Ford recalls 4.5 million vehicles in U.S.

Over the years, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been recalling a number of older American-made models over the issue of “leaking” cruise control switches in certain brands. By 2008, the agency had recalled around 9.6 million vehicles to repair a faulty Texas Instruments cruise-control deactivation switch, and now after an NHTSA investigation, Ford is the target of the latest recall, adding 4.5 million Ford and Mercury vehicles to the list.

The latest recall covers these vehicles:

1992-2003 Ford Econoline
2000-2003 Ford Excursion
1995-2002 Ford Explorer
1993-1997 Ford F-Series Super Duty
1999-2003 Ford F-Series Super Duty
1994 Ford F-53 truck
1995-1997 Ford Ranger
2001-2003 Ford Ranger
1995-2003 Ford Windstar
1995-2002 Mercury Mountaineer

According to NHTSA, the switch can “leak and overheat,” which can lead to smoke and, in some cases, fire. The U.S. Detroit News paper mentions that the switches have been the cause of more than 550 fires in various car models over the years, some of which led to deaths and lawsuits. Ford says that “aside from the Windstar, the additional vehicles addressed in this action have different system parameters and do not pose an unreasonable risk to safety. However, Ford is taking this action on all of these vehicles to address possible ongoing customer lack of confidence in vehicles with the affected switch.”

The U.S. recall begins on October 26, where anyone with an affected vehicle can take it to a Ford dealer and have the switch repaired with a fused harness. It is not expected that Ford dealers in the UAE and GCC will follow suit, although the aging models listed are extremely rare in this region anyway, from the days when Ford was a smaller player here.