The Lincoln Navigator sells itself as a rolling first-class lounge. One of its party tricks is a chauffeur mode that lets a VIP in the second row push the empty front passenger seat out of the way and claim the legroom. Now Ford is turning that feature off, because the seat can apparently start moving with nobody in the back asking it to.
Ford has filed recall 26V691000 with NHTSA, covering 36,994 Navigators from the 2025, 2026 and 2027 model years. The problem sits in the rear audio control module, or RACM. It can wrongly activate the chauffeur seat function, and the front passenger seat then slides forward, slides back or reclines with no input from anyone.
A software bug with some weight behind it
A glitchy infotainment screen is usually a nuisance: a frozen map or a Bluetooth connection that keeps dropping. This one controls the motors in a power seat that weighs well over 50 pounds and is built to move in a cabin with people sitting close by.
Ford’s filing lists two ways it can go wrong. The front passenger seat can move back into someone sitting in the second row, or it can shove the front passenger into a position where they’re sitting wrong. That second risk is easy to overlook. Airbags and seatbelt pretensioners are tuned for an occupant sitting in a normal, upright position. An occupant who ends up crammed forward or tipped way back when a crash happens is no longer where the restraint engineers expected.
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Canada’s notice adds a detail the U.S. summary doesn’t spell out. Transport Canada’s recall says “the seat may continue moving even if there’s an obstruction.” In plain English, the seat doesn’t reliably stop when it hits a shin, a knee or a child’s car seat. Power seats usually rely on motor-current sensing or travel limits to know when to quit. If the command keeps coming from a misbehaving module, the motor keeps pushing.
The fix: losing a feature
Dealers will update software in the RACM and the APIM, Ford’s name for the main infotainment computer. The update disables chauffeur mode entirely. The repair is free, and owner letters are expected this month.
Neither the U.S. nor the Canadian filing says anything about chauffeur mode coming back later. Compare that with Ford’s July recall 26V470000 for 2025-2027 Explorers and Aviators, where an empty driver’s seat could recline on its own during remote start or remote unlock and trap a second-row passenger. In that case, dealers disable the seat feature for now and replace the motor once parts are available. The Navigator remedy, as filed, has no second step. If you bought a Navigator partly for the back-seat-boss setup, budget for living without it.
Third time for this generation’s seats
This isn’t the redesigned Navigator’s first seat problem. In March, Ford recalled 1,189 2026 Navigators because the driver’s seat obstacle-detection software could misfire. Ford’s Part 573 report explains that the automatic-reversal logic could read the seat track’s own end stops as an obstacle. The seat then kept trying to move rearward, even while the vehicle was slowing in traffic.
Put that next to the Explorer/Aviator recline recall and a pattern shows up. Ford’s newer seat systems are running more of their safety logic in software (obstacle detection, auto-reversal, remote presets, rear-seat control), and that software keeps causing trouble. Mechanically, the seats are fine. The code deciding when to move them is the problem.
Why fleet operators should care most
Chauffeur mode is a feature built for livery work. Ford’s own paperwork from earlier this year describes Navigators as commonly used in livery and chauffeur service in dense urban areas. For a black-car operator, a passenger seat that drives into a paying client’s knees is a liability claim waiting to happen. Removing a feature that clients book the vehicle for is a smaller but real business cost.
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Commercial operators should get the update done quickly. An open safety recall on a livery vehicle won’t look good if an injury claim ever reaches a lawyer.
What owners should do
- Check your VIN at NHTSA.gov or call Ford at 1-866-436-7332. Ford’s internal recall number is 26S77.
- Until the update is done, keep the second row clear of anything you’d hate to see crushed, and watch small children and pets around the front passenger seat.
- If the seat moves by itself, don’t shrug it off as a glitch. Write down when it happened, film it if you safely can, and file a report with NHTSA. Recall scopes get expanded based on reports like these.
- If you’re shopping used, a 2025-2027 Navigator listed with chauffeur mode may no longer have it once the update is done. Don’t pay extra for a feature that a dealer will switch off.
Lincoln will almost certainly bring the feature back eventually. Until then, the most luxurious seat in the Navigator is the one you adjust yourself.