A friend of mine was telling me about a report he heard or read about Ford trucks catching fire after being shut down. Several were parked in garages and a few homes were lost from the fire.
The only common thing between the fires was the fact that each owner had been using the cruise control prior to parking the vehicle.
My friend suggested I manually turn off the cruise control prior to shutting off the ignition.

Anyone else hear about this?????

 

I've never heard of cruise control causing a problem although I have heard instances of trucks catching fire after shutting down, very rare though. The question I have is how do you "manually" shut off cruise control. You could press the off button on the steering wheel but as soon as you brake the cruise control will be off. Anyways I've never heard of a reason for this problem. I believe it's still being investigated.

 

A friend on another message board sent me this:

NHTSA Investigating Ford Truck Fires
2000-Model F-150s Could Have Problem in Cruise Switch

By Rip Watson
Bloomberg News
Wednesday, November 24, 2004; Page E03

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a preliminary investigation of Ford Motor Co.'s F-150 pickup trucks and Expedition and Navigator sport-utility vehicles after complaints of engine fires.

The inquiry involves 644,000 vehicles from the 2000 model year and comes after 36 reports of engine fires that may be related to a cruise-control deactivation switch, NHTSA said on its Web site. The fires occurred while the vehicles were parked and the engine was off, with no accidents or injuries reported, the agency said.

Ford, the second-largest U.S. automaker, is cooperating with the agency, company spokesman Dan Jarvis said. He declined further comment, saying the review just started. The F-150 accounts for the majority of Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford's F-Series pickups, the top-selling U.S. vehicle line.

NHTSA's investigations begin with a preliminary evaluation, about 25 percent of which are designated for further review while the remainder are closed. The second stage, called an engineering analysis, leads to a recall in more than seven of 10 cases.

NHTSA also said it is investigating 106,000 of Nissan Motor Co.'s 2003 and 2004 Murano sport-utility vehicles because the alternator may fail and cause stalling. The agency said it received 29 complaints that the engine stalled or wouldn't accelerate while running and sometimes couldn't be restarted. There were no accidents or injuries reported.

Nissan, whose U.S. headquarters are in Gardena, Calif., didn't immediately return calls requesting a comment. The company is Japan's second-biggest automaker, after Toyota Motor Corp. General Motors Corp. is the world's largest automaker.

 

I take it back. I guess it is the cruise switch. Well I have a 00 and I won't being using cruise anymore.

 

The cruise "deactivator switch" is mounted on the bottom of the master cylinder and is intended as a redundant cruise disconnect.

As I recall, power for the cruise module goes through this switch. However, IIRC (I'm away from all my manuals), power is only applied to the switch when the ignition switch is in the RUN position. These switches are known somewhat on other Fords for their tendency to leak brake fluid and shorting out, usually blowing a fuse in the process.

This is speculation on my part since the referenced article fails to give concise identifying information about the alleged defect and the suspect component.

Will have to wait and see if more information is made available to the public.

Steve

 

I just reviewed the schematic for this circuit and, according to the 2000 EVTM, the cruise deactivator switch is fed via CJB F13 from an ALWAYS HOT CIRCUIT FEED.

The 2001 circuit is identical. The 1997 circuit is similar. These are the only truck EVTMs in my possession.

This does not look good from a safety viewpoint....... Why the design engineers fed the cruise module off an always hot feed is beyond me....Doesn't make sense.



Steve

 

A friend on another message board mentioned there was another Ford truck fire in Central Florida this week. News reported it was caused by the cruise control system.

I hope Ford finds the cause and corrects this.

 

I can see what I believe is to be problem both the problem and the likely solution.

The problem is the the circuit alleged to be at fault is served by a 20A fuse via the ALWAYS HOT supply. A partial short circuit of less than 20A through a combustible fluid (brake fluid) will not blow the fuse but will likely cause sufficient heat to ignite the brake fluid. This short circuit can happen at ANY TIME since the power is NEVER removed from the circuit (as long as the battery is installed and the mega-fuse is intact).

My suggestion to correct the fault would be, first of all, a better switch that is not prone to leakage, then a separated circuit protected at 5A from a SWITCHED supply to protect it from overcurrent. At a minimum, I will likely be performing the latter portion of this suggestion on my own truck. In the meantime, I am going to unplug and inspect the deactivator switch connector for any evidence of fluid leakage.

I posted additional information in this thread in the Engines forum: https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...hreadid=179195

Steve

 

The day before X-mas my husband's 2001 Ford F150 Lariat burned to the ground in our driveway. It hadn't been driven for over a week. Luckily I was home and caught it right away or the whole house may have burned down. My insurance company is going to investigate and pursue Ford. I don't know if it was the cruise control deactivation switch or not, but it only had 68,000 miles on it and we did have problems with the cruise control going out when we first purchased it.

 

Guess I will break out the books and see how this was done on the 2004 series...

 

Any info on your 2004?

 

While I don't have a copy of the 2004 service manual, its highly doubtful. Ford fixed it right (swiched power + 2A inline fuse) on the 2003 model.

Tony

 

This has me concerned !!!!

I have replaced the switch in my friends 98 F150 that had brake fluid in the connector. Now Ford says it causes fires.

Why did they limit the recall to 2000 models? I see this problem in other years as well as noted above. Is the switch I replaced in my friends truck the right one, or is a redesigned one needed? Why doesn't the fuse blow to the circut when the connector gets shorted out with brake fluid, thus preventing fires?

The recall is a two stage one, the first stage is to unplug the connector from the switch and leave it off. Ford claims does not have a suitable replacement yet, when they develope one, they will initiate the second stage to install the replacement.

 

For the first time ever I was glad that I bought an XL instead of the XLT. My wife misses all the electric windows and door locks etc. but I didn't want to give the dealer anymore money. I don't have cruise on my 2000, never use it on my Ranger, but I feel bad for you guys who have it now. It's just another thing to worry about (spark plug blow out, tie rods now this.) I wish Ford would get their act together, and FAST, because I have family, friends and neighbors who hate anything by Ford and I am sure they snicker when Ford makes the news. I have been asked many times over " if you knew back then what you know now, would you have bought a Ford?" I always say yes, and one reply was "don't get into a front end crash." Oh well.

 

if you are concerned take your trucks to the dealership and have them look at it, if your truck is one in the recall list they should send you a notice...what they are supposed to do is disconnect the cruise control (thers a little plug under your hood) anyway they disconect that and replace it with the new part free of charge because its a recall... but since 800,000 ford f150's expeditions, lincoln navigators are involved there are not enough parts to go around, so when they disconnect your cruise control..they will call you when the new part is available and install it all free of charge.. but i read that ford will not recieve the new part until sometime in march or so...