A wiring harness already tied to 15 fires triggers a 565,000-vehicle Ford Bronco recall

Ford Motor Company has recalled 565,691 Bronco SUVs in the United States after tracing 15 engine fires to a wiring harness that can rub against nearby hardware until it wears through. The recall, filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as campaign 26V-468, covers Broncos built between September 23, 2020, and June 28, 2026 — effectively every example of the current-generation SUV Ford has produced since relaunching the nameplate. Owners will not pay anything for the repair.

The defect traces to movement between the engine-compartment wiring harness and nearby components, combined with insufficient abrasion protection on the harness itself. Over time and mileage, that friction can wear through the insulation and expose bare wiring; once exposed, an intermittent short can arc, and the arc can ignite nearby flammable material such as fluid residue or plastic trim under the hood. Ford has not linked the fault to any crashes or injuries, but the automaker has confirmed that all 15 fire incidents occurred on model-year 2021 through 2026 Broncos already registered to owners.

Ford Puts the Odds at One in a Hundred

In its filing with regulators, Ford estimated that only about one percent of the 565,691 recalled Broncos actually carry the wiring defect, meaning the automaker expects roughly 5,700 vehicles to need the harness inspected or repaired. Ford nonetheless recalled the entire eligible population rather than a narrower batch, an approach automakers typically take when a supplier or assembly-line variance makes it impossible to identify which individual vehicles left the factory with a marginal harness routing versus a compliant one. Filing for the full population rather than a targeted subset also shortens the timeline regulators require before dealers must be ready to perform the repair, since NHTSA does not have to approve a narrower eligibility formula first.

The fires Ford disclosed occurred between October 2024 and June 2026, a span of roughly twenty months that suggests the defect can take years of engine heat and vibration to progress from a chafed harness to an actual short circuit. None of the 15 incidents resulted in a reported injury, according to the filing, though Ford’s submission does not specify how many of the fires were contained to the engine bay versus spreading further into the vehicle.

Which Broncos Are Covered

The recall spans nearly the entire run of Ford’s reintroduced Bronco, from the first 2021 models that returned the nameplate to production through Broncos built as recently as late June 2026. That range includes the off-road-focused Bronco Raptor alongside every standard trim, since Ford’s filing does not carve out any engine or body style as exempt. Because the wiring fault sits in the engine bay rather than anywhere tied to the Bronco’s removable doors or roof panels, the recall applies identically across two-door and four-door versions, manual and automatic transmissions, and every engine offered on the platform.

Dealers will inspect the harness routing and add abrasion-resistant sleeving, or reroute sections that sit too close to heat sources, at no cost to the owner. Ford says most inspections can be completed in under an hour.

A Pattern Ford Found Before Regulators Did

The wiring harness recall is not the Bronco’s first brush with a safety campaign; Ford has recalled the nameplate multiple times since its relaunch for issues ranging from ill-fitting hardtop panels to a driveshaft bolt that could work loose at highway speed. A fire-risk recall carries different stakes than either of those, since NHTSA’s own severity guidance treats any campaign involving a potential ignition source as a higher priority for owner notification. Fire-related recalls also tend to draw closer follow-up scrutiny from the agency’s Office of Defects Investigation, which can reopen a case if incident counts keep climbing after the remedy has shipped.

That history matters for context, not exoneration. NHTSA does not weight a manufacturer’s prior recall record when it opens a new investigation, and the wiring campaign appears to have started from Ford’s own warranty-claim data flagging the fire pattern, rather than from a regulator inquiry forcing the issue into the open. Manufacturer-initiated recalls of this kind are common in the industry, and Ford’s submission credits its field-data monitoring rather than any consumer complaint as the trigger for opening the investigation that led to campaign 26V-468.

How Owners Can Check Their Vehicle

Owners can confirm whether their specific vehicle identification number is included by searching NHTSA’s recall lookup tool under campaign number 26V-468, since Ford’s rollout does not automatically cover every Bronco built in the affected date range — only those the factory identifies as having received the harness routing linked to the 15 fires. Notification letters are expected to reach affected owners within the standard window NHTSA gives automakers to contact registered owners once a recall has been filed.

Until the repair is complete, Ford’s guidance mirrors what it has told owners in past engine-bay fire recalls: schedule the inspection promptly, and contact a dealer immediately if a burning smell or visible smoke appears near the engine before the fix has been made. Parking away from structures overnight is not part of Ford’s formal guidance for this campaign, a distinction from some prior fire-risk recalls at other automakers where regulators pushed for that interim step while parts supplies caught up with demand.

Dealer parts allocations for the abrasion-resistant sleeving are expected to ramp through the fall, and Ford has not indicated that a shortage will delay repairs the way earlier high-volume recalls at the company sometimes did when a redesigned part had to be manufactured from scratch rather than simply resecured on the existing harness.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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