Ford Recalls 63,000 Bronco and Ranger Vehicles Because Windshields May Detach in a Crash

The last day of June 2022 produced one of the year's most consequential auto glass safety stories: Ford Motor Company filed recall campaign 22C12 with NHTSA, covering more than 63,000 model year 2022 Ford Bronco and Ranger vehicles whose windshields had failed internal adhesion tests.

Ford engineers began investigating in April 2022 after a Bronco owner raised a concern about urethane application on the windshield. A database search identified eight of sixty-five reviewed vehicles that failed to meet Ford's windshield adhesion requirements—all built between January 15 and January 25, 2022. Expanded testing then identified sixteen additional affected Broncos from the January 15 through March 30 production window, and a parallel review of Rangers found three of fourteen tested vehicles with the same problem.

Notably, Ford opened a full internal investigation but engineers were unable to determine the root cause of the bonding failure. Variables they considered included ambient temperature and humidity at the assembly plant, oven settings during the curing process, the presence of surface contaminants, clearcoat thickness and others—yet none explained the failure pattern conclusively. No crashes or injuries related to the defect had been reported as of the recall filing.

The remedy was straightforward: dealers were instructed to remove the windshields from all affected vehicles and reinstall them. Owner notification letters were scheduled for mailing July 11, 2022. Customers who had paid for windshield repairs out of pocket prior to the recall announcement had until July 25, 2022, to submit reimbursement claims. The recall contact number for Bronco and Ranger owners was 866-436-7332.

For auto glass shops, the Ford recall highlighted a recurring theme of 2022: windshield bonding failures can occur even at major OEM assembly facilities operating under quality management systems. The lesson for shops was not complacency but confirmation—documenting adhesive brand, lot number, primer type and open time for every windshield installation is the professional standard that separates accountable technicians from those exposed to liability.