Ford issued three new recalls in the past week, including two concerning the backup camera on certain SUVs.
In addition to another recall impacting more than 604,000 Ford and Lincoln SUVs for defective wiper motors, there are two more campaigns to address rearview camera problems, totaling a further 1.7 million vehicles. Ford Motor Company submitted the recall information to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which published the details under recall numbers 26V-123 and 26V-124, respectively.
The first recall (26V-123) affects 889,950 vehicles between the 2020 and 2024 model years. According to Ford, the screen image on the center display may be flipped or inverted immediately after starting up your vehicle. That can result in buttons no longer being where they should, and the rearview camera image being the wrong way around while in reverse gear. Obviously, that does not help with a driver’s ability to work out what’s behind them, and it also puts affected vehicles out of compliance with federal safety standards.
According to what Ford told the NHTSA: “The touch Integrated Circuit (IC) on the display printed circuit board can cause a pulse on the Integrated Circuit (I2C) data bus during startup. This can result in the rewriting of a register in the display microcontroller, inverting the graphics at initial startup. The issue recovers after a restart.” In layman’s terms, it’s a glitch.
Here’s a breakdown of which vehicles are affected and how Ford is handling the issue:
Across those 889,950 vehicles, here’s how the population breaks out by model:
- Ford Escape (2020-2022): 516,780 units
- Ford Explorer (2020-2024): 178,233 units
- Lincoln Aviator (2020-2024): 110,696 units
- Lincoln Corsair (2020-2022): 84,241 units
Ford tells safety regulators it does not have a software fix for the issue just yet. To date, the automaker is aware of 809 warranty claims potentially related to the issue as well as a single vehicle owner questionnaire (VOQ), but no accidents or injuries.
When an update is available, which Ford says should happen in the second quarter of 2026, it will send out a remedy notification to owners, asking them to bring their vehicles in for the free update. In the meantime, dealers were notified of the issue on March 5, and an interim notice (i.e. there’s a problem but a fix is still in the works) will be mailed out between April 17 and April 22, 2026.
A second campaign affects the Ford Bronco and Ford Edge, for a different rearview camera issue.
The other recall we’re talking about here (23V-124), affects 849,310 vehicles. In this instance, we are only talking about the 2020-2026 Ford Bronco and the (now out of production) 2021-2024 Ford Edge.
In this case, Ford notes the Accessory Protocol Interface Module (APIM) may overheat and temporarily shut down. If the APIM does experience a thermal shutdown, drivers lose the ability to get any infotainment output at all, including a rearview camera image while in reverse gear. Again, much like the flipped or inverted image issue above, the lack of an image properly showing up on the infotainment screen can increase the risk of a crash, necessitating a recall.
Whenever an APIM shutdown happens, Ford notes the module could reach temperatures of 105° C. The module then turns off to protect its electronic components, and will restart when it has an opportunity to cool off. The problem seems to be worse in conditions where the ambient temperature in the car are consistently high, and the APIM can’t cool back down. Ford says this is the “result of a stack-up of certain, specific vehicle and hardware configurations”, while specifically referencing SYNC 4 displays on certain Mid and High package-equipped Bronco and Edge models.
To-date, the automaker claims it is not aware of any warranty claims related to the issue. This came about due to its internal Electronics Platforms engineering team flagging the issue with Ford’s internal Critical Concern Review Group, and a subsequent investigation.
According to the NHTSA documents, this recall impacts 528,168 Ford Broncos built between September 20, 2020 and February 10, 2026. As many as 321,142 2021-2024 Ford Edge owners are also included, with their vehicles produced between August 14, 2020 and May 3, 2024.
Like the other recall, Ford is working on a software fix for this issue. It says it is working on that update so we don’t yet know what that fix will be just yet, but owners should receive remedy notifications between March 30 and April 3. The company is not planning an interim notification here, so it should actually have that software update ready by the end of this month, after which owners can get the update free or charge, though you will still have to go to your local dealer to do it.
Owners can check for more information on either recall through the NHTSA recall website, or through Ford’s own recall site, using the VIN.
