Ford Bronco models hindered by rear shock issues. Now what?
MotorTrend
While the Ford Bronco Raptor is the ultimate off-roading SUV from the Blue Oval, cheaper thrills on roads less paved can be found with the Badlands and Sasquatch Broncos. Well, given the latest news, you may want to avoid the really rough stuff until Ford fixes a recently discovered problem. Announced in mid-January, Ford and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have issued a recall on nearly 150,000 of those capable off-roaders due to an issue with the rear shocks on 2021 to 2024 model year Broncos in both two- and four-door models.
The build date timespan to look out for is 9/30/2020 to 7/23/2024 on your driver's side door jam label. During this span, Bilstein supplied Ford with a rear damper for the Badlands and Sasquatch optioned Broncos that included an external reservoir as part of its End Stop Control Valve (ESCV) system. As an aside, it's an interesting system that allows for a more progressive extreme compression and rebound events — almost like an internal bumpstop — before relying on harsher external bumpstops. The integrated external reservoir on the shock body is what allows Bilstein to insert these ESCV springs and piston stops as it allows for more oil in the damper body along with allowing for longer piston travel by putting the nitrogen charge and its piston — for cavitation control — outside.
The issue stems from corrosion between the damper body and integrated external reservoir mounting flange that's welded to the body. This not only can cause leakage of shock oil but can also lead to full failure with the reservoir falling off and becoming a road hazard for other drivers. This also means that you might be able to notice something is wrong before full failure occurs. If you notice that the rear shocks on your Badlands or Sasquatch aren't doing any damping anymore or notice a strange sign of a fluid leak near your rear wheels, there's a good chance that the connection between the reservoir and damper body has failed and you need to get it off the road and into your local Ford dealer.
In case you missed it:Ford recalls nearly 73,000 vehicles for potentially faulty rear-view camera
Currently, the recall is only for the rear dampers despite the same style of Bilstein shock used on the front axle. We're just taking a guess here, but the rear Bilsteins do appear to be ever so slightly more exposed when compared to the fronts and its associated running gear, but there hasn't been an official explanation on why corrosion is only an issue on the rears. We also don't know if Bilstein uses these dampers on other Ford products or if similarly attached reservoirs from Bilstein are having similar corrosion and separation issues. From a quick glance, it does appear that the ESCV dampers are unique to the Bronco, but we have reached out to Ford and Bilstein on this.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
There's another problem: there isn't a fix yet. Ford is working to develop one but considering that these failures happened on Broncos built up to the midpoint of last year, simply yanking the bad ones out and installing new OE replacements isn't the viable solution. We have reached out to both Ford and Bilstein and will update this story if we hear back from either side.
Photos by MotorTrend Staff, manufacturer
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
1986 Ford Ranger on Bring a Trailer Is the Definition of an Honest Pickup
Compact pickups used to be everywhere, but the survival rate of this hardworking breed is low. This Ford Ranger somehow escaped the fate of its brethren. Its combination of a manual transmission and a V-6 engine is desirable, even though you wouldn't call this a sport truck. A compact pickup truck is kind of like a lawn mower: It's a tool for a job, not something you expect to show up in a museum. It might not be subject to the same abuse as a full-size pickup on fleet duty, but it's expected to pull its weight. A few might have a gentle first owner with a penchant for around-the-house DIY, but after a decade or so, a second or third owner will beat the absolute tar out of them. Thus, an original-condition survivor is a bit of a rarity. Here's one such unicorn: a 1986 Ford Ranger regular cab with just 31K miles on the odometer, and it's up for sale on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos). Ordered with a five-speed manual and a V6, it was an unusual spec from the factory and has only become rarer as its fellows have been used up and sent to the scrapyard. 1986 is a good year for a Ranger. It's the first generation of the truck but also the first year you could get it with fuel injection, making it a little more pleasant to drive. This example has only the basics: power steering and power brakes, but no air conditioning. It's a truck. Just roll down the window. Originally a mid-level trim for the F-Series, the Ranger was launched as a standalone compact pickup truck in the early 1980s. It replaced the Courier, a Mazda-built badge-engineered mini-pickup that was a response to the success of Toyota and Datsun small pickups. Ford will happily sell you a Ranger today, but it's a much larger, more sophisticated, and more expensive offering. Its humble progenitor was not built for off-road capability, like the high-flying Ranger Raptor, but rather to ferry home a load of bark mulch or lumber, or get loaded up with landscaping tools. Including, yes, a lawnmower or two. Under the hood is a 2.9-liter V-6 making 140 horsepower, which was also available in the contemporary Bronco II. The five-speed manual wakes things up a bit, but this is a pretty grunty little six, good for 170 pound-feet of torque below 3000 rpm. Disc brakes up front add a further level of daily drivability. This is not a potential off-road rig like a contemporary Marty McFly–style Toyota pickup, nor is it the basis for a minitruck-style showpiece like a Nissan/Datsun might be. It's an honest survivor, a relic from a time when genuinely compact pickup trucks were plentiful and cheap. Settle into that vinyl bench seat, load up the bed with a cooler and maybe a folding chair, and cruise on over to the lake with the windows rolled down. Most Rangers of this era were worked to death. This one deserves a bit of a summer vacation. The auction ends on August 6. You Might Also Like Car and Driver's 10 Best Cars through the Decades How to Buy or Lease a New Car Lightning Lap Legends: Chevrolet Camaro vs. Ford Mustang!
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Here's What's Behind "Model T Moment" Ford Will Reveal Aug. 11
You'll normally find Ford CEO Jim Farley driving around in one of his company's pickups or SUVs, but he's spent a lot of time in recent months behind the wheel of a Xiaomi SU7 battery-electric vehicle. Like most senior industry officials, Farley is well aware of the threat being posed by a flood of new Chinese domestic automakers, including Xiaomi, Geely, Great Wall and BYD – the latter now outselling Tesla in key markets around the world. That's why he's also spent time in China recently, alongside a core team assigned to a new "skunkworks" program charged with developing a new generation of ultra-affordable Ford EVs. "This is a Model T moment for us," Farley said during the automaker's second-quarter earnings call this past week, confirming that Ford will have some big news about its future EV program to share on August 11 during a presentation at its assembly plant in Louisville, Kentucky. Don't expect to see an electric equivalent of the old Ford "Tin Lizzie," the name used by many owners to refer to the original Model T. Ford will leave that sort of project to Detroit-based EV company Slate with the bare-bones, plastic-bodied pickup it will launch in 2026. But Farley and his team hope to deliver something nearly as revolutionary as Ford's founder did more than a century ago. That means finding ways to not only slash battery costs but to dramatically simplify the manufacturing process to save tens of thousands of dollars per vehicle. The typical EV cost $56,910 in June 2025, according to Kelley Blue Book, about $8,000 more than the average transaction price for all vehicles sold in the U.S. last month. That's considered one of the key reasons why EV sales have been losing momentum. Related: 2025 Ford F-150 Lightning: What to Know if You're Thinking About Buying At the moment, Ford has three all-electric models in production: the Mustang Mach-E, the F-150 Lightning and the E-Transit, a battery-powered version of the automaker's big Transit van. It was also working up a high-end, three-row SUV that was expected to come in well above $60,000. The skunkworks team that's spent the last 18 months operating out of an anonymous facility Long Beach, California has been looking to cut that price tag in half. "We think that's a much better move than a $60,000 to $70,000 all-electric crossover," said Farley. Ford has been vague about what that team will bring to market, but insiders hint the company is preparing to launch an entirely new EV "family." And that's expected to include a number of different body styles, starting with a small, all-electric pickup somewhere in size between the compact Ford Maverick and midsize Ranger, said Sam Abuelsamid, lead analyst with Telemetry Research. At least one small SUV will follow. All of the products will be offered with new lithium-ion-phosphate battery packs produced at a new Ford plant being set up in Marshall, Michigan. While LFP sacrifices a bit of range it is substantially cheaper than the more familiar lithium-ion technology – and is also less likely to catch fire in a crash or when short-circuited. There will be multiple powertrain options for at least some of these new EVs. It's unclear if longer-range lithium-ion packs will be available, however. Related: 5 Game-Changing Batteries That Will Change Your Life Ford certainly isn't the only manufacturer aiming to deliver EVs starting at or below $30,000. General Motors will launch production later this year of a next-generation Chevrolet Bolt expected to come in below the brand's current low-end Equinox EV which starts at $34,995. But neither GM, nor Hyundai, nor Toyota, nor Volkswagen, are the brands Ford is looking at. "We believe the only way to compete effectively with the Chinese over the globe on EVs is to go and really push ourselves to radically re-engineer and transform our engineering supply chain and manufacturing process." Chinese domestic EV manufacturers have scored explosive growth over the past three years, much of that due to delivering extremely low prices for well-equipped vehicles. The BYD Dolphin, for example, goes for just the equivalent of $25,720 in Mexico. To get there, companies like BYD have not only focused on cheaper battery chemistry but have rethought the entire automotive design, engineering and manufacturing process, said Abuelsamid – just about everything down to the wheel. Farley and his team have been closely watching and various sources provided a glimmer of some of the things Ford has learned and plans to adopt: The battery packs on those new EVs will be more compact and will serve as part of the actual structure of the vehicles they're used in;That's just one way Ford plans to sharply reduce the number of parts it will use in those EVs;It also plans to adopt mega-casting – something already used by Tesla. In some applications, dozens of stamped steel parts will be replaced by a single cast piece of aluminum. That's one of the ways Xiaomi can sell the SU7 at a starting price of 215,900 yuan, or $29,900. Yet this is no stripped-down econobox, admitted Farley, with features including an air suspension and a large digital display. During an appearance on the Everything Electric Show podcast, he said, "I don't like talking about the competition so much, but I drive a Xiaomi (and) I've been driving it for six months now, and I don't want to give it up." Whether Ford can pull off its ambitious goal remains to be seen. The company has had enough trouble improving the quality of its existing line-up and staged more recalls during the first half of this year than any automaker has ever had before during a full year. Then there are the Trump tariffs that will raise costs for all sorts of imported raw materials and parts. Trump recently signaled he'll call for a 50% tariff on foreign copper, an essential EV ingredient. But industry-watchers like Abuelsamid say Ford has no choice if it expects to remain a serious contender in the global EV market, never mind just the U.S. Its future could depend on this "Model T Moment" as much as Henry Ford did a century ago. Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Epoch Times
5 hours ago
- Epoch Times
Ford to Recall Over 312,000 Vehicles Over Loss of Power Brake Assist, NHTSA Says
Ford is recalling 312,120 vehicles in the United States as loss of power brake assist while driving can extend stopping distance and increase the risk of a crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Friday. The recall affects certain 2025 Lincoln Navigator, F-150, Expedition, Bronco, and Ranger vehicles.
