Ford Motor Company issued a recall letter this week regarding an issue impacting nearly 230,000 Ford Bronco and Ford Bronco Sport vehicles with faulty “Instrument Panel Clusters” that are blank upon start up.
A Nov. 14 recall safety notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that 229,609 vehicles are estimated to have the defect. These include 128,607 2025-2026 Ford Bronco Sport vehicles and 101,002 2025-2026 Ford Broncos.
Blank instrument cluster screen allegations related to the vehicles were brought up to Ford’s Critical Concern Review Group in September, the NHTSA said. In September and October, the group reviewed the issue and found that the vehicles arrived at Ford dealerships in a compliant state. However, it also “reviewed data related to this concern and similarities to prior Ford recall 25S88 / NHTSA 25V540,” that is related to the instrument panel cluster.
“While the current warranty rate suggests a low rate of occurrence and future projections indicate a rate lower than the projected failure rate for vehicles included in 25S88 / 25V540, connected vehicle data indicates 68% of connected vehicles surveyed had ignition cycle events that are in the window of susceptibility to this concern,” said the Nov. 14 recall notice. “This value is similar to the connected data for vehicles included in 25S88 / 25V540. The CCRG was unable to identify any causal factors that result in a lower rate on this population compared to vehicles included in 25S88 / 25V540.”
Instrument panel clusters in the Ford Bronco Sport vehicles were produced between March 7 and Nov. 3 of last year and the instrument panel clusters in the Ford Bronco vehicles were produced between March 31 and Nov. 3 of last year. When the vehicles are started up, the cluster might be blank. That impacts motorist access to safety-related telltales and gauges in certain conditions.
“If driven with a blank IPC, critical safety information may not be displayed and can increase the risk of a crash,” the NHTSA explained.
By Nov. 7, Ford is aware of 12 warranty claims potentially related to this concern, said the administration. No reports of accidents or injuries had been reported as of that time,
It described the cause as something that happens “during the sleep entry sequence of the IPC,” when “a CAN wakeup interrupt can occur within a narrow timeframe, resulting in a memory protection fault.”
To remedy the issue, owners will need to take their vehicles to Ford or Lincoln dealerships to have the IPC software updated with the memory protection feature disabled. They will receive notifications by mail if their vehicle is impacted and there will be no charge for the service. Dealerships should expect notifications on Nov. 24 and mailing of notices to vehicle owners is expected to begin Dec. 8 and be completed by Dec. 12.
“These vehicles are not produced in VIN order. Information as to the applicability of this action to specific vehicles can best be obtained by either calling Ford’s toll-free line (1-866-436-7332) or by contacting a local Ford or Lincoln dealer who can obtain specific information regarding the vehicles from the Ford On-line Automotive Service Information System (OASIS) database,” the NHTSA said.
In recent weeks, Audacy has also reported on recalls of Honda and Jeep vehicles.