CNN reports that The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a second recall for Ford; Lincoln and Mercury vehicles that may (more or less) spontaneously combust, thanks to a defective cruise control part. “NHTSA remains concerned that many owners have yet to respond to multiple safety defect recall notifications from Ford. Of the 12 million vehicles involved in the recall, nearly five million have not yet been brought to Ford for repair. The vehicles contain a defective cruise control switch that could lead to a fire at any time, even while the vehicle is turned-off, parked and unattended.” NHTSA promises that “repair parts are immediately available.” That’s a step-up from the initial recall, where a lack of parts meant that many Ford dealers were simply disconnecting the cruise control switch. [Click here for a NHTSA Press Release with a full list of vehicles involved.]
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When they say “repair parts are immediately available”, this means they’re not going to just turn off the CC this time?
Yeah, this was the whole “F150s that catch on fire while parked overnight” bit. I’ll bet some of these vehicles have been in an accident and totalled or otherwised scrapped, but there’s probably at least a couple million of them still in use that haven’t been fixed.
I was wondering when this would eventually happen. 16M Fords have this CC device that could fricassee its owners if it fails (especially when the garage is underneath the bedroom). Only ~ 10M were recalled over several different recalls. But we should give Ford a break b/c it’s not like they knew about it (internal control tests show failures and internal engineering fault tests reports recommend changing to a new device). From all I hear about how Ford is just a victim and its past acts of these major safety gaffes (many involving fire!) and everyone else was doing it – I guess we should hear them again.
Anyone recall the ignition device fires, plastic manifold fires, coil failures and fires, etc.?
My 1996 Econoline has 170,000 mi without being incinerated. Cruise works just fine. It parks outside though. I have the recall notice hanging on the fridge. All it takes is time. Not much of that lately.
The fire only happens on models where the C/C wiring is near the master cylinder. My 1995 Mark didn’t have that problem (mines under the air box) but I got the new part anyway.
And when the dealer gave the car back to me, they added “MAJOR ENGINE OIL LEAK” on the invoice. I needed a new steering rack–something I already knew–but the engine was and still is fine. I hate scare tactics like that: some little old lady might have actually fallen for that…and the $800 bill to replace an oil pan gasket.
And people wonder why people don’t wanna take their car back to a Ford dealer???
So…does the “F” in Ford stand for Fail…or Fire?
These recalls need a nice catchy name. Soemthing like “unintended incineration”.
Jokes aside, Ford can really only do so much to get people in to have the part replaced. Well…I guess if they had the funds they could send out teams “guerrilla style” to find and fix the vehicles wherever they happen to find them then tag them like they used to tag animals on Wild Kingdom.
Back when I worked in Tier-1, Ford made us call fires, “thermal events” in our analyses. (That stunk to me of the Pinto fiasco.) I never saw GM or Chrysler do that, to their credit. It was weird because their own training documents preached the use of plain English.
In fact, as I recall at the time, Ford was in the process of issuing a TSB to add a relay to the Mustang fog lights, because of reported thermal events. I don’t remember if that became a recall.
What bugs me, is Ford knew there was a problem, they how to fix it but did nothing, or worse, dug in their heels legally speaking.
I thought this site didn’t do recalls.
Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
Would this be expressed as a liability on their balance sheet?
FORD:
Fire
Occurs,
Rapidly
Destroying
P71_CrownVic
May be the other four letter word that starts with an “F”.
Moral considerations aside, recall costs diminish in direct proportion to the age of the fleet.