2023 Ford Escape and Super Duty recalled over digital dash cluster

The 2023 Ford Escape has been pulled into a recall that also touches the 2023 Ford Super Duty. On affected vehicles, an insufficient soldering job in the "remote cluster box" for the digital panel's control module might prevent the cluster itself from illuminating, a situation leading to the obvious problem of missing vital driving information. The recall population for the Escape counts 21,301 units of the 38,395 total vehicles involved. On the truck side, the recall includes 17,394 units of the F-250, F-350, F-450, and F-550. Ford estimates that only 1% of the population contains the defect, the automaker saying in its recall notice that although the units weren't produced in VIN order, the automaker "is capable of tracing instrument panel cluster module production to the vehicle in which the instrument panel cluster module is installed."

In the notice, Ford explained that development engineers understood that soldering failures could occur "very early in the life of the remote cluster box," so they created processes for the supplier and at the assembly plant to detect these early failures. The surprise came when field reports showed failures occurring "at mileages beyond what was initially expected for this type of solder joint failure." So far, there have been 84 warranty claims and 36 field reports covering 83 vehicles. Ford knows of no accidents or injuries resulting from the matter.

The fix is a trip to a Ford or a Lincoln dealer to have a new remote module or an entirely new cluster installed. The automaker expects to begin mailing letters to owners on August 14. Until then, owners can contact Ford customer service at 866-436-7332 and mention internal recall number 23C25 regarding either vehicle. They can also get in touch with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236 (TTY 800-424-9153), or visit the agency's site at www.nhtsa.gov and look up campaign number 23V506000. 

This is the fifth recall for the new heavy duty truck since May, the second-largest by recall population. Two of the other recalls have been for minor infractions. A more serious recall involving the power windows only roped in 1,339 trucks, a recall involving potentially missing steering bolts covered just 12 trucks.

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