Remember how General Motors recalled nearly 560,000 trucks recently over the potential for their seat-belt systems to cause fires in a crash? Well, GM wasn’t the only one. Ford’s now conducting a similar recall, including nearly 550,000 Super Duty vehicles whose systems, too, may spark in the case of a crash.
Ford announced the recall on Friday, saying it covers certain Super Duty trucks from the 2017 through 2019 model years and involves 490,574 vehicles in the U.S. and its federal territories, 56,112 in Canada, and 852 in Mexico. The trucks involved were built at the Kentucky Truck Plant from Oct. 8, 2015 through Oct. 29, 2019, Ford said, and like the GM recall, the affected models have carpeted flooring.
Ford said it isn’t aware of crashes or injuries related to the issue, but that there has been a report of a fire in the U.S. related to it. Here’s the deal, via Ford:
In affected vehicles, a front seat belt pretensioner that deploys during a crash can generate excessive sparks. In some cases, this could ignite the carpet or carpet insulation in the area of the B-pillar. A fire in the B-pillar area may spread within the vehicle and increase the risk of injury. [...]
As needed, dealers will apply foil tape to the carpet and carpet insulation and modify the sound deadener on the back side of the B-pillar trim panel. The Ford reference number for this recall is 19S52.
That wording is similar to the GM recall. Ford said above that its pretensioner—the mechanism that tightens seat belts to keep you from hurtling forward—can generate excessive sparks when deploying during a crash, while GM said its pretensioner bracket has a small opening to allow gases to come into contact with the carpet. That can lead to a potential fire inside the truck.
Dealers will fix the problem, as usual, but Ford didn’t provide a timeline in its announcement. If you want to see whether your truck is involved and what to do, Ford has a recall page where owners can enter their VIN numbers here.