Bookmarking Auto on Info pages
Supporting Auto on Info
Home or
Site Layout or
Site Index or
Quick Jumps or
Search Engine Directory or
The MartAuto News, Analysis and Editorial
Ford
Announces Recall of 1.2 Million More Incendiaries, But No New Relief for Owners
of GM's Runaways, Collapsing Tailgates, and Engine Knockers
Links to Amazon.com
Visitor support makes this site possible. Please shop often via Auto on Info. Thank you. Men's Fine Tie Clips and Ties Forzieri tie clips Men's Ties by Villa Bolgheri Men's Ties by Roberto Cavalli Men's Ties by Versace To view more men's ties, icons, and search phrases, click here. Men's Watches Men's Watches by Boccia Titanium Men's Watches by Cartier Men's Watches by Omega To view more men's watches, icons, and search phrases, click here. Fine Women's Watches Women's Watches by Cartier Women's Watches by Omega Women's Watches by Tag Heuer Women's Watches by Ebel Women's Watches by Movado To view more fine women's watches, icons, and search phrases, click here. Auto on Info August 2006
Ford Announces Recall of 1.2 Million More Incendiaries, But No New Relief for Owners of GM's Runaways, Collapsing Tailgates, and Engine Knockers
By James B. Bleeker
On August 3rd, Ford Motor Company announced a recall of an additional 1.2 million 1994-2002 F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550 F-Super Duty pickup trucks, 2000-2002 Ford Excursion sport-utility vehicles, 1994-1996 Econoline vans, 1996-2002 E-450 vans, and 1998 Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer sport-utility vehicles for a cruise-control-caused fire hazard. This is part of Ford's ongoing saga of burned-out vehicles, alleged burned-down garages and homes and deaths, lawsuits, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigations, and recalls. See "Ford Issues Another Safety Recall for Its Escape and Faces Investigations on Its F-150, Expedition, Lincoln Navigator, and Crown Victoria," Auto on Info, December 2004, "Ford's 2005 U.S. Safety Recalls Leap Past GM's: Ford Recalls About 750,000 Ford and Lincoln Pickups and SUVs in U.S.," Auto on Info, January 2005, "NHTSA Begins Investigating 3.7 Million Ford Pickup Trucks and SUVs: Oh Dear! The Garage Is Ablaze." Auto on Info, March 2005, "Park That Ford on the Street!" Auto on Info, May 2005, "Park That Ford on the Street! II," Auto on Info, June 2005, "As Fires Mount, NHTSA Puts the Heat on Ford: Park That Ford on the Street! III," Auto on Info, July 2005, "Another Ford Fire: Park That Ford on the Street! IV," Auto on Info, July 2005, "Fire Hazard Prompts Ford to Recall 4 Million Vehicles," Auto on Info, September 2005, "Ford Fires Rage On," Auto on Info, October 2005, and "Ford's Incendiary Problem May Include Explorers," Auto on Info, March 2006.
Ford has 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.
The mlive.com article that covered this most recent recall failed to mention Ford's current solution to the problem, but its planned solution in September 2005 was 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?
Ford's incendiary saga seems likely not to have come to an end with this recall, as only the 1998 Ford Explorers are being called, per mlive.com, while the 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 Ford Explorers contain similar suspect parts, per abcactionnews.com. See "Ford's Incendiary Problem May Include Explorers," Auto on Info, March 2006.
Meanwhile, there's no new assistance or help for owners of General Motors Corporation's unrecalled runaways (see "GM Truck Owners Hot under the Collar over Salt on the Casing: The Runaway Saga Continues," Auto on Info, March 2006), GM's unrecalled collapsing tailgates (see "In April 2005, NHTSA Ratcheted Up Investigation into Collapsing Tailgates of 3.1 Million GM Pickups; in March 2006, GM Recalls 805,368: And the Rest?" Auto on Info, March 2006), or GM's engine knockers (see "Do General Motors' Pickup Trucks and SUVs Make a Grotesque Noise?" Auto on Info, January 2004). While most media attention has focused on GM's engine-knocking pickups and sport-utility vehicles, Auto on Info's own survey results suggest that the problem may be more widespread, or considerably more widespread, as the following table suggests.
Median Reported Severity of Engine Knock for Various Classes of GM Vehicles as of July 12, 2005 Class 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 GM pickup trucks √ GM sport utility vehicles √ GM minivans √ GM passenger cars √ Value definitions: 0 is not auditorily offensive; 2 is auditorily offensive; 6 is very auditorily offensive; 8 is extremely auditorily offensive. To view more results or to express your opinion regarding the engine knock in General Motors Corporation's products, go to Mini-Survey No. 65, "GM's Piston Slap - Engine Knock." Web pages by plaintiff attorneys suggest as well that GM's engine knock, or piston slap, is not restricted to pickups and SUVs.
For another possibly inadequate recall by General Motors, see "Plaintiffs in Lawsuit Say GM Flunked a Recall," Auto on Info, May 2006.
Source for safety recall by Ford: "Ford Recalls 1.2 Million Vehicles Over Possible Engine Fires," Ken Thomas, the Associated Press, mlive.com, August 3, 2006, at http://www.mlive.com
Links to Amazon.com
Highly Rated Books on Patio and Garden Sheds: The Do-It-Yourself Guide for Backyard Builders by David R. Stiles The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Flowers from Seed to Bloom (Potting-Bench Reference Books) by Eileen Powell Botanica North America: An Illustrated Guide to Native Plants: Their Botany, Their History, and the Way They Have Shaped Our World by Marjorie Harris To view more highly rated books on the patio and garden, click here. Musical Instruments Karl Willhelm violins Schiller cellos To view more string instruments, icons, and search phrases, click here. Wallets for Men and Women Rolf’s wallets The Sak wallets Columbia Sportswear wallets To view more wallets, icons, and search phrases, click here. Handbags Gucci handbags Prada handbags Tocca handbags Caterina Lucchi handbags Fossil handbags To view more fine handbags, icons, and search phrases, click here. Tell your friends, colleagues, and coworkers, "I bought it at Amazon.com via Auto on Info." Internet's provisioner of detailed auto quality news and information since 2001
Automotive News Menu Pages Auto Manufacturers: Toyota - Honda - Subaru - Nissan - Ford - Chrysler - General Motors - Volkswagen Topics: Reviews - Recalls - Safety Investigations - Safety Test Results - Automotive Excellence - Automotive Dishonor, Discredit, or Demerit - Lawsuits - Automotive Finances - Car and Truck Sales and Market Shares - Auto on Info
Links to Amazon.com
Selections from The Mart by Auto on Info, A James B. Bleeker Website
Ideas for Literature Gifts History Lit Kievan Russia (1973) by George Vernadsky and from Yale University Press European Alliances and Alignments, 1871-1890 (1977) by William Leonard Langer The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-1860 (1979) by Samuel Eliot Morison The Making of Modern Japan (2000) by Marius B. Jansen Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia (2003) by Orlando Figes Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New Edition (2005) by Jared Diamond Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2004) by Jared Diamond The Peloponnesian War (2004) by Donald Kagan Washington's Crossing (2004) by David Hackett Fischer and from Oxford University Press Paul Revere's Ride (1995) by David Hackett Fischer and from Oxford University Press Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West (1997) by Stephen E. Ambrose Albion's Seed : Four British Folkways in America (2005) by David Hackett Fischer and from Oxford University Press The Scientists: A History of Science Told Through the Lives of Its Greatest Inventors (2004) by John Gribbin The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (2005) by Thomas L. Friedman For more historical literature, click here. For a broader selection of fine literature, click here. Biographies Beethoven: Biography of a Genius (1972) by George Richard Marek Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1993) by James Gleick Alexander Hamilton (2004) by Ron Chernow John Adams (2001) by David McCullough Benjamin Franklin (2003) by Edmund S. Morgan Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005) by Doris Kearns Goodwin Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life (2001) by Kathleen Dalton For more biographies, click here. For a broader selection of fine literature, click here. Highly Rated Books on Home Improvement Home Improvement 1-2-3: Expert Advice from The Home Depot (Home Depot ... 1-2-3) (Hardcover) by Home Depot Books, John Holms The Complete Guide to Home Plumbing: Newly Expanded 3rd Edition (Paperback) by Creative Publishing and the Staff of Black & Decker The Complete Guide to Home Wiring - 3rd Edition: Includes Information on Home Electronics & Wireless Technology (Paperback) by the Staff of Black & Decker Decks 1-2-3 (Hardcover) by Home Depot Books, Catherine Staub Working with Tile (Taunton's Build Like a Pro) (Paperback) by Tom Meehan, Lane Meehan The New Smart Approach to Kitchen Design (New Smart Approach) (Paperback) by Susan Maney Lovett The New Smart Approach to Bath Design (New Smart Approach) (Paperback) by Susan Maney Lovett For more highly rated home improvement books, click here. For a broader selection of fine literature, click here.
Visitor support makes this site possible. Please return often to do your holiday shopping via Auto on Info. Thank you.
Search Engine Directory This table is provided primarily to give the visitor quick access to those search engines that site manager has found to be more consistently useful for information acquisition. For descriptions, strengths, weaknesses, comments, and other names and formats by which the following search engines are known, go to Search Engine Directory Page. Search Engines Yahoo! Teoma Wisenut DMOZ Gigablast Metasearch Engine
Auto on Info Standings for Selected Search Phrases on Auto News
Site Rank in Results for Search Phrase Car Quality News Site Rank in Results for Search Phrase Auto Quality News Site Rank in Results for Search Phrase Auto News First by Yahoo! Search from 5,230,000 results First by Yahoo! Search from 3,510,000 results Thirty-ninth by Yahoo! Search from 37,600,000 results First by MSN Search from 1,110,112 results First by MSN Search from 716,283 results Fifteenth by MSN Search from 7,682,302 results Fifteenth by Google from 3,730,000 results Tenth by Google from 2,400,000 results Eightieth by Google from 7,450,000 results Standings are as of 14/03/2004.
Links to Amazon.com
Selections from The Mart by Auto on Info, A James B. Bleeker Website
Additional Ideas for Holiday, Anniversary, and Special Occasion Gifts Solis Espresso Machines KitchenAid Stand Mixers Cuisinart Food Processors Zojirushi Grills Cuisinart Dessert Makers Le Creuset Cookware Sets West Bend Fondue Sets To view more espresso machines and coffee makers, icons, and search phrases, click here. To view more stand mixers, food processors, grills, frozen dessert makers, fondue sets, and other small appliances, icons, and search phrases, click here. To view more cookware sets, icons, and search phrases, click here. To view a more comprehensive selection of kitchen items, click here. Visitor support makes this site possible. Please return often to do your shopping at Amazon.com. Thank you.
