2021 FORD BRONCO SPORT — Complaint #2168551
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:TORQUE CONVERTER filed January 21, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2168551 (ODI reference 11712462) concerns a 2021 FORD BRONCO SPORT and was filed on January 21, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 1, 2025. The vehicle had 85,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New York based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:automatic transmission:torque converter, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same FORD BRONCO SPORT cohort independently describe similar power train:automatic transmission:torque converter failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2021 FORD BRONCO SPORT shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2021 Ford Bronco Sport. The contact stated that while driving at 25 MPH, the vehicle started jerking abnormally. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact had received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V467000 (Fuel System, Gasoline). The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, where it was diagnosed, and it was determined that the failure was due to the torque converter. The contact was informed that the transmission fluid needed to be flushed and refilled. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and offered to cover 60 percent of the cost of the repair. The failure mileage was approximately 85,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2168551 |
| ODI Number | 11712462 |
| Date Filed | January 21, 2026 |
| Failure Date | July 1, 2025 |
| VIN | 3FMCR9C69MR |
Similar POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:TORQUE CONVERTER Complaints for 2021 FORD BRONCO SPORT
The contact owns a 2021 Ford Bronco Sport. The contact stated that while driving approximately 45 MPH, there was a loud scraping sound coming from the engine compartment, and the vehicle jerked abnorm
NOT EVEN 200 MILES, ENGINE BEGAN RATTLING AND STALLING OUT. I WAS STRANDED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD AT A GREEN LIGHT. DEALERSHIP CLAIMS TORQUE CONVERTER PROBLEM. BRAND NEW BADLANDS PACKAGE. 2 LITER
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.