— The government has closed an investigation into sudden activations of seat belt pretensioners in 2019 Ford Expedition vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation in November 2023 following complaints about front seat belt retractor pretensioner deployments in 2019 Ford Expeditions.
The pretensioners should only deploy in crash impacts, but Expedition owners complained of hearing loud sounds similar to explosions as the seat belts tightened. And the incidents occurred without crash impacts.
So in February 2024, Ford announced a recall of 2018-2020 Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator vehicles equipped with front seat belt retractor pretensioners built between October 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019.
Ford said the seat belt pretensioner assembly could suffer from corroded squib pins which caused open circuits that deployed the pretensioners.
However, NHTSA received complaints about sudden pretensioner activations in the repaired vehicles which caused the government to open a recall investigation in November 2024.
This was followed by another Ford seat belt pretensioner in March 2025 to expand the recall to include 2018-2020 Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator vehicles, some that had already been recalled.
A few additional incidents were reported, but NHTSA didn't find a safety defect trend for vehicles not included in the seat belt pretensioner recalls.
And although the federal investigation has been closed, safety regulators will monitor complaints and incidents of inadvertent seat belt pretensioner deployments.