Ford F150 recalls

[Otter]

I just found this on MSN. This actually happend to me back in October 2004. My wife park our 2000 F150 in the driveway, 45 minutes later it was in flames. Total loss. Funny thing is on my way back from a NC visit in July my cruise control quit working. Take heed if you own a Ford it could happen to you. Imagine what would have happened if it was parked in the garage.



Ford recalls thousands of popular F-150s
Glitch in speed control system potentially can cause fires

AP
Ford is recalling thousands of its Ford F-150 pickup trucks because of a fire risk.
BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and news services
Updated: 1:33 p.m. ET Jan. 27, 2005Ford Motor Company — the second-largest U.S. automaker — has announced a voluntary recall of thousands of its popular pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles due to a fire risk, NBC News has learned.

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Ford is recalling the vehicles because their cruise control switches could short circuit and start a fire under the hood while parked, the automaker said Thursday.

The recall involves approximately 792,000 vehicles, including F-150 pickup trucks, Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigator SUVs from the 2000 model year that are equipped with a speed control switch. Also included in the recall are certain F-150 SuperCrew trucks that were built through August 7, 2001 and are equipped with speed control.

One Ford source tells NBC that the recall is “significant.”

According to Ford, vehicle owners have reported that the cruise control on their vehicles has malfunctioned before they shut down the engine. The mechanism that shuts off the speed control may overheat, eventually causing a fire, Ford said

Ford says it knows of 63 alleged vehicle fires and of one alleged injury associated with a fire. No deaths have been reported, but the instances of fires appear to be increasing, the car company said.

Ford will notify owners of the vehicle recall in February, and dealers will deactivate the cruise control switch for free. Once the company has an adequate supply of replacement switches, it will send another letter notifying owners that they can get their switches replaced.

Ford said cruise control will be disabled once the switch is deactivated.

“We recognize this may be an inconvenience, but we believe this preventive action is in the best interest of our customers’ safety,” the company said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the defect in November after receiving 36 reports of fires. All of the incidents occurred when the vehicle was parked and the ignition was turned off. No injuries were reported.

Ford said it worked closely with NHTSA throughout the investigation.

Ford’s F-Series truck retained the title of best-selling vehicle in the United States last year. The company sold 939,511 F-Series trucks, setting a new industry record for full-size pickup sales. Ford set the previous record with 911,597 in 2001.

Ford’s F-150 is the gem of its F-Series lineup, accounting for roughly 60 percent of the Series' total sales. Ford launched a new version of the F-150 in September 2003. A redesigned Super Duty model of the F-Series hit dealerships in September.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[meat12]

this happend before, I have a 99 Ranger and it got recalled for basically the same thing

[mbritton2]

My 2001 explorer had the same thing

[oswald]

they should recall all ford. buy a chevy.

[shortz]

That is scary. After hearing that, I don't believe I will be buying a Ford....ever!

[Otter]

Originally posted by oswald
they should recall all ford. buy a chevy.

Chevy's not much better. I had a 93 S10. Damn thing keep surging on its own. Be sitting a a light and all of a sudden engine would rev up on its own. I tried everything. Finally I took it to Mr. Goodwrench. He told me my computer was bad and fan clutch was frozen. I had him replace the computer, but not the fan clutch. I got a fan clutch from Autozone got home opened the hood only to find that there was no fan clutch on the thing. It had a spacer instead. I asked and was told that usually when fan clutches go bad people save money by removing it all together and putting a spacer in place of it.

So if Chevy is such a great make explain how they tested my fan clutch when there wasn't one there in the first place? Makes you wonder what else Mr. Goodwrench does to screw you with huh?

Regardless I'm through with Chevy and Ford. It's Chrysler or Foreign for me.

[oswald]

well not to bash you, but who drives a s-10. anyway can you really trust a garage most of the people that work at them are collage kid. Not to bash collage kid, they need a job to get through school. But it sounds like you goy it used. I'm just a chevy fan. I've had no major problems with them.

[Otter]

Originally posted by oswald
well not to bash you, but who drives a s-10. anyway can you really trust a garage most of the people that work at them are collage kid. Not to bash collage kid, they need a job to get through school. But it sounds like you goy it used. I'm just a chevy fan. I've had no major problems with them.

Who drives an S-10: Not to bash you, but take off your horse blinders and take a look around. You'll see plenty of S-10 drivers. Trust a garage: There's not many options left except take it to a garage when you've tried everything you know and it still isn't right. Sounds to me like you have a better solution. Be a team player and enlighten us.

[oswald]

Dont get your pantys in a twist. There are bad in all. I drive a full size and always will. You got to watch out who you buy it from, people will screw your eyes out. Now a days part are high and people will do anything to get by.

[oswald]

just glad you and your wife didnt get hurt.

[Otter]

Originally posted by oswald
Dont get your pantys in a twist. There are bad in all. I drive a full size and always will. You got to watch out who you buy it from, people will screw your eyes out. Now a days part are high and people will do anything to get by.

Sorry dude I didn't want to sound like my pants were in a twist. However, The S-10 was bought used. I liked it allot. For the most it ran really good. It just had that one problem. I ran the crap out of it. Just disappointed in the service I received from so called Mr. Goodwrench. I kept it for 5 years then traded it for the F150.

[Otter]

Originally posted by oswald
just glad you and your wife didnt get hurt.

Thanks Dude. What's worse about the F150 is when it burned in October I had only 3 more payments to go and it would have been paid off. Just glad I turned by garage into a guitar room and had the damn thing parked outside.

[Sarahkate]

October 2004, my 1998 F-150 self combusted in a parking lot while we were waiting for our orders of Mexican take out. Spectacular. Fortunate it didn't happen earlier in the day as we were on a hike at Spencer Butte. The truck was parked at the bottom of the mountain...

With full coverage, I got $11k for the truck. The investigator found evidence of a shop rag stuck between the radiator & the grill.

However the origin of the fire APPEARED to be from the middle of the engine, as the flames were coming straight out of the top of the hood, from the center. The flames got quite high.

Luckily, the Mexican food place's building didn't catch fire. The truck didn't explode (full tank of expensive gas, dang). There was a retired fireman in the restaurant. He & the restaurant's waitress put the fire at bay till the fire truck arrived.

The battery was catching fire as they pulled up. The hood latch had melted so it was quite a feat to open it up.

The whole fiasco took hours, since we had to wait for a tow truck and a ride home from a relative. Dinner wasn't very fun that night.

So, it wasn't too bad. No one got hurt. No damage to anyone else's property. Within 2 weeks I had my money from the insurance.

Unwittingly, I bought a Ford Taurus Wagon. 1998. Hope there'll be no problems with it.

[Otter]

Originally posted by Sarahkate
October 2004, my 1998 F-150 self combusted in a parking lot while we were waiting for our orders of Mexican take out. Spectacular. Fortunate it didn't happen earlier in the day as we were on a hike at Spencer Butte. The truck was parked at the bottom of the mountain...

With full coverage, I got $11k for the truck. The investigator found evidence of a shop rag stuck between the radiator & the grill.

However the origin of the fire APPEARED to be from the middle of the engine, as the flames were coming straight out of the top of the hood, from the center. The flames got quite high.

Luckily, the Mexican food place's building didn't catch fire. The truck didn't explode (full tank of expensive gas, dang). There was a retired fireman in the restaurant. He & the restaurant's waitress put the fire at bay till the fire truck arrived.

The battery was catching fire as they pulled up. The hood latch had melted so it was quite a feat to open it up.

The whole fiasco took hours, since we had to wait for a tow truck and a ride home from a relative. Dinner wasn't very fun that night.

So, it wasn't too bad. No one got hurt. No damage to anyone else's property. Within 2 weeks I had my money from the insurance.

Unwittingly, I bought a Ford Taurus Wagon. 1998. Hope there'll be no problems with it.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Glad to hear no one was hurt.

On a lighter note check this out. About 2 weeks ago guess what I got in the mail. You guessed it a recall for my 2000 F150 due to a faulty speed control. It said it could catch on fire even if it is parked. I sent those bastards at Ford a nasty gram about sending me a F*&%ing recall notice four months after the damn thing burned in my driveway. They called me, I basically told them to go make vigorus love to themselves after they said they couldn't do anything for me, but my insurance company could get thier money back. By the way I got 13,500 for my F150. I went out and bought a Dodge Stratus. Screw Ford.