Ford Motor Company Issues Recall for Select 2019 Ford Ranger Vehicles

Do you own a 2019 Ford Ranger? And was it bought in the U.S.  last August to September last year? Then perhaps you need to take a really long hard look at its HVAC blower; if you're not careful, then chances are, your vehicle might experience a "resistive electrical short" that can cause fires.

It's for this reason why Ford is doing a safety recall on select 2019 Ford Ranger vehicles. According to the company, some affected Rangers have "HVAC blower motor may have been built with an improper clearance between an electrical terminal and the conductive base-plate slot that may result in a resistive electrical short."

Just in case you're not familiar with the term, a "resistive electrical short" is just a fancy word for "short circuit". Short circuits occur when the electrical flow completes its entire circuit journey through a shorter distance--and not in its established wiring.

In a normal electric circuit, electricity returns back to the ground, as the current flows through the established wiring circuit back to the service panel, and then through the utility wires again. This is called a "correct functioning electric circuit".

However, if a wire is loose or broken, then the electric current might leak out of the wires, and in some cases, flow back to the ground using a shorter pathway. That "shorter pathway" can take on many forms as long it's near the electric source. This can be a person--or even a flammable material. When this happens, a "short circuit occurs" and may result to fire or shock.

Isolated Incidents

Meanwhile, Ford is not aware of "any accidents or injuries related to this condition", although a case has been reported of a customer who experienced smoke while driving.

There were also around six incident reports that happened in vehicles when they were being delivered to the dealership. There vehicles have already been returned to Ford and is currently being inspected and analyzed for possible problems.

The company also revealed that there are around 17,965 affected vehicles in the United States and federal territories and 1,544 in Canada.

They also added that the isolated events were traced back to Ford Ranger vehicles that were built at the Michigan Assembly Plant, from August 1 to September 27, 2019.

Dealers will inspect the HVAC blower motor in affected vehicles and replace it if it is within the suspect part production dates. The Ford reference number for this recall is 19S34.

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