Ford Recalls Over 300,000 Vehicles Due to Seat Belt-Related Fires

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Published September 7, 2018 at 5:24 pm

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If you own or regularly ride in a popular Ford vehicle, you might want to check if there’s a recall on your ride.

Ford recently issued a safety recall in North America for roughly two million 2015-18 Ford F-150 pickup trucks for driver and front passenger seat belt pretensioners.

Ford says that investigations revealed that that some front seat belt pretensioners can generate excessive sparks when they deploy, effectively creating a fire hazard.  

“When sufficient sparks are present, gases exhausted inside the lower portion of the B-pillar by the pretensioners may ignite. If this gas ignites, components behind the B-pillar such as insulation and carpet may subsequently catch fire,” Ford wrote on its website.

Ford is recalling about two million vehicles throughout the continent, and 339,884 units in Canada specifically.

Ford says it’s aware of 17 reports of smoke or fire in the United States and six in Canada.

The company says it is not aware of any accidents or injuries as a result of this issue.

Affected vehicles include:

2015-18 Ford F-150 vehicles built at Dearborn Assembly Plant, March 12, 2014 through Aug. 23, 2018
2015-18 Ford F-150 vehicles built at Kansas City Assembly Plant, Aug. 20, 2014 through Aug. 23, 2018

The Ford reference number for this recall is 18S27.

Ford says dealers will remove insulation material from the B-pillar trim, remove remnants of wiring harness tape in the B-pillar area, and apply heat-resistant tape to the carpet and its insulation.

Dealers also will modify the back interior panels of regular cab vehicles.

All repairs will be provided at no cost to customers.

For more information, click here.

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