BUSINESS

Ford to recall 650K vehicles over seat belt issue

Melissa Burden
The Detroit News

Ford Motor Co. said Friday it was issuing a recall of about 650,000 Ford and Lincoln sedans in North America, including more than 602,000 in the U.S., to insulate seat belt anchor pretensioners that could separate in a crash.

Ford says the pretensioner cables could separate because of the increased temperature generated as the seat belt pretensioners deploy. If the cable separates, it may not properly restrain occupants in a crash, increasing risk of injury.

The Dearborn automaker said it knows of two crashes and two injuries associated with the problem.

Dealers for free will inject a coating into the front driver and passenger seat belt anchor pretensioners to protect the cables.

The recall covers certain 2013-16 Ford Fusions, 2015-16 Ford Mondeos and 2013-15 Lincoln MKZs.

Ford says 35,614 vehicles are in Canada, with 8,665 in Mexico and 653 in federalized territories. In total, Ford is recalling about 680,000 vehicles including another 30,000 or so vehicles that are in Europe, Asia Pacific and South America.

mburden@detroitnews.com

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