Ford Recalls 147,977 Mustangs Over Engine Harness Grounds: What Recall 26C40 Means for Your Mustang
Ford has issued a recall covering 147,977 Mustangs in the United States over engine wiring harness ground eyelets that may fracture in service. The Ford campaign number is 26C40. The NHTSA campaign number is 26V547.
This is the largest single action filed against the S650 Mustang to date, and it is worth understanding properly because the failure it describes is not one problem. It is four, depending on which ground breaks.
Which cars are covered
The recall applies to 2024 through 2026 Mustang vehicles equipped with the 2.3L EcoBoost or 5.0L V8, built at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant between September 7, 2022, and June 9, 2026.
Ford states that the 5.2L Shelby is not affected.
That build date range is wide, and it starts earlier than most owners expect, so model year alone is not a reliable filter here. Affected vehicles are identified by VIN in OASIS and the FSA VIN lists, which means the only answer that counts is the one attached to your car.
Check yours at nhtsa.gov/recalls using your 17-digit VIN, at Ford’s owner recall page, or in the FordPass app. Owners are already seeing 26C40 appear in FordPass vehicle health reports.
What actually goes wrong
Every electrical circuit needs a path back to the battery, and in a car that path is usually the body itself. Engine harness grounds are the ring terminals, called eyelets, that bolt the harness to sheet metal to complete those circuits. They are unglamorous parts, and when one fails, the components downstream stop working.
In the affected vehicles, added heat-shrink created an interference fit between the ground eyelets and the sheet metal, which distorted the eyelets. Ford says distorted grounds may break under normal vehicle vibration.
What you lose depends on which one goes:
- G1D145: loss of motive power
- G1D141: right front headlamp, horn, windshield washer fluid pump, and air conditioning
- G1D120: left front headlamp
- G1D143: engine cooling fan, which may be accompanied by an illuminated check engine light and an audible chime
Ford has filed this as a compliance recall rather than a defect recall, because the affected vehicles may not meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108, covering lamps and reflective devices, and FMVSS No. 104, covering windshield wiping and washing systems. The practical effect for owners is identical. The repair is free, and the campaign does not expire.
If your Mustang is doing this right now
The symptom list is the useful part of this recall, because these failures look like ordinary electrical gremlins and are easy to misdiagnose.
Watch for a headlamp out on one side with the bulb intact, a horn that has gone dead, washer fluid that pumps nothing while the reservoir is full, air conditioning that stops blowing cold, or a check engine light paired with a chime and a cooling fan that never spins up. Any of those in isolation is worth a VIN check against 26C40 before you start replacing parts.
If you experience a loss of power, treat it as urgent and contact your dealer directly rather than waiting on a letter.
One note for owners outside warranty coverage: the dealer bulletin instructs dealers to contact Ford’s Special Service Support Center for direction on vehicles presenting with the concern that no longer carry applicable coverage. If you are quoted for a repair that matches this description, ask your service advisor to make that call.
The remedy is not ready yet
There is no fix available today. Ford has told dealers that a complete bulletin including technical instructions is expected on or before December 21, 2026, which is also the date currently listed as the anticipated remedy availability in owner-facing systems. Parts are the constraint.
Dealers have been instructed not to open a repair order against the advance notice, so a service department that turns you away right now is following Ford’s direction, not brushing you off.
New vehicles are under a delivery hold. Dealers cannot demonstrate or deliver affected in-stock cars until the remedy is available, which will affect buyers with orders currently in transit.
Ford will notify owners by mail when the repair can be scheduled. The work is performed free of charge.
We will update this article as the bulletin publishes and parts become available.
