DEARBORN, Mich., Aug. 7, 2019 – Ford Motor Company is issuing a safety compliance recall for select 2020 Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator vehicles for a potentially missing manual park release cover. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards require the manual park release cover be in place and only removable with a tool. If the cover is not installed, the manual park release lever may be inadvertently activated, which could result in unintended vehicle movement if the electronic park brake is not applied, increasing the risk of crash

Also, the instrument cluster of affected vehicles may be in factory mode, which disables warning alerts and chimes, and does not display the PRNDL gear positions and which gear is selected. Factory mode is used to reduce battery drain during the production process. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards require the gear positions and selected gear to be displayed whenever the shifter is not in park.

Ford is aware of one report of an accident occurring during vehicle transport within the production process. The incident resulted in only vehicle damage.

This action affects 13,896 vehicles in the United States and 239 in Canada. The majority of affected vehicles are in dealer inventory. The issue will be remedied prior to delivery to customers.

Affected vehicles were built at Chicago Assembly Plant and include:

• 2020 Ford Explorer vehicles built from March 27, 2019 to July 24, 2019
• 2020 Lincoln Aviator vehicles built from April 10, 2019 to July 24, 2019

Dealers will inspect for the manual park release cover and install one, if necessary. Dealers will also verify the instrument cluster is out of factory mode and clear any diagnostic codes. The Ford reference number for this recall is 19C06.