I haven't any idea Rich. I don't do electrical systems. I'm an ME, not an EE....I can't stand those Bzzzzzzt things.

I know there were some cruise switch issues that had come out a few years ago, but never really looked into it.

Lots of different things can cause fires in cars.

 

"Some" cruise switch issues?
Here are a list of the vehicles covered:

Quote:

The recall involves the following vehicles: 1998-2002 Ford Ranger, 1992-1997 Lincoln Town Car, 1992-1997 Ford Crown Victoria, 1992-1997 Mercury Grand Marquis, 1993-1998 Lincoln Mark VIII, 1993-1995 Taurus SHO, 1999-2001 Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer.


Also covered are the 2001-2002 Ford Explorer Sport, 2001-2002 Ford Explorer Sport Trac, 1992-1993 E150-350 vans, 1997-2002 E150-350 vans, 1993 Ford F-Series pickups, 1993 Ford Bronco, 1994 Mercury Capri, 2003-2004 Ford F-150 Lightning, and 1995-2002 Ford F53 motor homes.

I have to wonder why the Mazda B series trucks and Tributes are not listed here?

Actually, the B series from '98-'02 is featured in another article I found.

 

man that would suck.. does he have another vehicle as well?

 

I know the right fix was the updated switch, which mine has and came from the factory that way, but the funny thing is the 03-04 Lightning were made in the same plant, but had a different under hood wiring harness because of the Blower.

 

Ford's a big company Richard....lots of things I don't have the time to get involved in while handling my own work.

 

I followed the "flaming Ford fiasco" quite closely; the total history begins with making SUVs out of pickup trucks.

1. Pickup trucks had less stringent braking distance regulations than passenger vehicles.
2. Even after being beefed up, the Ford SUVs failed braking distance if you hit the brakes while cruise control was engaged, because the pedal switch signaled the braking part of the cruise control processor to wind the throttle back to idle, but the cable drive servo response was too sluggish, and the overlap of brakes applied plus throttle not yet closed resulted in a net braking distance spec. failure.
3. The designers overcame this by putting a switch into the master cylinder which operated directly on the cruise control servo clutch, so while you'd loose your resume speed memory, at least now the throttle, free from the servo drum, snapped closed, and hey presto, the braking distance was within spec.

Then things start to unravel.

1. DOT3 hydraulic fluid has a flash point of about 125 Deg. C ( quite inflammable) and a boiling point of around 400 Deg. C, furthermore it mixes well with water.
The consequences:- a) it's easy to set alight. b) It doesn't evaporate easily, and c) if mixed with water it can be transported as a mixture, then since water evaporates and DOT3 doesn't, wherever the puddle ended up, that puddle sooner or later is going to be pure DOT3.
2. The cruise control clutch is a significant inductive electrical load, so considerable energy is stored in its magnetic field. When you switch an inductive load, the field collapses and in so doing the decaying flux tries to maintain the same current as was flowing at the moment of interruption, REGARDLESS OF WHAT VOLTAGE HAS TO BE PRODUCED TO DO IT!
( This is EXACTLY the principle of operation of an ignition coil, whereby a 12 volt battery can be persuaded to produce up to 15 - 30 thousand volts across a spark plug gap ).
3. The switch to cut the clutch current contained a polyimide diaphragm designed to isolate the switch mechanism from the brake fluid while at the same time providing the necessary flex to transmit the fluid pressure to the electric contacts and provide the needed electrical insulation from chassis ground. Furthermore, presumably for convenience, the switch was wired to the "hot" side of the car's electrical system.
4. With repeated use, and subjected to repeated high voltage clutch transients, the insulating components in the switch (especially the polyimide diaphragm) began to degrade, resulting in residual carbon, a conductor of electricity. The failure of the diaphragm plus the "frizzing" of the accumulated carbon causes rapid current fluctuation in the hot circuit which includes the cruise control servo clutch, and sooner or later, hey presto, you've got a pretty hot arc going (on the hot side of the electrical system, no ignition key needed.)
Sufficiently "frizzed", the diaphragm no longer can prevent brake fluid from weeping into the contact space, so you now have a mini-barbecue going on top of the master cylinder.
5. Immediediately above the master cylinder mini-barbecue is the brake fluid reservoir, full of DOT3.
The fluid reservoir is made of plastic.
As a homework assignment, I leave it to the reader to
a) fill in the logical conclusion to this scenario.
b) devise a preventive remedy to this vexatious issue, with the constraint that cost(s) of materials must be less than 25 cents.
c) suggest why Detroit is in serious difficulty.

Seriously people, I need your help, after all I'm only one of your northern Canuckstani retards!

 

So, you're not an Electrical Engineer and you're not involved in legal issues either. Geeez! Does Ford explain anything to it's employees?

I wasn't really trying to pick on you or put you on the spot, Scott.
I am obviously upset at my coworkers loss and through researching came up with Ford's legal side-step as I am now calling it.
I was searching from work when I found that and showed it to Tony and my subordinate Evelyn who's husband, also a coworker, drive's an Escape and before that a Probe.

I'm not saying Ford is worse than anybody else. Im sure it's a smart business decision, but I think it sucks as far as customer service is concerned.
To me it's just sad that business is like that, especially in this day and age of lawyers calling so many of the shots. It's not about doing the right thing any more, but more of how little can we do to get ourselves out of this mess.

 

Unfortunately, problems spreading across numerous vehicle lines are more frequent these days as all manufacturers are trying to use common parts across vehicles.

Vehicles today are also increasingly complex animals, especially from an elecrtical perspective (Electrical systems will be going 42V to handle the increased load in the future)

Drive by wire, fuel injection, ABS, TCS, Roll stability, Cruise, DVD, CD, Navigation, Bluetooth, etc, etc, etc. These things are going to happen sometimes. There are millions of vehicles out there in those affected units that didn't exhibit any kind of failure and worked just fine.

I've been involved in Recall work before. We are incredibly diligent in investigation into root cause with corrective & preventive actions taking place to get continually better. I think one of the reasons Big3 had more recalls are that we are truly more sensitive to these things and err more on the side of caution than do our competitors.

It sucks when these things happen, in a world of increasingly complex systems, it's statistically impossible to avoid all failure.

 

Let's get away from failure for a bit...

I averaged 35.6 MPG on a 280 mile round trip yesterday...that's an all-time best for the Chevy.

 

Nice Vince, I did get higher on my trip to Virgina but between 30-32 is normal for mine.