Ford Announces Second Recall Covering 4.5M Cars

October 13, 2009

US carmaker giant Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it will include additional 4.5 million cars on the list of its recalled models which have defective cruise control system that could cause fire.

With this latest announcement, 14.3 million vehicles are now covered by the voluntary recall which started 10 years ago, the largest recall in Ford’s history which involves a single defective part.

In a letter sent to federal regulators, Ford said it found that some incidents of fire were caused by defective cruise controls after conducting its own independent investigation. However, the company did not reveal the number of cars that caught fire.

In a separate investigation, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found the switches made by auto supplier Texas Instruments could leak and overheat, thus resulting to fire.

Citing the investigation’s result, the agency linked four incidents of fire to the defective switches.

However, Texas Instruments released a statement saying its “cruise control switches meet Ford’s requirements”. The company also cited a previous investigation that found that the fire is “not caused by a single system but multiple factors.”

The recalled car models include: 1992-2003 Ford Econoline; 1993-1997 and 1999-2003 Ford F-Super Duty diesel; 1995-2002 Ford Explorer; 1995-2003 Ford Windstar; 1994 Ford F35 Motorhome; 1995-2002 Mercury Mountaineer; 1995-1997 and 2001-2003 Ford Ranger; and 2000-2003 Ford Excursion diesel.