Posted on 02/28/2008 12:34:42 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The government on Thursday warned owners of about 4.6 million recalled Ford vehicles to bring their cars and trucks immediately to dealerships to disconnect cruise control switch systems that have been linked to engine fires.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued the consumer advisory to the owners of certain unrepaired Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, vans and passenger cars who have not yet responded to past recalls.
The recalls have vexed the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker, affecting its popular F-Series pickup trucks, prompting hundreds of complaints and dozens of lawsuits over engine fires. Three deaths have been tied to the fires and Ford has struggled to produce enough parts to fix the problem.
About 9.6 million Ford vehicles have been recalled since 1999 and about 5 million have been fixed, raising concerns about the remaining vehicles on the road. NHTSA said they have received about 60 complaints of engine fires in the Ford vehicles since August 2007.
Ford said they supported the action and dealers would soon offer a more permanent fix.
"We absolutely want everybody to come in as soon as they can because we can eliminate the risk of fire for anyone with a vehicle in this recall," said Ford Motor Co. spokesman Wes Sherwood. He said the company would have an "ample supply" of the replacement parts by June.
NHTSA said many dealers will disconnect the cruise control switches as a "drive through" service so owners do not have to leave their vehicles at the dealership or schedule an appointment.
Dealers have installed a fused wiring harness into the speed control electrical system as part of the recall, but replacement parts have not been widely available. Owners can take their vehicle to a dealer to have the cruise control deactivated until the parts arrive.
NHTSA issued a lengthy list of older vehicles covered by the consumer advisory, including 1993-2004 Ford F150 trucks, 1994-2002 F250 through F550 Super Duty trucks with gasoline engines, and 1998-2001 Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer SUVs, all of which were among the best-selling vehicles in the nation during those years.
A complete list was available at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/.
The Ford recalls have run into problems. Earlier this month, the automaker recalled about 225,000 vehicles that had already been repaired because some wiring harnesses appeared to be defective.
Ford also faces more than 100 lawsuits nationwide because of fires linked to the cruise control deactivation switch. Many owners have alleged the fires began after the vehicles were turned off and there have been three deaths attributed to that problem in Iowa, Georgia and Arkansas.
Last week, Ford was able to consolidate 77 lawsuits filed in Texas so a single judge can handle pretrial discovery.
Ford has said its internal investigations have found the fires did not cause deaths and injuries.
"In the cases where there was that allegation, we found that the source of the fire was unrelated to the vehicle," said Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley.
For additional details, owners can call Ford at (888) 222-2751.
“What a revolting development this is!”
-Chester A. Riley
About 9.6 million Ford vehicles have been recalled since 1999 and about 5 million have been fixed, raising concerns about the remaining vehicles on the road. NHTSA said they have received about 60 complaints of engine fires in the Ford vehicles since August 2007.
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NHTSA issued a lengthy list of older vehicles covered by the consumer advisory, including 1993-2004 Ford F150 trucks, 1994-2002 F250 through F550 Super Duty trucks with gasoline engines, and 1998-2001 Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer SUVs, all of which were among the best-selling vehicles in the nation during those years.
A complete list was available at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/.
Does Toyota have a lot of recalls?
Yup.
And this why once I finally get my own car I’ll be buying Japanese. Hell Japanese car companies tend to create more jobs in this country than American car companies.
I had this done on my 2002 Ranger last fall. The fuse link took 5 minutes and I was outta there.
Thanks, sounds like a quick fix..
I hate it when wiring harnesses go bad..
for a brief moment, thought I saw OJ trapped inside..
It was a plug and play deal and my dealer said they were doing 100 or more every day.
I have an F150 that was on the recall. I must have received a notice a month until I took it in to get fixed.
It took about 15 minutes while I waited. I watched and it is a pretty straightforward splice job.
Fewer than Ford, and far fewer that result in fires of this scale.
This isn’t a case of a bad supplier part, either, this is a case of truly stupid design - for example, why the HECK would you leave the cruise control system powered when the car is turned off? Only Ford knows why they adopted that “standard” across the board.
And now Fords are burning.
This is old news. Ford doesn’t make the switch, it’s sourced from an Asian supplier most likely.
I quit buying Ford when my Mercury Sable engine and tranny only lasted 145,000 miles even after babying them
Nope. Made in USA by UAW workers. Sorry.
And if Ford didn’t 1) make the stupid decision to make the cruise control switch pressure operated by brake fluid in the master cylinder (which is a disaster waiting to happen) and 2) didn’t leave the cruise control system and therefore the switch POWERED when the vehicle is TURNED OFF, there wouldn’t actually be a fire problem.
My 2003 Toyota Sequoia has had one recall. Far better than my 1993 Ford Taurus did.
Honestly, I don’t see recalls as being all that bad. I mean, it’s more important that the manufacturer recognizes there is a problem and offers a way for it’s consumers to get it fixed at no cost.
I’d rather that than manufacturers denying that there’s a problem.
By the way, I notice that manufacturers seem to be becoming more proactive to head off full recalls with what they term as Technical Service Bulletins. I’m not sure how it works, but my local dealer explained it that if the TSB is issued promptly and are being dealt with as people bring their cars in for regular service, they can avoid recalls.
O RLY? Texas Instruments employs UAW workers? That’s news to me.
Um, TSBs and posting them quickly is nothing new. The difference between posting a TSB and a recall is that the recall has to be honored even if the vehicle has exited warranty, the TSB is performed only on vehicles under warranty or *at the customer’s expense* if the vehicle is out of warranty.
ALL the import makers have done floods of TSBs since just after WW2. I have a nice collection of Jaguar TSBs dating back to 1947, for example. If I assemble them all in a pile, it would be 20’ tall. A friend of mine has a similar collection for old Datsuns - that collection is huge, easily 40’ of shelving there.
FYI, Ford was forced to have this recall. They intially denied that there was a fire problem and denied it for literally the better part of a decade.
The best part is that only the domestic makers are stupid enough to use hydraulic pressure switches to activate the brakes and deactivate the cruise control. Not only does this lead to problems as the switch (outside in the engine bay, exposed to the elements) ages and decays, but it also means that it is perfectly possible to apply the brakes, let off the pedal just a hair, and the BRAKE LIGHTS GO OUT. Ooops, sorry you got rear ended there, bud. And no adjustment is possible.
“Imports” all spend the extra $0.25 per car (yes, you read that right, that’s the price delta) and use switches mounted to the brake pedal *inside* the cabin. This means that there are no possible brake fluid leaks due to the switch, the switches last a lot longer, and they can be adjusted as they are *simple* button switches.
Cute, huh?
Not really related to Ford’s issues, per se, I will say this, I took out a 2008 Chevy Malibu as a rental for a long trip recently, and I believe it may be one of the finest American cars I’ve driven in quite some time. It’s really well done for it’s price point. There may be hope yet for American autos.
TI does have unionized lines, some of which are UAW “subunions”. Surprise!
And it wasn’t just TI switches. Some of them are Visteons.
Since when is Texas Instruments and Visteon “an Asian supplier,” hm?
Since that’s where the manufacturing is done?
Yes, it’s supposed to be quite good, but in traditional GM form, they made one big error.
Navigation systems are all the rage these days, and everyone wants one. There’s a spot in the dash on the Malibu for a nav system - but GM doesn’t offer one at all on the car. You can’t get one at any price. Nice, huh? That’s going to hurt sales in that segment.
Go to the dealer.
Order the switch in question.
It will come in a small Ford box with a “Made in USA With Pride By The UAW” sticker on it.
My landlord just had to replace his switch in his F-250 because it burned out.
Kinda like GM placing the Opti-spark ignition system below the water pump weep holes on the LT1 motors?
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/07/toyota_recalls_reax.html
It would seem your answer is yes.
I’ve already done the recall on my 2004 Ford SVT F150 Lightning. Not a big deal really.
Yes, it’s about as stupid.
Equally stupid moments in domestic engineering include - the original Pinto distributor (placed so that water *would* get inside it when it rained), the *external* oil pump on the Jeep/AMC V8 engines (tended to fail after about 80-100K), fuel pump location on the 80-95 F-150 (right next to the HOT EXHAUST MANIFOLD, and no, there was no shielding on most of them), and my personal favorite, the W-body GM cars, where they could have put an access plate for the fuel pump under the back seat, didn’t, and made it a 9 hour job to change a fuel pump.
Huh, guess I didn’t think much about a navigation system as I’d probably not go in for something like that. But the car was so solid, so functional, so well-designed I had to look at the badge multiple times to make sure it really was a GM product. We’re thinking of replacing our oldest car with one of them this year.
Wait just a little longer for the Pontiac G8 to arrive. It’s probably going to be a better car.
I see that my 2005 F150 is unaffected. That’s good. As to the regular Ford bashers here, I have a 2008 Fusion that has yet to go back to the dealer for anything except oil and filter changes and tire rotation. In fact, I keep looking for something to find wrong but I can’t find it. And I keep looking for something I would change about it and I can’t find it. Obviously must be a Toyota or Honda in disguise. I’ve been conned.
Your Fusion is actually a Mazda 6.
Once again: “Hey Chevy! We’ve got the real Blazer!”
A few year ago, I took my F-150 in for regular maintenance. The service guy tells me about the recall, then says because he has informed me about the recall that I must either sign a waiver or let him disconnect the cruise control until they have replacement parts.
Took 2 months for parts to come in.
Correct; it is based on the Mazda 6. I’ve driven that as well when it first came out but they are not the same vehicle. I didn’t particularly care that much for the Mazda at the time. I’ve owned 53 vehicles in my lifetime and I’m fairly particular. This is the first vehicle I’ve owned that I can honestly state that I wouldn’t change a thing and I haven’t had a single problem to date (has 7,000 miles) and I think it looks great. What’s not to like?
I have also owned foreign vehicles including Toyotas, Mazdas, Volvos and Saabs. I was debating on the Camry, Accord and Hyundai and the Fusion. I had actually eliminated the Fusion originally, but took another look and wound up with it instead. Had I not purchased it I would have gone with the Hyundai. That is probably, dollar for dollar, the best mid-sized vehicle available to purchase today and it is made in Alabama, although it doesn’t yet hold its value (residual value) as well as the Honda or Camry although I expect that to change in coming years. Ironically, the Fusion is made in Mexico.
Your 2008 “American” Malibu is a German Opel, as is the Saturn Aura.
It could be a DeSoto for all I care, all I know is it’s a dang good car.
????
Ford Fusion, and some Lincoln’s built in Hermasillo, Mexico on Mazda platform, but most public don’t realize all the same vehicle platform.
What’s a platform?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_platform
Many makers take platform-sharing further, to the point where they do something called “badge engineering” - where multiple cars are pretty much all the same vehicle with different badges on them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badge_engineering
Flammability is Job 1.
No bashing from me. We have three Fords and they are excellent vehicles.
Most of these recalls are for obscure, very improbable problems anyway. It's all legal jockeying these days - they recall to avoid prosecution in civil court rather than to correct actual problems.
The foundation which the vehicle is attached to. BOP GM plants buick, oldsmobile, and Pontiac (BOP) so they were all same vehicle basically, but with different sheet metal on top on the same platform. Comprehende?
Toyota has been slipping in quality lately, though. Consumer Reports, which has always worshipped Toyota and Honda, is not saying Camrys have a poor reliability record now.
BTW, there are some Jeeps being recalled right now, too.
Yes, it is very revolting that so many people are not heeding the recall notices that have been sent to them.
oh now I get it. Do I get a prize for paying attention??? Oh please tell me I get the prize.
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