About 4.5 million vehicles have been added by Ford to an existing recall over a faulty cruise control switch. Of the 4.5 million vehicles recalled, Ford says that they only believe 1.1 million vehicles pose an actual safety risk with the other 3.4 million being recalled as a precaution.
The safety issue is centered around a cruise control deactivation switch made by Texas Instruments. Ultimately, the switch was linked to at least 550 vehicle fires and 1,500 owner complaints out of the roughly 16 million vehicles equipped with it. Ford ceased using the switch in early 2003 when it was determined that it was the cause of the fires.
The most recent extension of the recall includes roughly 1.1 million 1995-2003 Windstar vans, as well as 3.4 million various vehicles including 740,000 Econoline vans, 1 million Explorers, and 1.1 million Super Duty F-series trucks.
James Vondale, director of Ford’s automotive safety office said, “Ford is making a safety-related defect determination for the Windstar vehicles. We have not made a safety-related defect determination for the other vehicles included in this recall, but are including them to avoid any future concerns related to a potential fire risk resulting from the Texas Instruments [switch] either from the agency or from our customers.”
