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irseg · 02-14-2005, 11:25 PM

The really shitty part is, those trucks are not the only Fords with fire-prone cruise control systems. The details are vague, but I'm pretty sure this recall involves the fail-safe switch that deactivates the cruise control when it senses brake line pressure.

That stupid thing burned up a few months ago on my '93 Lincoln Mark VIII while it was sitting in my garage. I parked it and everything was fine, 2 hours later I went out and the garage was full of smoke. It had burned up the wiring for the brake switch too, which meant the brake lights didn't work and I couldn't shift out of park. It cost over $500 to have fixed because the master cylinder had to come out to get to the damaged areas, plus a lot of wires needed to be repaired. The mechanic said he had seen it happen several times, and I found several message board posts where people mentioned this same exact problem. That switch always gets power even when the car is shut off, which makes it that much more of a hazard.

I did have some advance warning, as the cruise control had stopped working about a week prior to the switch burning up. I didn't think much of it at the time, since I don't use it very often. I certainly didn't expect it being broken to nearly burn down my car and house! So if you have a Ford, you should use the cruise control periodically (leaving it shut off won't do anything to prevent this problem!), and get it checked out if it craps out.

I also had a problem with my '88 Thunderbird--it began having some really weird electrical problems (half the interior electrical stuff dead, displays flickering, gauges jumping around, etc.). I poked around and found the ignition switch was melted and charred in a few spots; the warped plastic was making the contacts shift around which is why it was acting up.

The best part was, there had been a recall on those cars for that reason--the fix was an updated, beefier ignition switch. I looked up the part number on my burned-up switch, and sure enough it was the "improved" replacement version. The brand new switch I picked up at the Ford dealer had the same part number, too.

I like Fords, but their electrical systems leave a lot to be desired.

02-14-2005, 11:25 PM	#11 (permalink)
irseg Junkie Location: Florida	The really shitty part is, those trucks are not the only Fords with fire-prone cruise control systems. The details are vague, but I'm pretty sure this recall involves the fail-safe switch that deactivates the cruise control when it senses brake line pressure. That stupid thing burned up a few months ago on my '93 Lincoln Mark VIII while it was sitting in my garage. I parked it and everything was fine, 2 hours later I went out and the garage was full of smoke. It had burned up the wiring for the brake switch too, which meant the brake lights didn't work and I couldn't shift out of park. It cost over $500 to have fixed because the master cylinder had to come out to get to the damaged areas, plus a lot of wires needed to be repaired. The mechanic said he had seen it happen several times, and I found several message board posts where people mentioned this same exact problem. That switch always gets power even when the car is shut off, which makes it that much more of a hazard. I did have some advance warning, as the cruise control had stopped working about a week prior to the switch burning up. I didn't think much of it at the time, since I don't use it very often. I certainly didn't expect it being broken to nearly burn down my car and house! So if you have a Ford, you should use the cruise control periodically (leaving it shut off won't do anything to prevent this problem!), and get it checked out if it craps out. I also had a problem with my '88 Thunderbird--it began having some really weird electrical problems (half the interior electrical stuff dead, displays flickering, gauges jumping around, etc.). I poked around and found the ignition switch was melted and charred in a few spots; the warped plastic was making the contacts shift around which is why it was acting up. The best part was, there had been a recall on those cars for that reason--the fix was an updated, beefier ignition switch. I looked up the part number on my burned-up switch, and sure enough it was the "improved" replacement version. The brand new switch I picked up at the Ford dealer had the same part number, too. I like Fords, but their electrical systems leave a lot to be desired.