Ford is replacing the rearview camera for the second time on 506 Transit Connect vans, all model year 2015, after the first replacement under recall 25V572 did not fix the image. NHTSA campaign 26V650000, received on Oct. 6, says the camera can still show a distorted, inverted, intermittent or blank picture when the van is put in reverse.
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For the owner of one of these vans, that means a repair already made once, a part already replaced once, and a second wait ahead.
A camera image that fails four different ways
The NHTSA campaign record lists the symptom as a rearview camera image that may be “distorted, inverted, intermittent, or blank” in reverse. The consequence, as Ford filed it, is a reduced view behind the vehicle and a higher risk of a crash. Autoevolution, which covered the filing, reported that the cameras are made by Magna, that the driver gets no warning before the image goes, and that the design “does not meet the federal requirements for rearview cameras.” The vans are the only model in the campaign and the only year: the 2015 Transit Connect, built at Ford’s Valencia plant in Spain between Aug. 1, 2014 and July 28, 2015.
The 506 are not a random slice of the 2015 Transit Connect. According to the same report, the count comes from warranty claims on vans that had already been repaired under the earlier recall, which is why the new campaign is limited to vans remedied under 25V572 rather than every 2015 Transit Connect on the road. Ford’s own recall number for the new action is 26S73, and the campaign appears in the NHTSA recall dataset with the note that the vans were “previously remedied under 25V572.”
How the first repair missed
Autoevolution says the failure traces to paperwork. A transcription error in the launch of the first remedy listed the recalled camera assembly itself as the fix part, and the dealer bulletin did not say that the real remedy was not yet available. Service centers did what the bulletin told them to do and ordered the listed part. That part was an older camera revision that never contained the fix, so the van left the shop with a new camera carrying the original flaw. The explanation comes from the trade report rather than from the NHTSA summary, and should be read as that outlet’s account of Ford’s filing.
The first campaign was large. Spectrum News reported in September 2025 that Ford was recalling almost 1.5 million vehicles in the United States for a rearview camera that could show a blank or distorted image in reverse, with the Transit Connect among the 2015 to 2019 models named. The article did not give the campaign number, so its link to 25V572 rests on NHTSA’s own note in the new record. Against that population, 506 vans is a thin tail: the ones that, by Ford’s count, had their camera replaced and kept failing.
The timeline in the autoevolution account runs from June 2026, when Ford’s Critical Concerns Review Group began investigating warranty returns, to Sept. 21, when it had a final count of 506 in the United States. The review found no accidents or injuries potentially linked to the condition, a point that separates this campaign from its much larger predecessor.
Remedy: a new camera, but not before December 2027
The remedy is again a camera swap. Ford says dealers will replace the rearview camera as needed, free of charge, with assemblies built to an updated process with stronger quality control. Owners who paid a Ford service center out of pocket for the earlier work can seek reimbursement under Ford’s general recall reimbursement plan, and customer service is 1-866-436-7332.
The structure of the notices explains the delay. Ford’s filing describes two rounds of letters: an interim letter in October 2026 that tells owners the problem exists, and a later letter once replacement cameras are actually available to dealers. Autoevolution reads the schedule as a sign that the corrected cameras are not yet widely stocked, which fits Ford’s statement that the new assemblies will be made under an updated process. A dealer who orders the part before that process is running would risk repeating the first campaign’s mistake, so the long gap is, in effect, the cost of not ordering the wrong camera twice.
The wait is the sharpest detail. The campaign record says interim owner letters are expected in October 2026, with a second round when the remedy is available, anticipated in December 2027, and autoevolution reports a planned limit of Dec. 17, 2027 for those remedy letters. That leaves owners of the 506 vans with a faulty camera for about fourteen months after the recall is announced. Affected VINs became searchable on NHTSA’s recall lookup on Oct. 7, 2026, and the campaign page for 26V650000 shows the status of each van.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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