Ford Lincoln Wiper Arm Recall: NHTSA 26V204 Covers 422,613 Vehicles

Status, June 30 source check: source-cleared for a BadPD vehicle-safety recall ledger. The official campaign is NHTSA 26V204 / Ford 26S24. NHTSA says Ford is recalling 422,613 certain Ford and Lincoln vehicles because windshield wiper arms may fail, reducing visibility and increasing crash risk.

This is recall-record accountability reporting, not vehicle repair, driving, inspection, weather, resale, warranty, reimbursement, insurance, legal, or purchase advice. The official NHTSA, Ford, Lincoln, VIN, dealer, OASIS, and repair-order records control whether a specific vehicle is included, inspected, repaired, reimbursable, or closed.

What NHTSA And Ford Records Confirm

Ford’s Part 573 report lists 422,613 potentially affected vehicles and estimates that 3% have the defect. The vehicle rows are 2021-2023 Lincoln Navigator, 2021-2023 Ford Expedition, and 2022-2023 Ford Super Duty F-250, F-350, F-450, F-550, and F-600 vehicles.

The population breaks down into 17,210 Navigator vehicles, 79,164 Expedition vehicles, and 326,239 Super Duty vehicles. The production ranges in the Part 573 are October 25, 2021 through December 29, 2022 for Navigator, October 25, 2021 through December 31, 2022 for Expedition, and October 21, 2021 through December 31, 2022 for Super Duty.

The defect description says a windshield wiper arm may operate erratically, become inoperable, and/or detach from the vehicle. NHTSA’s acknowledgment letter summarizes the issue as wiper arms that may break, causing wipers to fail. The consequence is visibility-related: an improperly functioning or detached wiper arm may impair driver vision, increasing crash risk.

Ford identifies the supplier as TRICO COMPONENTES SA DE CV in Mexico. The involved parts are a driver-side wiper arm assembly, component part number FL34-17527-AA, and a passenger-side wiper arm assembly, component part number FL34-17526-AB.

Cause And Warning Signs

The Part 573 states that the windshield wiper arm latch retention plate may have been incorrectly staked at the supplier. That plate keeps the arm head properly seated to the wiper arm. Ford also says engagement between the knurl and the wiper arm head may be reduced because of dimensional variability. Proper engagement is needed for robust wiper arm operation.

The warning sign listed by Ford is erratic wipe speed of the driver or passenger wiper arm. That is a narrow warning, not a guarantee that every driver will get useful advance notice before visibility is compromised. A wiper arm that becomes inoperable or detaches in bad weather is a different public-risk situation than a cosmetic or convenience defect.

Ford says a production-process improvement at the supplier in December 2022 addressed the issues that led to the defective wiper arms. The recall population, however, reaches vehicles produced before that process improvement and crosses three vehicle families used by households, fleets, contractors, municipal operators, commercial users, and long-distance drivers.

Why This Is More Than A Parts Notice

A windshield wiper failure recall belongs in a public-safety lane because visibility is basic crash avoidance. Drivers need functioning wipers in rain, snow, road spray, dust, mud, and emergency travel. A campaign that includes Super Duty trucks, Expedition SUVs, and Navigator SUVs is also a fleet and resale record issue: vehicles may be used for family transport, towing, construction, emergency support, government work, or commercial travel.

The Part 573 chronology ties the case to recall governance. Ford says the issue was brought to its Critical Concern Review Group on January 15, 2026 while the company was reviewing safety recall 22S26 / NHTSA 22V250. That review was conducted under a three-year recall lookback connected to the Consent Order entered into by Ford and NHTSA in 2024. Ford observed an elevated warranty claim rate for Expedition and Navigator vehicles produced after the 22S26 / 22V250 population cut-off date through December 2022.

Ford then conducted a read-across in January and February 2026 for vehicles sharing the same knurl driver design and supplier. The company says it inspected field-return parts, evaluated dimensional conformance, conducted Computer Aided Engineering stress analysis, reproduced returned-part failures, and reviewed historic supplier production data. Ford expanded the investigation to Super Duty vehicles manufactured during the same suspect period.

That context matters because it shows how a previous recall boundary can become a follow-up accountability question. The public should not have to parse only a model list. The useful record is whether the later population, supplier process records, field returns, warranty projections, and final repair completion data match the risk Ford identified.

Reports, VOQs, And Incident Status

As of March 16, 2026, Ford says it was aware of 1,538 warranty reports, 11 field reports, and 3 customer service reports associated with the concern. Ford says those records represented 1,533 unique VINs globally and were received between November 11, 2021 and March 2, 2026.

Ford also says it was aware of two Vehicle Owner Questionnaires attributed to this concern and one potentially related VOQ submitted between July 2, 2024 and February 24, 2026. The clean public wording is that these are manufacturer-reported warranty, field, customer-service, and VOQ counts in an official recall chronology. They are not a court finding, and they are not proof that every recalled vehicle experienced a failure.

The same chronology states that Ford is not aware of any accidents, injuries, or fires related to this concern. For origin checks and public clarity, the plain-language status is: Ford is not aware of any accidents, injuries, or fires related to this concern. That no-accident/no-injury/no-fire statement should be preserved exactly as a March 31, 2026 Part 573 source status, while still recognizing that NHTSA and Ford identify a crash-risk consequence if visibility is reduced.

Remedy And Timing

The remedy record has two layers. Ford’s Part 573 says the remedy is under investigation and that a potential inspection process is being evaluated. It says wiper arms that do not pass inspection will be replaced. NHTSA’s April 6 acknowledgment letter and the API records say dealers will inspect and replace the wiper arms as necessary, free of charge.

Dealer notification was expected on April 1, 2026. Interim owner notification letters were expected from April 13 through April 17, 2026. The NHTSA API records accessed June 30, 2026 say interim letters were mailed April 16, 2026. VINs became searchable on NHTSA.gov on April 1, 2026. The acknowledgment letter says additional letters will be sent once the remedy is available.

The missing record is the final remedy-owner notice and dealer procedure. A complete file should show the inspection criteria, whether both driver and passenger arms are checked, what counts as a failed inspection, which replacement part was installed, whether both arms were replaced or only one, and the closeout date for campaign 26S24 / 26V204.

That gap matters because the Part 573 and acknowledgment letter describe the campaign before a final remedy-owner notice is posted in this source set. Interim notice tells the public there is a safety risk. It does not, by itself, prove that a specific vehicle was inspected, that replacement arms were available, or that the campaign was closed. The final dealer procedure should answer those operational questions.

The API records accessed June 30, 2026 say interim letters were mailed April 16, 2026, while the Part 573 schedule listed an April 13 through April 17 window and the acknowledgment letter said the letters were expected to begin April 13. That is not a material contradiction on the existence of the recall, but it is still a source-detail issue worth preserving until final owner-letter records are visible.

VIN, Fleet, And Resale Records

Ford says affected vehicles are not produced in VIN order. The Part 573 tells owners and dealers to confirm applicability through Ford’s toll-free line or a Ford or Lincoln dealer with access to OASIS. The NHTSA API confirms the campaign on model-year records for 2023 Expedition, 2023 Navigator, and 2023 F-250 SD, but those model records are not VIN-specific determinations.

Fleets and resale desks need campaign-specific paperwork because the affected population includes work trucks and large SUVs that can move across owners quickly. A truck or SUV can be in use, traded, sold at auction, reassigned to a different driver, or transferred between fleet units before the final remedy letter arrives. The campaign number and repair-order language should travel with the vehicle file.

For an owner or operator, the useful record chain is concrete: VIN lookup, campaign open/closed status, inspection result, whether the driver arm, passenger arm, or both were replaced, replacement part details, and final campaign closeout. Generic language that “wipers checked” is weaker than a 26V204 / 26S24 repair record.

For commercial operators, the record should also identify whether the vehicle was in service during heavy-rain, snow, road-spray, or off-road conditions after the interim notice. That is not because BadPD is assigning blame to operators. It is because visibility defects can become operational safety problems before the final remedy file is complete. If a vehicle is kept in service, the inspection and service notes should be precise enough for a later safety, insurance, maintenance, or resale review.

The Super Duty row is the largest part of the affected population at 326,239 vehicles, so completion reports should not be reduced to one combined total if more detail becomes available. A useful quarterly report would separate Expedition, Navigator, and Super Duty completion activity, show how many vehicles were inspected, show how many required replacement, and show how many remained unreachable or unrepaired.

Confirmed, Pending, Not Established

Confirmed by NHTSA/Ford records

• NHTSA 26V204 / Ford 26S24 is an official safety recall.
• The campaign covers 422,613 potentially affected vehicles.
• Affected vehicle rows are 2021-2023 Lincoln Navigator, 2021-2023 Ford Expedition, and 2022-2023 Ford Super Duty F-250/F-350/F-450/F-550/F-600.
• Ford estimates 3% of the population has the defect.
• A wiper arm may operate erratically, become inoperable, or detach from the vehicle.
• Wiper failure or detachment can reduce visibility and increase crash risk.
• TRICO COMPONENTES SA DE CV is listed as the Tier 1 supplier.
• Ford reports 1,538 warranty reports, 11 field reports, 3 customer service reports, and 1,533 unique VINs globally associated with the concern.
• Ford reports two attributed VOQs and one potentially related VOQ.
• Ford says it is not aware of accidents, injuries, or fires related to the concern.
• VINs became searchable on NHTSA.gov on April 1, 2026.

Pending records

• Final owner notification letter.
• Dealer bulletin and inspection procedure.
• Final remedy-owner notification timing.
• Quarterly completion reports.
• Any updated warranty, VOQ, accident, injury, fire, ODI, claim, or court records.
• Any amendment to affected-population counts or defect-rate estimates.

Not established by this source set

• That every vehicle in the listed model years is included.
• That any specific VIN has defective wiper arms without official VIN and inspection confirmation.
• That an accident, injury, or fire has occurred from this condition.
• That the final remedy has been completed on every affected vehicle.
• That both wiper arms on every recalled vehicle require replacement.
• That the later remedy-owner letter has already been posted in the source set reviewed here.

BadPD Bottom Line

NHTSA 26V204 belongs in the BadPD public-safety accountability lane because it combines a visibility-related crash-risk defect, a large truck and SUV population, a related prior recall, and manufacturer-reported warranty and field-report volume. The records to watch are VIN status, dealer inspection instructions, final remedy letters, replacement-part details, completion reports, and any later record that changes Ford’s current no accident, no injury, and no fire status.

BadPD will update this ledger if NHTSA or Ford posts final owner letters, dealer bulletins, inspection procedures, amended population data, completion reports, or any new accident, injury, fire, claim, ODI, warranty, court, or repair-order record tied to Ford 26S24 / NHTSA 26V204.

Source Ledger

• NHTSA Part 573 Safety Recall Report, campaign 26V204, submitted March 31, 2026
• NHTSA acknowledgment letter, campaign 26V204, April 6, 2026
• NHTSA API recall record, 2023 Ford Expedition, accessed June 30, 2026
• NHTSA API recall record, 2023 Lincoln Navigator, accessed June 30, 2026
• NHTSA API recall record, 2023 Ford F-250 SD, accessed June 30, 2026

Featured image is symbolic editorial artwork created for BadPD. It is not NHTSA, Ford, Lincoln, TRICO, dealer, owner, vehicle, wiper, crash, repair, VIN, OASIS, warranty, VOQ, or field-report photography and is not a depiction of any specific recalled vehicle.