Ford Explorer, Lincoln Aviator, Lincoln Nautilus, Lincoln Navigator, model years 2022 to 2025. Filed by Ford Motor Company and reported to NHTSA on 19 March 2026. 254,640 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Ford Motor Company (Ford) is recalling certain 2022-2025 Lincoln Navigator, 2024-2025 Lincoln Nautilus, 2025 Lincoln Aviator and Explorer vehicles. The Image Processing Module A (IPMA) may experience multiple unexpected resets, resulting in loss of the rearview camera image and advanced driver assistance (ADAS) …
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Ford's own number for this recall: 26S21. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 26V165 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 26V165 cover?
- Ford Explorer, Lincoln Aviator, Lincoln Nautilus, Lincoln Navigator, model years 2022-2025.
- What is wrong with them?
- Ford Motor Company (Ford) is recalling certain 2022-2025 Lincoln Navigator, 2024-2025 Lincoln Nautilus, 2025 Lincoln Aviator and Explorer vehicles.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- Loss of the rearview camera image and certain driver assistance features, can reduce the driver’s ability to detect hazards, increasing the risk of a crash.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. The Image Processing Module A software will be updated by a dealer, or through an over-the-air (OTA) update, free of charge. This is a Phased campaign. Phase 1 will include 2025 Aviator, 2025 Explorer, 2025 Nautilus notified owners on 4/13/2026.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Ford calls this recall 26S21, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “Loss of the rearview camera image and certain driver assistance features, can reduce the driver’s ability to detect hazards, increasing the risk of a crash.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 26V165 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Ford Motor Company |
| System at fault | Back Over Prevention:Software |
| Reported to NHTSA | 19 March 2026 |
| Model years | 2022-2025 |
| Vehicles named | FORD EXPLORER, LINCOLN AVIATOR, LINCOLN NAUTILUS, LINCOLN NAVIGATOR |
What the notice says today
The defect
Ford Motor Company (Ford) is recalling certain 2022-2025 Lincoln Navigator, 2024-2025 Lincoln Nautilus, 2025 Lincoln Aviator and Explorer vehicles. The Image Processing Module A (IPMA) may experience multiple unexpected resets, resulting in loss of the rearview camera image and advanced driver assistance (ADAS) features, including pre-collision assist, lane-keeping assist, and blind-spot monitoring.
The consequence
Loss of the rearview camera image and certain driver assistance features, can reduce the driver’s ability to detect hazards, increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy
The Image Processing Module A software will be updated by a dealer, or through an over-the-air (OTA) update, free of charge. This is a Phased campaign. Phase 1 will include 2025 Aviator, 2025 Explorer, 2025 Nautilus notified owners on 4/13/2026. Phase 2 will include 2025 Navigator will notify owners on or about 4/20/2026. Phase 3 will include 2022-2024 Navigator will notify owners on or about 6/8/2026. Phase 4 will include 2024 Nautilus will notify owners on or about 6/22/2026. Owner notification letters were mailed April 13, 2026. Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford's number for this recall is 26S21. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall will be searchable on NHTSA.gov beginning March 25, 2026.
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 be26dae9ea2ff841f02953ad0c6c1252…, so if it is ever edited the change is provable rather than a matter of memory.
This is one of 246 notices in the record whose component field names back over prevention. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 48 days.
Last checked . 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 2026128, recorded 18 March 2026 (within a week of the American filing)
Matched on 26S21, 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
- Lincoln Aviator recalls: 50 US campaigns
- Lincoln Nautilus recalls: 23 US campaigns
- Lincoln Navigator recalls: 50 US campaigns
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 26V165, wording as read on 17 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/26v165/
The copy quoted above hashes to be26dae9ea2ff841f02953ad0c6c1252…. If the notice is reworded later, that fingerprint will not match, which is how a reader checks that the quotation was of the version we say it was.
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
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.
Other Ford notices we hold
- 26V579: 2026-2027 Transit
- 26V578: 2023-2027 F-150
- 26V577: 2026 F-150
- 26V576: 2026 F-150
- 26V550: 2026 Maverick, F-150, and Bronco Sport
- 26V548: 2026 Explorer, Bronco, Bronco Sport, Mustang, and Ranger
- 26V547: 2024-2026 Mustang
- 26V532: 2026 Explorer
All 776 Ford campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 26V165 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
b15cb48f - Consequence
d78ad79b - Remedy
20885a26
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 26V165 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Ford Explorer, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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Owners of these cars
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