Ford announces recall of thousands of 2021 F-150s over defect

Ford Motor Co. on Monday announced it is recalling thousands of its profit-rich F-Series trucks due to windshield defects.

The Dearborn automaker said the front windshields on certain 2021 F-150 and 2020 and 2021 Super Duty trucks "are inadequately bonded to the vehicle body structure," meaning the windshield may not stay in place during a crash. The recall affects 79,017 vehicles in the U.S. and federal territories, 6,986 in Canada and 1,347 in Mexico. 

The recall includes 2021 F-150s built at the Dearborn Truck Plant between Oct. 27 and Feb. 3, as well as Super Duty trucks built at the Kentucky Truck Plant between Oct. 13 and Jan. 23. Ford said it is unaware of any crashes or injuries related to the issue.

The company declined to comment on the cost of the recall.

The recall comes just months into the launch of the redesigned 2021 F-150. The pickup truck, which is also built at the Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri, is Ford's profit engine and the best-selling truck in the country with hundreds of thousands of units sold every year in the U.S. 

F-150 production has had disruptions in recent weeks due to a global shortage of the microchips that power the automated and electronic features of vehicles, and because of the winter storm that hit large parts of the country last week.

It's not unusual to see recalls shortly after the launch of a new vehicle, experts say.

"You want to try to get everything right before the vehicle ever launches, but it's not uncommon for automakers to still have to do some level of follow-up after the vehicle is released because there are just so many components that go into a modern car," said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.com. "When you get into full production, that's when things will commonly pop up with an all-new vehicle."

Though the F-150 is a hugely important product for Ford, Brauer said a recall of this kind typically is a short-term issue for automakers.

New vehicles, he said, are some of the "more complex mass products that are out there. It can be challenging to launch an all-new vehicle without having some level of recall."

Owners of the vehicles included in the recall will begin to receive notifications from auto dealers the week of April 6, Ford said. Dealers will remove and replace the windshields. 

Ford on Monday also announced a recall for select 2020 Super Duty vehicles with 6.7-liter engines, due to the trucks having labels with incorrect payload information. The recall affects 9,979 Super Duty vehicles in the U.S. and federal territories and 1,750 in Canada and includes units built at the Kentucky Truck Plant from May 13, 2019, to Sept. 19, 2020.

Ford said it was unaware of any crashes or injuries related to the issue.

The recall announcement follows a separate one from last week for select Ford vehicles that may have had "obsolete" Takata parts installed in collision and theft repairs after the Takata airbag recall was completed. Ford, along with other automakers, was required to recall vehicles that contained potentially-deadly airbag inflators made by Takata, as part of a massive global recall of the defective parts.

"Ford identified that certain Takata airbag modules were not purged from service stock after the parts for the permanent service fix became available," the company said in a statement. "Following extensive investigation and tracing, Ford could not account for some of the obsolete service parts, indicating they may have been installed on vehicles as part of collision or theft repairs."

Ford also said last week that it was recalling 1,666 Bronco Sport vehicles due to those units being "produced with rear suspension modules that may not be fully secured to the subframe." The Blue Oval launched the all-new vehicle late last year.

jgrzelewski@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @JGrzelewski