investigation RQ 22-004 opened Aug. 8th, the issue is “front brake hoses (jounce hoses) rupturing prematurely. The cause was due to consistent localized failures of the internal reinforcement braid due to cyclic fatigue during suspension and steering articulation.”
The federal agency reported 50 consumer complaints in the latest action with “Many of the complaints allege the brake hoses are rupturing, leaking brake fluid and occurring with little to no warning.”
In addition, NHTSA reported “one alleged crash as a result of a failed hose, with no injuries.”
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The rectification program established for the recall program included replacing both front-brake jounce hoses with a new, revised braid material and to perform a brake-system bleed.