Ford door latch recalls 2011–2016: doors that open while driving

A spring tab inside the latch can break in heat and cold. Ford recalled the same latches repeatedly from 2015 to 2023 because earlier repairs did not always hold.

OCT 17, 2026 · A. Evirgen · Guides

The short answer

Between 2015 and 2023 Ford filed a string of recalls for side door latches in its small and mid-size cars of the early 2010s: the 2011–2014 Fiesta, 2012–2015 Focus, 2013–2016 Fusion, 2013–2015 Escape and C-MAX, 2014–2016 Transit Connect, 2015 Mustang, and their Lincoln versions. A small part inside the latch, the pawl spring tab, can break. A door with a broken latch may not close, or may appear closed and then open while the car is moving, most often in a turn.

The largest of these campaigns, 20V-331 in June 2020, covered about 2.15 million vehicles. Ford said it was needed partly because some latches had not been properly repaired or replaced under two earlier recalls. If you own one of these cars, the latch may have been "fixed" before and still need attention now.

The recalls, in order

The federal recall file shows how the problem was handled in stages. Each campaign below covers door latches in Ford vehicles of these years:

• 15V-246, April 2015: 2011–2014 Fiesta and 2013–2014 Fusion. It followed an NHTSA engineering analysis, EA15-002, which found the latch pawl spring tab could break and let the door open while driving.
• 16V-643, September 2016: about 2.05 million vehicles: 2012–2015 Focus, 2013–2015 Escape and C-MAX, 2015 Mustang and 2014–2016 Transit Connect.
• 17V-210, March 2017: 191,432 more 2014 Fiesta and 2013–2014 Fusion.
• 20V-177, March 2020: 288,110 2014–2015 Fiesta and 2014–2016 Fusion.
• 20V-331, June 2020: about 2.15 million vehicles across nearly every model above. Ford's announcement (Ford's own number is 20S30) said a part inside the latch may fail after exposure to extreme temperatures, and that the issue had been meant to be fixed under two prior recalls, but some latches were not properly repaired or replaced (Consumer Reports on recall 20V-331). Ford said there were no crashes or injuries related to that recall.
• 23V-775, November 2023: 45,173 more 2015 Fiesta and 2016 Fusion.

For 20V-331, Ford set up a way for owners to read a date code from a sticker on the latch and enter it online to find out whether that latch needed replacing. Owners who could not do that could have a dealer inspect the car.

Why NHTSA reopened the question

In December 2019 NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation opened recall query RQ19-005 (NHTSA opening resume, RQ19-005). A recall query is the step NHTSA takes when it wants to know whether a recall already done went far enough. This one was opened "to assess the scope and remedy" of recalls 15V-246 and 17V-210, covering 528,305 2012–2014 Fiestas and 2013–2014 Fusions and Lincoln MKZs.

The opening document is short and pointed:

• NHTSA counted 235 complaints, 109 of them describing doors opening while driving.
• "Many of the complaints occur on vehicles that have been previously under Recall 15V-246 and 17V-210," and some involved vehicles outside the recalled population.
• Two minor injuries were reported, and one complaint described debris leaving a vehicle on the freeway.

The recall query closed in February 2022, after the 2020 recalls had widened the population. Our guide to how NHTSA investigations work explains what a recall query is and why it matters for owners of cars that were "already fixed".

What owners reported

We counted the owner complaints filed with NHTSA that name door latches, for the recalled models and years, as the federal file stood on September 21, 2026. They are unverified, counted once per complaint number.

• 886 latch complaints are on record for these cars: 242 for the 2012–2015 Focus, 175 for the 2011–2014 Fiesta, 159 for the 2013–2015 Escape and 139 for the 2013–2014 Fusion, with smaller numbers for the C-MAX, Transit Connect and 2015 Mustang.
• They peaked after the recalls began, not before. 187 were filed in 2016 and 144 in 2017, the years of the large 16V-643 campaign, when owners learned that a door that would not close was a known defect.
• They did not stop. Owners filed 59 latch complaints in 2020, 52 in 2022 and 56 in 2023, years after the first remedies. That is the pattern NHTSA described in the recall query: latches failing again on cars that had been through a recall.
• 47 describe a door opening while the car was moving, typically in a turn. The rest describe doors that would not latch, would not stay closed, or had to be tied shut.
• The median stated mileage is about 65,000 miles. Ford's own explanation, a part that fails after exposure to extreme temperatures, fits a failure that appears with age.

The model-year pages list every recall that applies to each year, with that year's own complaints: the 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Focus; the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Fiesta; the 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 Fusion; the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Escape; and the 2015 Mustang. The C-MAX and Transit Connect have no year pages of their own; their figures are on the C-MAX and Transit Connect model pages.

What to do if you own one

Check the VIN, even if the car was "done". Enter it at NHTSA's recall lookup. A car can be listed under more than one of these campaigns, and a completed earlier recall does not mean a later one is complete.

Know the warning signs. A door that needs slamming to close, a door-ajar light that stays on or flickers, a door that bounces back open, or a door that will not lock. Any of these is a reason to see a dealer before the door opens on its own.

Until it is fixed, keep children away from the affected door. If a rear door will not latch reliably, seat passengers elsewhere. Never tie or tape a door shut as a long-term measure; a dealer repair under recall is free.

If a door opens while you are driving, slow down smoothly and pull over when safe. Then report it to NHTSA at nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem, including whether the car had already had latch recall work. That detail is exactly what NHTSA looked for in RQ19-005.

If you are buying one of these cars: open and close every door, firmly and gently, and check that each one latches on the first try and that the door-ajar warning goes out. Ask for the recall history by VIN.

What this page cannot tell you

We cannot tell which latch is in a given car, or whether a previous repair used the updated part. The recall populations and dates are from the federal recall file; the complaint counts are ours and describe what owners reported, not what was verified.

The vehicles this covers

Ford C-MAX 2013 2014 2015
Ford Escape 2013 2014 2015
Ford Fiesta 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Ford Focus 2012 2013 2014 2015
Ford Fusion 2013 2014 2015 2016
Ford Mustang 2015
Ford Transit Connect 2014 2015 2016

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