Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator Second-Row Seat Recall: What Owners Should Know
If you drive a Ford Explorer or a Lincoln Aviator, a letter from Ford may already be sitting in your mailbox. Ford has recalled roughly 388,000 of these SUVs because a switch in the second row can stick — and when it sticks, the seat can unlatch, tip, or slide unexpectedly. According to the recall report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, that can happen while the vehicle is being driven.
For most families, the second row is where the kids sit. That is what makes this recall worth ten minutes of your attention rather than a spot on the pile of mail by the door. A seat that is not locked into place is a seat that may not hold a passenger where it needs to hold them when something goes wrong.
Below is a plain-language walk-through of what the recall covers, what Ford says the fix is, what to do next, and what your options look like if you or someone in your family was hurt. This is general information about a recall that affects hundreds of thousands of vehicles nationwide — it is not legal advice about anyone's particular situation.
What the recall covers
According to reporting by CBS News and Fox Business and the recall documents filed with NHTSA, the recall covers:
Certain 2020–2026 Ford Explorer vehicles
Certain 2020–2027 Lincoln Aviator vehicles
Approximately 387,911 vehicles in total
Ford's internal recall number is 26S52
The reported defect sits in the second-row outboard seats — the ones with the "easy entry" tip-and-slide feature that lets passengers climb through to the third row. According to Ford's filing, the bezel (the trim piece surrounding the switch that operates that feature) can become misaligned or unseated during ordinary use. When that happens, it can press against the switch and hold it down. A switch stuck in the down position can allow the seat to tip or slide when no one asked it to.
Ford has reportedly stated that it is not aware of any crashes or injuries connected to the defect. As of June 16, according to CBS News, Ford's Critical Concern Review Group had identified 14 reports of unintended second-row seat movement while the vehicle was in drive. Notably, this recall does not carry a "do not drive" or "park outside" instruction — unlike some fire-risk recalls you may have read about.
Why a seat that shifts is a safety issue, not just an annoyance
It is easy to read "the seat can slide" and picture a minor inconvenience. In vehicle safety engineering, it is treated as something more serious than that.
A vehicle seat is not just furniture. It is part of the restraint system. The seat frame, the latch that anchors it to the floor, and the seat belt geometry are designed to work together to keep an occupant in a predictable position — so the belt loads across the right parts of the body, and so the person does not travel farther than the cabin was designed to allow. When a seat is not locked down, several of those assumptions stop holding.
That is essentially the concern Ford identified in its own filing: a seat that moves unexpectedly may not properly restrain an occupant during a crash, which increases the risk of injury. It also creates a more ordinary hazard — a seat that shifts under a passenger at highway speed can startle a driver, and a startled driver is a distracted one.
This recall expands an earlier one — and that matters
According to the recall documents, this action expands recall 25V393 (Ford campaign 25S67), which was approved in June 2025 and covered 2020–2025 Explorer and Aviator vehicles for the same unrequested seat-movement problem. The new action reaches additional model years.
Recall expansions happen regularly, and they carry a practical lesson worth holding onto: a clean recall check from last year is not a permanent answer. Manufacturers sometimes learn a defect reaches further than they first believed — more model years, more trim levels, a different supplier batch. If you checked your VIN in 2025 and were told you were fine, that answer may have changed.
It is worth building a small habit around this. Checking your VIN once or twice a year takes about a minute and costs nothing.
What to do if you own one of these vehicles
A few concrete steps:
Check your VIN directly. Enter your 17-character VIN at NHTSA's recall lookup tool (nhtsa.gov/recalls). It will show open recalls for your specific vehicle rather than for the model generally.
Watch for the notification letter. According to NHTSA, owner notification letters were scheduled to begin mailing July 27, 2026. You do not have to wait for the letter to schedule the repair.
Get the free repair. According to Ford, dealers will inspect and replace the bezel around the switch at no cost. Recall repairs are free by law — you should not be charged for parts or labor on the recall remedy.
Pay attention to how the seat behaves in the meantime. If a second-row seat feels loose, shifts under weight, or does not click firmly into place, treat that as information worth reporting to the dealer and worth noting in writing.
Keep your paperwork. Save the recall letter, the repair order, and any communication about the seat. Documentation that costs you nothing today can matter a great deal later.
You can also reach Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332 and reference recall number 26S52.
If you or a family member was injured
If someone in your vehicle was hurt in a crash involving a second-row seat that moved, a few things tend to matter more than people expect.
The vehicle itself is evidence. Insurance companies and salvage yards move quickly, and a vehicle can be repaired, sold, or crushed within weeks. If a defective component may be involved, the physical seat, the latch, the switch, and the bezel are often the most important proof in the case. Preserving them early is far easier than recreating them later.
Records tell the story. Medical records, the crash report, photographs from the scene, the recall letter, and dealer service history all fit together. Photographs taken on a phone in a parking lot have carried real weight in real cases.
Timing is a real constraint. In Texas, the deadline to file most personal injury claims is generally two years, but there are exceptions that can shorten or extend that window depending on the circumstances — who was injured, their age, and who the defendant is, among other factors. Because those exceptions genuinely vary, the safe move is to confirm your specific deadline with an attorney rather than assume.
Whether a recall exists is not the whole question. A recall shows the manufacturer identified a problem and offered a fix. Whether a particular defect caused a particular injury is a separate question that turns on engineering, medicine, and the specific facts. That is the work.
How Gresham Law Group can help
If you are trying to figure out whether what happened to you or your family involves a defective vehicle component, you should not have to sort that out alone — and you should not have to pay to ask.
Dean Gresham has spent his career trying serious injury and wrongful death cases, including claims involving defective products and vehicles. Practically, that means we can help you understand whether a defect claim is even worth investigating, tell you plainly if we do not think you have one, help you take steps now to preserve the vehicle and the evidence before it disappears, and explain what the process would actually look like if you moved forward.
Sometimes the most useful thing we do is give someone a clear answer so they can stop worrying about it.
Talk with us
If you or someone you love was seriously injured and you think a vehicle defect may have played a role, we would be glad to talk it through with you. The consultation is free, there is no obligation, and you will get a straight answer.
Call (866) 878-3819 or visit greshamlawgroup.com to reach us.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Gresham Law Group. Every case is different, and laws change over time. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter. If you have a legal question about your specific situation, please consult a licensed attorney.
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