If you own a late-model F-150, Expedition, Navigator, Explorer, or Aviator, here’s something worth paying attention to: your vehicle might treat “Park” as more of a suggestion than a command. Ford is recalling 741,195 vehicles because a glitch in the park-by-wire system can allegedly let them roll away unexpectedly, which is exactly the kind of failure nobody wants from a multi-ton SUV sitting in a driveway.
What’s Affected, and Why
Federal regulators published the recall notice on Tuesday, and the list of affected vehicles spans several years of Ford and Lincoln production. It covers 2018-2021 Lincoln Navigator and Expedition models, 2020-2021 Explorer and Lincoln Aviator models, and 2020-2021 F-150 trucks. The common thread across all of them is park-by-wire functionality paired with the 10R80 transmission, the 10-speed unit that Ford and General Motors jointly developed.
Before assuming the worst, Ford estimates only about 1 percent of these vehicles actually have the underlying defect. There’s also a built-in warning system: a wrench warning light will illuminate on the dashboard, and if the transmission fails to properly engage park when requested, the electronic parking brake is designed to automatically engage to prevent the vehicle from rolling unsupervised.
What to Actually Do About It
The fix won’t cost owners anything. Vehicle owners can bring their recalled vehicles to a Ford or Lincoln dealer for a software update and, where necessary, replacement of the affected transmission components, all at no charge. So if that wrench warning light has been flashing and getting dismissed as background noise, it may be worth getting it checked out. Until the software update is completed, it’s a reasonable precaution to manually engage the parking brake and chock the wheels on any kind of incline, the same basic habit recommended for vehicles with manual transmissions. It costs nothing and is considerably cheaper than explaining to an insurance adjuster how a parked SUV ended up in a neighbor’s fence.
There’s More
In a separate action, Ford is also recalling 36,046 Broncos from the 2022 through 2026 model years because the fender flares may not be properly secured and could detach while driving. It’s an unwelcome reminder that even vehicles built for rugged off-road use aren’t immune to basic assembly issues, and that a piece of trim coming loose at highway speed is a hazard for everyone driving nearby, not just the Bronco’s own occupants.