Recall Register

Ford Tempo: recalls and complaints by model year

NHTSA lists 11 recall campaigns for the Ford Tempo, model years 1981 to 2000. NHTSA has 1,197 complaints on file for this model line. 11 of the 18 model years have a page on this register.

Complaint information entered into NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation vehicle owner's complaint database is used with other data sources to identify safety issues that warrant investigation and to determine if a safety-related defect trend exists.

NHTSA publishes these words. Source: NHTSA Datasets and APIs, section Complaints, read on . Complaint file through . Recall file through .

Model years

The number under each year is the number of recall campaigns.

  1. 19810
  2. 19846
  3. 19853
  4. 19860
  5. 19871
  6. 19882
  7. 19891
  8. 19901
  9. 19911
  10. 19922
  11. 19932
  12. 19941
  13. 19950
  14. 19960
  15. 19970
  16. 19980
  17. 19990
  18. 20000
Ford Tempo: recall campaigns and complaints for each model year, newest first
Model yearRecall campaignsComplaintsShare of the line averageUnits in the campaigns
2000 Ford Tempo NHTSA page012%
1999 Ford Tempo NHTSA page012%
1998 Ford Tempo NHTSA page012%
1997 Ford Tempo NHTSA page023%
1996 Ford Tempo NHTSA page023%
1995 Ford Tempo NHTSA page035%
1994 Ford Tempo1161242%75,200
1993 Ford Tempo2227341%7,975,200
1992 Ford Tempo2176265%7,975,200
1991 Ford Tempo1110165%7,900,000
1990 Ford Tempo1133200%7,900,000
1989 Ford Tempo1124186%7,900,000
1988 Ford Tempo2126189%7,991,000
1987 Ford Tempo15380%350
1986 Ford Tempo03147%
1985 Ford Tempo33045%457,744
1984 Ford Tempo61421%1,441,514
1981 Ford Tempo NHTSA page023%

The share is the complaints of the model year divided by the average of the line for one model year. A campaign that names 3 model years is in the count of each of the 3.

A model year with fewer than 2 campaigns and fewer than 25 complaints has no page here. The link in its row opens its NHTSA page.

Recall campaign: One recall in the NHTSA recall file, with one campaign number. A campaign can name many makes, models and model years.

Complaint: A report about a possible safety problem that a person sends to NHTSA. This site shows the number of complaints and not their text.

Units: The number of vehicles or products that a recall can include. The manufacturer or the firm reports the number to the agency.

Components in the complaints

1,649 component mentions.

A complaint can name more than one component. Each component that a complaint names is one component mention. The figure per 1,000 component mentions shows how many of each 1,000 mentions name the component.

Ford Tempo: complaints by component, per 1,000 component mentions
ComponentPer 1,000Mentions
Electrical System223.8369
Engine and Engine Cooling197.1325
Seat Belts140.7232
Service Brakes, Hydraulic87.3144
Fuel System, Gasoline50.383
Power Train43.772
Vehicle Speed Control43.171
Steering4066
Exterior Lighting25.542
Visibility22.437

Counts by year

Recall campaigns that name the Ford Tempo, by the year NHTSA received the report. The largest year is 1996, with 1 campaign.
Complaints about the Ford Tempo, by the year NHTSA received them. The largest year is 1996, with 318 complaints.

Other model lines of the make

Ford: all 201 model lines

Official channels

Cite this page

Recall Register. Ford Tempo: recalls and complaints by model year. https://recallregister.com/vehicle/ford/tempo/. Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation, recall, complaint and investigation files. Data through .

Sources

Source
NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation
Licence
US government work, public domain
Recall file through
29 Sep 2026
Complaint file through
15 May 2019
Manufacturer in the recall file
FORD MOTOR COMPANY

The model name is the name in the NHTSA files. NHTSA keeps a variant of a model as a different line. How the register is made. Report an error.

Questions

Which Ford Tempo model years have the most recall campaigns?
1984 with 6, 1985 with 3, 1993 with 2. A campaign that names 3 model years is in the count of each of the 3.
Which Ford Tempo model year has the most complaints?
The 1993 model year, with 227 of the 1,197 complaints for the line. A newer model year has had less time to get complaints.
Which components do the complaints about the Ford Tempo name?
Electrical System: 223.8 per 1,000 component mentions. Engine and Engine Cooling: 197.1 per 1,000 component mentions. Seat Belts: 140.7 per 1,000 component mentions.
How many NHTSA investigations name the Ford Tempo?
15 investigations name one or more model years of the line. The page of each model year lists its investigations.