Ford is recalling 230,000 older minivans for corrosion problem
Ford Motor Co. has announced a recall of some 230,000 older minivans in the U.S. and other countries to fix a corrosion problem that could prevent the fold-down third-row seats from locking in place.
The automaker says the recall in the U.S. includes 196,500 Ford Freestar and Mercury Monterey minivans from model years 2004 through 2007.
The U.S. recall only involves minivans that were sold and registered in the 20 so-called salt-belt states and the District of Columbia, where salt is regularly applied to roads during the colder months to impede icing.
Those states are Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Another 33,500 of the minivans are located in other parts of the world, mostly in Canada.
Ford said that it had not received reports of any injuries related to the problem.
Ford said its dealerships would install a new third-row seat mounting bracket and move the latches away from the potentially corroded area.
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