Ford is recalling 741,195 SUVs and trucks because a transmission defect can let the vehicle roll even after the driver has shifted into Park. The recall, filed with NHTSA as campaign 26V402, covers the Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition (2018-2021), the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator (2020-2021), and the 2021 Ford F-150.

Key Points

• 741,195 vehicles affected across five nameplates spanning Ford and Lincoln.
• The cause is a transmission valve body separator plate that can restrict fluid flow to the park valve, according to Fox Business.
• When it fails, the transmission may not actually hold the vehicle in Park even though the shifter and dash both say it is.
• Ford has logged 24 property damage claims and 9 alleged injuries tied to the defect so far.
• An interim software fix started August 3, 2026; a permanent repair isn’t expected until April 2027.

The system at fault is park-by-wire, the electronic setup that replaced the old mechanical linkage between the shift lever and the parking pawl on Ford’s 10-speed-equipped SUVs and trucks. If the valve body separator plate restricts fluid flow the way NHTSA describes, the parking pawl can fail to fully engage even though every indicator in the cabin reads “P.” A wrench warning light comes on, and the electronic parking brake is supposed to kick in automatically as a backstop — but that’s a second system stepping in for a first one that already failed.

Ford’s own estimate is that roughly 1% of the recalled population actually carries the defect, which still works out to well over 7,000 vehicles where “in Park” might not mean what the driver thinks it means. That’s a small failure rate spread across a genuinely uncomfortable scenario — a parked vehicle rolling on its own, with nobody behind the wheel to catch it.

What’s Affected

• 2018-2021 Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition
• 2020-2021 Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator
• 2021 Ford F-150
• Vehicles equipped with park-by-wire and the 10R80 automatic transmission

What Owners Should Do

• Dealers began the interim fix — a powertrain control module software update plus inspection and repair of damaged components — on August 3, 2026, at no cost
• Always set the parking brake as a backup, especially on any incline, until your vehicle has been serviced
• Watch for a wrench warning light on the dashboard, which can signal the park system has already had a problem
• A second, permanent repair notification is expected around April 2027 — Ford will contact owners again when it’s ready
• Check recall status anytime at NHTSA.gov/recalls

Two-step recalls like this one are becoming more common as automakers push out a quick software patch while they finish engineering a hardware fix, but it means owners are living with a known rollaway risk for the better part of a year before the real repair shows up. Until then, the parking brake is doing a job the transmission was supposed to handle on its own.