Flaming Fords!
I was recently at a business dinner meeting and while we were sitting there discussing some of the challenges of our industry a vehicle burst into flames in the parking garage outside the Café. Those around the table quickly called 911 and then began taking odds on it being a Ford pickup truck.
Sure enough, once we were able to get close enough to inspect the vehicle it was an early 2000's Ford F150. We all noticed that when the flames first appeared they came from under the hood directly in front of the driver's seat. This is typical of the fires linked to the largest recall ever made by Ford.
In February of 2008 Ford recalled 12 million of its cars and light trucks for a defect in the cruise control switch that had, at that time, been linked to more than 60 fires. Some of these fires resulted in the loss not only of the truck or car, but of the house where it was parked, or other cars around it.
In November the NTSB issued a second recall because so few of the vehicle owners had responded to the first release.
In a very unscientific and unofficial survey I looked under the hood of Ford pick ups coming into our shop, three of them still had the old style switch and connector on them.
If you own a vehicle listed in the recall PLEASE check to see if the recall repair has been done. They can catch on fire anytime and anyplace; at school, at work, in your garage at home or even while in our shop being repaired.
On another note Ford has issued a new recall on truck fires, but this time they don't even get off the assembly line before some of them self-ignite. \
There was a problem in the soldering of one of the computers under the dash that caused a short starting a fire.
A little more than 14,000 2011 F150 pick ups are impacted by this recall.
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