The Ford Explorer has always seemed to be an affordable and reliable option for an SUV. Whether you are looking for something family-friendly or just want the extra space, the Ford Explorer has a lot to offer. Sure, it’s not the fanciest thing on the market, but that isn’t always what we want from such a large, practical vehicle. If you’re looking at buying a new one, however, you should probably be aware of one tiny, scary recall that the 2021 Ford Explorer already has.

A small bump in the road

The word recall in itself is pretty intimidating, but not all recalls are bad. For the 2021 Ford Explorer, however, it isn’t great, but it’s far from the worse problem we’ve ever heard of a car having. The recall is in regards to the vehicle’s motor mounts, the part that secure’s your engine, and transmission to the car’s subframe. It is predicted that as many as just under 1,500 vehicles will be affected by the recall, which is small in comparison to major recalls like the Takata airbag recall that has plagued vehicle owners for years.

Failing motor mounts

It isn’t that uncommon to have motor mounts fail on a car. Older cars with rubber motor mounts can experience failures that are quite obvious as it causes the car to vibrate harshly. The problem with some of the 2020 and 2021 Ford Explorers isn’t that the motor mount itself is failing, rather that the bolts holding in the right-hand motor mount were not tightened adequately, causing them to loosen quickly.

As the bolt holding the motor mount into place loosens, the motor mount is no longer seated properly. This can cause the vibrations from the engine to affect the car’s components and potentially lead to problems such as the axel disconnecting from the engine — though it is important to note that this is in the most severe case. With so few vehicles affected by the recall, Ford is working quickly to resolve the problem for current owners as well as any cars still at the dealership lots.

Questionable reliability

According to the popular website Consumer Reports, things aren’t looking great for the 2021 Ford Explorer. With a predicted reliability rating of 1/5, it doesn’t seem things could get much worse for the car. These ratings are, however, just predictions based on problems that have surfaced with previous model years and potential problems that the car could have, and that doesn’t necessarily mean that the family-friendly SUV is doomed to be unreliable.

Regardless of the recall, there is no reason to claim that the 2021 Ford Explorer is unreliable, and after all, Ford is working to resolve the problem in any affected cars as swiftly as possible.