4.6 million Fords recalled for fire risk in engines

[flashl]

Source: Sun Sentinel

WASHINGTON - The government on Thursday warned owners of about 4.6 million recalled Ford vehicles to bring their cars and trucks immediately to dealerships to disconnect cruise control switch systems that have been linked to engine fires.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued the consumer advisory to owners of certain unrepaired Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, vans and passenger cars who have not responded to past recalls.

The recalls have vexed the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker, affecting its popular F-Series pickup trucks, prompting hundreds of complaints and dozens of lawsuits over engine fires. Three deaths have been tied to the fires and Ford has struggled to produce enough parts to fix the problem.

About 9.6 million Ford vehicles have been recalled since 1999 and about 5 million have been fixed, raising concerns about the remaining vehicles on the road. NHTSA said they have received about 60 complaints of engine fires in the Ford vehicles since August 2007.

Sun Sentinel

Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/southflorida/sfl-flaford0229sbfeb29,0,148654.story

[Blue_Tires]

1. is it the 4.6L or 5.4L V8?

maybe both?

[flashl]

2. From the article ...

NHTSA issued a lengthy list of older vehicles covered by the consumer advisory, including 1993-2004 Ford F150 trucks, 1994-2002 F250 through F550 Super Duty trucks with gasoline engines, and 1998-2001 Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer SUVs.

Other source:

The second recall, which involves 57,000 E-Series full-size vans and 2007 Expeditions and Navigators with the 5.4L V8, is a bit more serious. The defective part is the engine's fuel rail crossover hose, which could crack and leak, potentially causing a fire. Again, no reports of injuries or accidents have been associated with the defective hose and dealers will replace them at no charge. If you've got an affected vehicle for either recall, contact your dealer ASAP and set up an appointment to have the parts in question replaced.

Ford recalling 180,000 vans and SUVs for two issues

[L0oniX]

3. FORD ...Fix Or Repair Daily

[fed-up]

5. Ford-Found on Road Dead nt

[H8fascistcons]

9. Get a clue...

Google Honda transmission problems or Toyota recalls, it will fill up several pages. All automakers have recalls not just Ford or domestics... What was true in the 80's in not the case today. Ford has two engines on the "Wards" top ten list. No Japanese car company has two engines on this list, not Toyota, not Honda, not Nissan. Get into the 21st century, hundrids of thousands of union employed Americans and their families deserve better....

[RebelOne]

6. Wrong. I am on my second Ford Taurus and they are great cars.

The only problems I have had were with brakes, but I always go through brakes because I drive with 2 feet.

[L0oniX]

7. I hear that the a.c compressor takes 6 hours to replace ...have fun when that happens.

[guitar man]

11. I hear ya

I have a '95 Lincoln Mark VIII, 13 years old and 200,000 miles, still runs like a champ. I have to replace a plugged up radiator this weekend, but that's not the car's fault. I bought it in '03 used with 100,000 miles and have driven the crap out of ever since. I bet it makes 300k miles at least before I retire it.And it gets great highway mileage to boot, in the 25-27 mpg range. Not bad for a high performance luxury coupe. :thumbsup:

[The Croquist]

12. Most cars are great cars compared to 30 years ago myself

The quality control, fuel efficiency, engine life and rust proofing are all vastly superior to compared to the 1970's. The Pinto wasn't the only car with problems. The Vega had an engine life expectancy of about 40,000 miles. The VW Bug got mediocre millage and demanded quarterly adjusting of it's valves. To do this you had to take the valve covers off.

I remember checking my oil at every fill up and adding oil half the time. Now I don't bother to check it at all (I have 120,000 on my 2000 Toyota Celica).

Tuneups used to be every 12,000 miles. I just helped a friend do a tune up on a Chevy for the first time at 100,000 miles.

The amount of pollution they put out is much less then they used to. Cars are so clean now that BBQs and lawn mowers are considered significant sources of pollution.

Newer cars rock!

[knitter4democracy]

13. I agree. I love my Freestyle, and Hubby loves his old Taurus.

Great cars.

[dipsydoodle]

4. How can this be ?

I thought only the Chinese were capable of producing unsafe products.

[L0oniX]

8. They must have learned it from us.

[AndyTiedye]

10. Well There Was The Small Matter of the Pinto

Though I think they learned that that sort of thing costs them a lot in the long run.
They are better now, but not perfect.

Fortunately, the recalls do not affect the Escape Hybrid.

[ingac70]

14. Because they use Chinese made cruise control...

shit from Taiwan as well.

[blues90]

15. let me tell you about fords

I worked at dealerships both as a tech and manager in the service dept .

In the 33 years I worked there I saw recalls pile up into numbers that are out of control , each model had many . Pages upon pages of them . Sometimes one recall did not fix the problem so there was another .

The focus has this problem with the ign switch that suddenly won't turn always out of warrenty at a cost of a tow and $350 . And the replacment part did the same thing , no change at all .

I can't tell you how many people came in with all sorts of plastic parts in a bag that fell off in a car or truck less than a year old .

The front wheel drive = labor extensive and costly repairs because everything is packed into a tight are . Nothing but A/C leaks due to o 'rings or crappy hoses and all sorts of eletrical problems .

Some people had no trouble others had nothing but .

Many problems there was no fix , ford was working on one so I had to tell customers many times that I would keep on top of this and let them know when something came out and had piles of paper and phone numbers to track this .

I have a 1973 VW square back that at the time had 300,000 miles on the auto trans and it stopped moving forward , I took the parts into the shop to clean them and the techs asked me where the trans came from because it was so heavy duty . when i told them my car they showed me the same ford parts from an expedition with 25,000 miles , cheap stampings of tin where my car had turned machined parts much larger .

My repair was a snap ring , theirs was a replacement trans .

[NoGOPZone]

16. More info on this from the Ford website

http://www.ford.com/dynamic/metatags/article-detail/223_important_notice_voluntary_recall_update

If I'm reading it correctly, most of these vehicles were already under recall, but Ford is reissuing the alert because millions of vehicles didn't have the repair done. Also, TWO trips to the dealer may be necessary. One immediately to disconnect the switch, and another to repair it when part become available. Now take a peek at this from the bottom of the FAQs

Q. I lost my vehicle in a fire and it is one of the vehicles included in the recall. Will I be reimbursed for damages?
A. Customers should work with their insurance company to address these concerns.