Ford recalls 1.5 million cars for faulty door latches

Washington — Ford is recalling an additional 1.5 million cars in the U.S. and Mexico that have doors that can swing open while the vehicles are in motion. The automaker said one accident and three injuries have been reported.

The Dearborn-based company is expanding a prior recall that affected nearly 830,000 cars that have a spring tab in the side-door latches that officials said could break, creating the possibility of the doors swinging open during motion. The company said the recall now affects nearly 2.4 million cars in its North American markets.

“In the affected vehicles, the pawl spring tab in the side door latch could break,” the company said Thursday. “A door latch with a fractured pawl spring tab typically results in a ‘door-will-not-close’ condition. A door that opens while driving increases the risk of injury.”

Ford said the recall expansion affects certain 2013-15 Ford C-Max and Ford Escape, 2012-15 Ford Focus, 2015 Ford Mustang and Lincoln MKC and 2014-16 Ford Transit Connect models. A previous recall covered those same vehicles.

The company said about 2 million of the recalled cars are in the United States, while 233,034 of the autos in Canada and 61,363 are in Mexico.

The expanded recall will cost Ford $640 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ford said the charge would appear in its third-quarter financial results, and would result in the company’s full-year pre-tax profit margin being lowered $10.2 billion.

Previous estimates called for the Dearborn company to match or exceed its 2015 profit margin of $10.8 billion.

Ford said its dealers will replace the side-door latches at no cost to customers.

Customers who want to know if their vehicle is included in this recall can visit www.ford.com, click on safety recalls at the bottom of the page and enter their vehicle identification number.

klaing@detroitnews.com

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Twitter: @Keith_Laing