A cracked injector on Escape and Bronco Sport SUVs could lead to fuel escaping and igniting
July 16, 2025 at 10:08
- Ford is recalling 694,000 Escape and Bronco Sport models at risk of self-immolating.
- A cracked injector on 2021-24 SUVs fitted with 1.5-liter engines could leak fuel.
- Ford has already tried twice to fix the problem and is still working on the remedy.
Ford’s record recall run continues this week with news that the automaker is bringing almost 700,000 vehicles back to dealerships to prevent them from catching fire. But to make matters worse, the safety campaign relates to an issue the Blue Oval has already tried to fix before with multiple earlier recalls.
This latest recall affects 339,044 Ford Bronco Sport SUVs from 2021 to 2024 and 355,227 Escapes built for the 2020-22 model years. That’s a grand total of 694,271 vehicles, the common thread between them being Ford’s 1.5-liter, turbocharged, four-cylinder engine.
Related: Ford Thought It Fixed Bronco Sport, Escape Fuel Leak, But 5 Fires Show Problem Persists
Ford found that one of the engine’s injectors could crack, causing gasoline vapor to leak at a high rate into the cylinder head. From there, it can travel out of the engine via a drain hole and potentially hit a hot surface like the exhaust or turbo, which could cause a fire.
Eight vehicles have already caught fire as a result of the fault, which Ford has been trying to solve since its first related recall in November 2022. In that case, and in another similar recall in March 2024, Ford dealers installed a tube to allow fuel to drain away safely and updated the engine control software so that it could detect a cracked injector and disable the high-pressure fuel pump if it did.
Repeated Fixes, Lingering Problems
Some vehicles missed out on the software update and had to be recalled again in March 2025. Before that happened, NHTSA had opened its own investigation into the fire risk, eventually determining that Ford’s fix was inadequate and the automaker should really announce a recall to replace the faulty injectors.
Ford, which subsequently learned that corrosion played a big part in the injectors cracking, still hasn’t said if it will replace the injectors on all 694,000 vehicles covered by the latest recall. It says it’s still working on a solution, and as an interim fix, it’s rolling out the updated control software to SUVs that haven’t already received it. But it looks like Ford might soon have to bite the bullet and buy several million new injectors to keep the NHTSA happy.
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