Ford recall 21V537 (21S32): 2013-2017 Explorer

What the notice says today

The defect

Ford Motor Company (Ford) is recalling certain 2013-2017 Explorer vehicles originally sold, or ever registered, in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. Exposure to road salt can cause the cross-axis ball joint to corrode and seize, resulting in a fracture of the outboard section of the rear suspension toe link.

The consequence

A rear toe-link fracture can result in a loss of steering control, increasing the risk of a crash.

The remedy

Dealers will inspect and replace as necessary, the cross-axis ball joint (CABJ) knuckle, and replace the rear suspension toe links, free of charge. This recall is an expansion of previous NHTSA recall numbers 16V-245, 19V-435, and 20V-675. Certain vehicles previously repaired will need to return for the new remedy. An interim notification letter notifying owners of the safety risk were mailed on September 10, 2021. Owner notification letters were mailed on March 16, 2022. Owners may contact Ford's customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford's number for this recall is 21S32.

What it said before

Nothing has changed while we have been watching. We last read the wording of this campaign on 17 September 2026, and it matched the copy we already held.

That copy hashes to 246462cc2a9054cb0c63d85f82d58d96…, so if it is ever edited the change is provable rather than a matter of memory.

This is one of 732 notices in the record whose component field names suspension. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 33 days.

Last checked 17 September 2026. No change has been recorded in the wording.

The same recall in other countries

This campaign carries a manufacturer code that also appears in another country’s register, which means the same defect was recalled there too.

• Canada: Transport Canada recall 2021438, recorded 16 July 2021 (within a week of the American filing)
• European Union: Safety Gate alert A12/00555/22, published 8 April 2022, raised by Germany (the Commission’s own page) (9 months after the American filing)

Matched on 21S32, the manufacturer’s own number for this campaign, which is the only field the registers share. Exact match, nothing paired on brand and date. The two dates are adjacent instruments rather than the same one, so a difference of a day or two means nothing.

How often the two countries file on the same day · The European alerts

The models named here, across their whole recall history

• Ford Explorer recalls: 81 US campaigns

The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.