Cruise control recalls

[jseabolt]

All this talk about Toyotas running out of control reminds me of a story I saw on 20/20 about 10 to 15 years ago.

I'm not sure if this was just on Bronco IIs, Rangers and Explorers or other Fords but the vehicle they were demonstating this on was a Ranger.

Ford had mounted the cruise control unit on the firewall. Somehow water would enter the control unit and cause the engine to rev out of control. Either through the connector or the gasket used to hold the box together.

Some guy using a Ranger, opened the unit so it would leak and poored water into the control unit and sure enough the engine reved out of control/

Anyone remember this? When it was or what model years?

My Explorer was recalled a few months ago on the deactivation switch. In my case, the switch was leaking externally. I had already purchased a new one from Advance Auto and was going to install it on a Friday but got a letter from Ford the previous day.

http://jalopnik.com/5381540/cruise-control-fire-recall-expanded-to-fords-largest-ever

On a side note, the steering column on my Aunt's 84 Tempo caught fire long before the ignition switch recall. Also all of the guages on our 84 Bronco II would peg out from time to time. This was supposeable due to the ignition switch.

 

[firepop5]

As a firefighter for many years, (hence my name), I've been to many car fires involving Fords, some Exploers, some not, that started under the hood near the cruise control. Learned later it was what this recall is all about. Some of these fires occurred when the car was parked and had not been driven for days. Some went on fire inside of an attached garage!!! If you park in a garage, get this fix done!

 

[Joe Dirt]

You can make any Ford "take off" by pushing and holding the set accel button when the cruise is engaged