Hello, new to this forum.

Well, got a ticket for no brake lights on my way to work this morning. Once the sun was up, I went outside and looked under my dash to find a fuse, #13 which is a 20amp fuse burnt out. It shows as being for brake lamps, speed control module etc.. I pulled a replacement fuse and proceeded to replace the burn fuse. Suddenly I smell something burning. I look out from under the dash to see white plumes of smoke billowing from around the edges of my hood. I immediately pulled the fuse back off, smoke still billowing. Fearing the worst, I pop the hood release, run to the front of my truck and carefully unlatch my hood and let it pop up. Tons of smoke disperse, and I can see flames coming from the area of my brake cylinder booster. There is what appears an electrical harness and switch connected to the booster, and the fire was coming from that switch. The flames ceased and stopped burning/smoldering. I checked if my truck starts and it does, and I'll check in a bit if it will still drive/brake by driving it in my parking lot here at work. I plan on taking it to Ford this evening, but in the meantime...Ideas? What the hell happened here, anyone know?

THanks for any info, I'm anxious now that this happened.

 

I just saw that Ford recalled more vehicles for the faulty brake sensor switch and that was causing fires in the 97-03 F150 and the SuperDuty was one of them. Glad your ok and the truck didn't go up in flames.

Here is a link to vehicles in the latest recall. http://www.ford.com/dynamic/metatags...h-recall-09s09

 

IMMEDIATELY DISCONNECT that switch and get it to the dealer.

 

WOW... Sorry that happened to you. It sounds like the cruise control switch issue.
I just got around to getting the recall taken care of.

 

take it in ASAP for repairs, and since you dont have brake lights, have it towed in

 

You lucked out on this one!

 

Welcome to the site! You got lucky, but are you sure it was the booster? Should have been on the master cylinder.

 

Ok..so...This is what torched on my truck. Forgive the crappy photos..took them with my iPhone as soon as the engine bay cooled off.






Drove the truck in my parking lot to make sure I still had brakes etc...good except no brake lights...arggg..ok..so I got off work early and drove it to my dealer. They looked at it and said yea, that my truck had that recall and it still had not been done. It did not appear to have any other damage other than the cooked switch.

They replaced the switch, but alas..I still have zero brake lights, no cruise control, no horn and my underhood light is also zero go. All fuses, both under the dash and under the hood are now good. They won't repair whatever else is wrong now, claiming they are only responsible for the recalled item and not any damage caused by it's malfunction....makes me want to shoot someone....

So, anyone have any ideas what else can be wrong now? I checked the basics such as the fuses, the bulbs etc. I closely inspected the area after I got the truck home from Ford and there is zero damage visible anywhere around the burnt switch. There is one cluster of wires in a harness under where the switch was burning, and I checked it and the wires are perfect, with no sign of any heat damage. Ideas from anyone with more exp. in this than me?

 

Sorry to say, pay them to repair it. Not trying to give you a hard time, but it's your fault that you didn't get the recall done. The short probably took something else in that circuit out.