2021 Ford Escape Seat belts Problems

Seatbelts in the rear unbuckle themselves while driving. Children sit in the rear seats and the alert light doesn't always go off when not buckled.

NHTSA ID

11764545

Incident

Jun 10, 2026

When there is a seat belt fault, it disables the airbags from going off, even though the seat belts are all engaged

NHTSA ID

11756227

Incident

Aug 10, 2026

See attached document for complaint.

NHTSA ID

11749333

Incident

May 5, 2026

The second row middle seat seatbelt was extended one time and did not retract back. It is in operable and a seat we barely used, there’s no reason it should’ve stopped working. No rough play, heavy use, or use outside of occasional passenger. There’s already a past recall for a different seatbelt so there must be an issue with this one too. Car was only 4 years old, around 60 k miles or less. It has not been repaired because the ford dealer cannot get parts. It has been months of asking for updates and help on the issue.

NHTSA ID

11721610

Incident

Jul 31, 2025

The contact called on behalf of his wife who owns a 2021 Ford Escape. The contact stated that when the temperature was cold the seat belt buckled and remained in place as needed; however, during hot temperatures the seat belt was difficult to unbuckle. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer to be diagnosed and the contact was informed that the seat belt was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 62,000. The VIN was unavailable.

NHTSA ID

11653873

Incident

Jun 29, 2024

Mileage

62,000 mi

See attached document for complaint.

NHTSA ID

11651237

Incident

Mar 4, 2025

"PASSENGER SIDE SEATBELT PRETENSION AND RETRACTOR ASSEMBLY INTERNALLY FAULTED:" This caused the seat belt light to be illuminated. This was repaired free of charge by the dealership.

NHTSA ID

11486611

Incident

Sep 7, 2022

I rented this Ford Escape from Avis this month and ran into what could have been an incredibly dangerous safety issue due to a massive oversight in the car's design. I installed a small booster seat in the passenger side back seat for my 10 year-old son. He got in the seat and attached his seat belt, which he has done hundreds of times before in our own car. About 1 hour into a 2-hour freeway trip, a notification went off on the dashboard, telling me that a seat belt in the back had come undone. My son tried frantically to reattach the buckle but was unable. I had to exit the freeway and park on the side of the road. When I tried to reattach the buckle, I saw why there was a problem: He had inserted the buckle into the CENTER receptacle, not the passenger-side one. The receptacle didn't click, as it was probably designed not to do, but because the metal of the buckle has a slight angle to it, there was enough tension for it to temporarily hold. However even a minor accident could have been fatal because my son wasn't property strapped in. There are several issues here. First, the dash indicator should have been designed to tell me that there was weight on the right rear seat but no buckle was attached to that receptacle. Second, the center receptacle did not immediately reject the right-most buckle; instead, the bent angle of the buckle's metal temporarily held it in place and made my 10 year-old believe he was strapped in. Finally, the receptacles themselves have no play from side-to-side. This, plus the angle of the buckle's metal, means that when a booster seat is installed, there is not enough room to fully attach the buckle into the receptacle without exerting a LOT of force to push the receptacle to the left. I can't imagine the buckle can be attached at all with a larger child seat. The image I attached shows why this is; attaching a car seat requires exerting enough force to bend the metal holding the receptacle in order to attach the buckle.

NHTSA ID

11448644

Incident

Jan 3, 2022