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Fire Hazard Prompts Ford to Recall 4 Million Vehicles
By James B. Bleeker
Ford Motor Company is recalling 3.8 million 1994-2002 Ford F-150 pickup trucks, 1997-2002 Ford Expedition sport utility vehicles, 1998-2002 Lincoln Navigator sport utility vehicles, and 1994-1996 Ford Bronco sport utility vehicles (when the last was factory-equipped with cruise control) for a cruise-control-caused fire hazard. The 2000 Ford F-150 pickup trucks and the 2000 Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator sport utility vehicles were previously recalled for the same hazard in January 2005.
Ford stated that the fire hazard arises when brake fluid leaks through the cruise control deactivation switch into the cruise control system's electrical components. The brake fluid sometimes, or always, causes corrosion of the electrical wiring. The corrosion increases resistance to electrical flow with the result that the temperature in the wiring of the cruise control system rises and, in particular, the temperature of the cruise control deactivation switch rises.
Fires resulting from overheating of the cruise control system have, say litigants and their experts, destroyed vehicles, garages, and homes and taken lives. Ford is currently fighting at least the more costly of these claims and denies any direct link between the cruise control problem and fatalities.
On September 7, 2005, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokesperson stated that the agency had received 1,170 reports of engine fires in the affected vehicles. This is up from about 500 reports in July 2005. (See "Another Ford Fire: Park That Ford on the Street! IV," Auto on Info, July 2005.)
Ford fires have received a goodly amount of media coverage. See "Another Ford Fire: Park That Ford on the Street! IV," Auto on Info, July 2005, "As Fires Mount, NHTSA Puts the Heat on Ford: Park That Ford on the Street! III," Auto on Info, July 2005, "Park That Ford on the Street! II," Auto on Info, June 2005, "Park That Ford on the Street!," Auto on Info, May 2005, and "NHTSA Begins Investigating 3.7 Million Ford Pickup Trucks and SUVs: Oh Dear! The Garage Is Ablaze.," Auto on Info, March 2005.
To correct the fire hazard, Ford plans to install a "wiring harness" to act as a circuit breaker to the cruise control system. The problem and correction raise a number of questions:
1. How does brake fluid happen to be in a position to leak into any electrical system?
2. Why wasn't and isn't the cruise control deactivation switch and electrical system sealed to prevent brake and any other fluid from entering?
3. If the cruise control deactivation switch is deactivated by the "harness," will not a whole new set of problems arise, including increasing stopping distances?
In any case, Ford pickup and SUV owners should be able to walk out of a shopping center or house feeling more secure that his or her vehicle will not be found engulfed in flames.
Ralph Nader, for his part, thinks that the owners of the other 10 million plus Ford vehicles with the same or similar cruise control deactivation switch should be given the same peace of mind. He said, "Ford Motor Company's sluggish and piecemeal approach to its automotive responsibilities betrays motorists' safety."1
NHTSA, for its part, continues to investigate the 10 million plus other Ford vehicles.
1 "Fires Prompt Huge Ford Recall," Bill Vlasic, Detroit News, September 8, 2005, at http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0509/08/A01-307765.htm
Sources for Ford's pickup and SUV recall and NHTSA comments: "Fires Prompt Huge Ford Recall," Bill Vlasic, Detroit News, September 8, 2005, at http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0509/08/A01-307765.htm, "Nearly 4 Million Fords Recalled," Alejandro Bodipo-Memba, Detroit Free Press, September 8, 2005, http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/recall8e_20050908.htm, and "Ford, Toyota Recall Nearly 5M Trucks, SUVs," Ken Thomas, Associated Press, September 8, 2005, available at Yahoo! News
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