A new large-scale recall impacts several popular Ford and Lincoln SUV models.
Ford didn’t have the greatest year for recalls in 2025, and it seems like that trend may be carrying forward into the new year. On March 3, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a new recall report from Ford Motor Company, detailing a potential front windshield wiper motor defect that affects 604,533 vehicles.
Specifically, this recall campaign impacts 2020-2022 model years of the Ford Escape and Explorer, as well as their Lincoln Corsair and Aviator counterparts. All these vehicles were produced between June 6, 2020 and December 15, 2021.
Ford says the vehicles are equipped with front windshield wiper motors that may have an issue where the motor’s cover terminal is not properly aligned with the brush card terminal. That condition results in a poor electrical connection within the wiper motor that could, over time, lead to intermittent issues or the wipers just failing to work at all. Naturally, if the windshield wipers are inoperable when you actually need them, the reduced visibility could increase the risk of an accident.
Ford’s internal Critical Concern Review Group first looked into the issue in June 2021, after a spike in warranty claims for inoperable windshield wiper motors came in across Model Year 2020-2021 vehicles. In September 2021, the automaker decided the issue did not pose a safety risk, as it was an uncommon issue that gave warning signs to the driver (the wipers could cut in and out intermittently before they fully fail). However, in November 2025, Ford worked with windshield wiper motor supplier Valeo to figure out the issue that caused some units to fail, narrowing it down to a bad electrical connection between the two terminals within the motor.
As of February 18, Ford says it is aware of 1,374 warranty claims citing intermittent or inoperable windshield wiper motors. No accidents or injuries have been linked to this defect.
What’s the fix?
Under this recall (NHTSA number 26V-117, Ford recall number 26S14), Ford says it will have dealer technicians inspect and replace the windshield wiper motors as needed, free of charge.
Dealers were notified of the issue on March 4, while owners will receive an interim notice between March 9 and March 13. An interim notice tells affected owners that there’s a problem, but that the fix isn’t available just yet. The remedy notice (when owners can actually set up a service appointment to remedy the issue) will go out between May 11 and May 15, 2026.
In the meantime, owners can do a VIN search on the NHTSA’s recall website or Ford’s own recall support page to determine whether their car is in the affected population.
To be clear, this does not impact vehicles newer than the 2022 model year, like the updated 2026 Ford Explorer Tremor we reviewed below:
