Attention Ford owners - CC switch recall

[01rangerxl]

Ford is starting another wave of cruise control switch recalls.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/03/autos/ford_recall/?postversion=2007080317

Even if you do not have cruise control, your vehicle may be affected. I know Rangers, and probably other Fords, use the switch as an ABS input, regardless of if the vehicle has cruise or not. Look on your vehicle's master cylinder. If you have a switch in front of your brake fluid resivoir, and your vehicle is included in the list of recalled vehicles, take it in for the fix.

On vehicles where the switches appear to be fine, the dealer will install a fused jumper harness. On vehicles where the switch is damaged, leaking, burnt, etc... a revised switch with an adapter harness will be installed. Either repair will only take a few minutes, so there is no reason to skip this recall. I replaced the switch on my Ranger months ago and it only took a couple minutes, an adjustable wrench, and a drop of brake fluid.

The instructions for the replacement procedure can be viewed here:
http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o95/a...ntroldeacsw.jpg

Here is a reference photo of a NEW (revised) switch installed on a Ranger:
http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o95/aegerar1/?action=view&current=tmpphp9VYexV.jpg

If you have questions, you can contact Ford here:
http://www.fordvehicles.com/help/contact/

 

[punisher]

I must have done a 100 of those cruise control recalls on Crown Vics/Grand Marqs and Towncars. My 9/16 crowsfoot became my best friend.

 

[TallPaul]

I'm glad my '92 Aerostar is not listed.

I had the F53 chassis on my last motorhome, which was a '97. The switch on the brake reservoir leaked and took out the fuse that controlled my brake lights, cruise control, and being able to pull the shift lever out of park with the engine running. The mechanic fixed it (2006) and told me that it is a recall, but that my vehicle is not listed on the recall, so I had to pay, but that if my vehicle ever got listed I could get a refund. Unfortunately I failed to keep the paperwork when I sold the motorhome, so I am out the cash.

 

[01rangerxl]

Hmmm...I wonder if Ford will refund me for the switch I bought for my truck a couple months ago. I think I still have the reciept. I installed it myself, so they may not want to give me a refund, but I guess it might be worth a try anyway.

 

[Kestas]

So, it appears this recall is just an expansion of an earlier recall some 3 years ago where they were having SUV fires starting from this switch.

[sarcasm]Nice of Ford to wait all this time before expanding the recall to all vehicles that share this design. Nice try. Glad to see they're looking out for our safety.[/sarcarm]

 

[01rangerxl]

They handled this situation the best they could. There is a MASSIVE number of vehicles involved. They were faced with coming up with a fix in a very short amount of time, then manufacturing enough parts to fix tens of millions of vehicles. The only way a recall this big could be effectively accomplished was to do it in waves. F-Series trucks and other models with more reports of fires were handled first, then models with fewer or no reports later. I would like to see ANY company try to find a better way to deal with this situation. They could have tried to fight issuing a recall, pass the blame on to Texas Instruments (who made the switch), swept it under the rug, etc., but they didn't.

 

[benjamming]

So you are saying that it took 3 years to produce enough revised switches to replace on the vehicles now on the recall when many won't ever be replaced b/c they are junked, owners don't know/care, etc.? Sure.

 

[TallPaul]

Quote:

---

Hmmm...I wonder if Ford will refund me for the switch I bought for my truck a couple months ago. I think I still have the reciept. I installed it myself, so they may not want to give me a refund, but I guess it might be worth a try anyway.

---

Definitely worth a try. They will only refund the part price in your case.

 

[brianl703]

An easy way to keep the switch from burning up and catching fire is to limit the amount of current that can pass through it. Any competent electrical engineer should be able to figure out how to do that. Hint: relay.

I've looked at the wiring diagrams for these switches and they all seem to be wired directly to a 15 or 20 amp fuse.

You know it only takes 3 amps at 12V to heat something up like a 30W soldering iron, so what is the point of these ridiculously high rated fuses? They're not going to protect against anything but a dead short, and it seems to me that these switches fail by partially shorting out, pulling enough current to cause a fire but not enough to blow the fuse.

Now if they wired the switch so that it had a relay coil between the source of 12V and ground, then the maximum fault current would be whatever the rating of the relay coil is..around 100mA. Nowhere near enough to get anything hot enough to catch fire. They could use the normally open contacts of the relay to connect to the circuit that used to connect directly to the switch.

I've PERMANENTLY fixed a couple of problems with switches (headlights, defroster grid) that carry high currents and burned up because of it by making them switch a 100mA relay coil instead. That way, if anything burns up, it's a $3 relay and not a $50 switch. Simply throwing another $50 switch into it is guaranteeing that the problem WILL happen again, unless the switch has been redesigned..seeing these tiny ---- contacts that many auotmakers like to use for high amp circuits, I doubt it! Those contacts are what burned up in the first place, and in the case of that defroster switch (made by Mazda) they're about 1/8" wide wheras my $3 relay has 1/4" blade terminals on it..tell me which is gonna pass the current without overheating and burning??