Cruise fires
 

Do to a feeling of pending disaster, the cruise switch at the master cylinder has officially been disconnected. I dont want to risk losing a good truck over a faulty cruise switch. I am hearing Ford may recall more vehicles. I have a 2001 5.4 Supercab that was not originally included in the recall. (missed it by 4 months) I was looking at the cruise wiring schematic this evening and quite frankly dont see why Ford even used this switch to begin with. (Extra safety maybe?) It is a secondary cruise disconnect switch. There is also a switch on the brake pedal which I believe is the primary disconnect for the cruise. I have thought about bypassing the secondary switch completely and seeing if the cruise would function correctly. Any thoughts?

The CCD switch is a redundant safety disconnect for the cruise system.

If you disconnect the switch and bypass it, the system will work normally albeit without the redundant safety measure.

Steve

can anyone post a pic of which wire needs to be unpulged on the master cylinder i want to be sure there wont be a fire also. called the dealership and they said dont worry but just to be safe. any help would be great

from what i understand, it is the one on the front of th mc. check out the thread in the lightning forum for pics.

-matt

You have no need to. Your BPP switch is protected by fuse #15 (20A). If it makes you feel better, certainly buy the new switch and wiring harness and do the install. Personally, I'd just install a 2A fuse in place of the 20 and forget about it until it blows that fuse (at which point the cruise will stop working, telling you the switch is bad/leaking and needs to be replaced).

-Joe

i never use the cruise anyways so after i disconnet the switch and zip tie it out of the way. so i need to do anything with the orange piece on on the master cylinder or just leave it alone. any need to cover it any way

No need to cover it unless you just want to. It is just a switch that no longer has power going to it. The more importat thing is to secure the wiring safly out of the way as there is a hot wire there.

CNN news cruise switch fires
 

17 june did anyone else see the news last night on the cruise pressure switch on the brake master cyl fires ??? i have a 1999 F-150 and i have the exact switch they showed on the news and it does have power to it even when the truck is turned off. the problem is my year is not on the recall yet. i disconnected the switch. has anyone talked to a dealer about a replacement switch {2004 and up have a different switch} and will the newer switch work on other models??? i like to use my cruise but don't wantto loose my truck either..........any info would be appreciated.
thanks Danbowhntr in maryland :wave:

See my numerous other posts on the issue. Short version is that even if you have the same switch, if there is a fuse in-line with it, the odds of it sparking a fire are slim at best. That's what the fuse is there for: To protect that circuit.

I can't speak for the '99 MY offhand, but if my memory serves, it's on its own fuse, a 15A to be specific. If it makes you feel better, YES you can replace the switch you have with the new one being used in the recall. If it makes you feel better, replace the 15A fuse with a 1A or 2A fuse.

I didn't see the TV news report myself, but the CNN web site has a bunch of mis-information on the issue. As usual, they are not a reputable source of information on the issues.

-Joe

fuse will not prevent fire!!!!!!!!!!!
 

:smoke: do not trust the fuse to prevent a fire in the cruise ckt.... since this brake pressure switch is a normally closed switch if the brake fluid gets into the switch side of the switch it can ignite the fluid and NEVER blow the fuse because just burning the ckt open does not mean it will draw enough amps to blow the fuse.........get the new style switch or disconnect it ......a fuse does nothing to an open ckt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :smoke:

Being normally closed has nothing to do with it. The circuit is a VOLTAGE input to the speed control servo. It draws less then one milliamp of current. The heat/ignition source occurs after an extended amount of time, when the contacts inside the switch have corroded to the point that an arc occurs as the power tries to ground through the brake fluid. That's direct from one of the engineers doing the testing.

You are correct in that a fuse does nothing to protect an open circuit, but an open circuit needs no protection either. There's no heat source or overcurrent condition in an open circuit, so the argument is irrelevent.

As I've said 10 times already, should the switch short out, the fuse will burn open long before the wire heats up enough to start a fire. The recalled vehicles have no fuse, hence the fire danger.

-Joe

That’s the culprit

https://www.f150online.com/galleries...719-110159.jpg

danbow, I tend to agree with your statement since there is no short to ground per se thus allowing enough heat to build at the internal contacts of the switch itself to ignite the brake fluid. I "assume" the vehicles that caught fire were fused as well, correct? The switch contacts act like an electric dynamite cap, albeit with less volatile medium to ignite. Matt

joe, could you tell us the location of the fuse for this circuit? I have a 99 F150. Also, are the new switches for 2004-05 immune from this hazard? Thanks, Matt

Does not matter that there is a fuse there, it is not a direct short, so the fuse does not blow. I had the bright idea to try to put an inline ATM fuse inline with a 1 amp fuse, but it could do the same thing, even with this.
For ~ 20.00 shipped from oemfordparts.com, I just went ahead and ordered the part, not waiting to see if they recall my truck ( still does not show as a recall item ).

P/N : 1L1Z-9F924-AA (KIT-BRAKE RE) List is 18.98 Southwest Ford price 11.96, add in shipping, and no TX sales tax ( out of state ship to ) total was 20.30.

Here is JMC's post in the thread, when I suggested the ATM line fuses.:

Full Thread :
https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh....php?p=1707010

That picture above looks like a leaking switch, so good thing it is disco'd. If you put in the bypass that JMC talks about in the other thread, CC works fine, until you get the recall from the dealer, or order up the part yourself.
Crack open a ATM fuse, and solder a wire between the 2, and plug it in. Mine is still that way, until I can find time to install the new switch sitting on the work bench. :D

If the hot wire going to the cruise control switch had a fuse and the brake fluid shorted it out, wouldn’t it blow the fuse way before it got hot enough to ignite brake fluid?

So does anyone know the part number of the faulty part? And is it the same as the aprt number in the recalled 2000's? From what i can find it is in the years from 1995-2002 with all the 2000's recall is that correct?

Thx

1l1z-9f924-aa
 

Just went and bought the replacement switch at the local ford dealer. Took 5 minutes to install and now its a done deal. It only cost 13 bucks for the switch and the harness. Its worth 13 bucks for peace of mind and to keep a otherwise excellent vehicle from going up in smoke. Thanks for all the info.

You bought the switch and harness What do you mean harness what is the harness all about? Does the new switch no fit into the same canon plug? As the old one?

GIJoe is incorrect. My 2000 F150 is part of the recall and it has a 15A fuse in the cruise circuit. The problem is the fire starts before the 15A fuse blows. 15A is a lot of power and can melt the thin wires and ignite the brakefluid. Here is a pic of the circuit.
http://fritzthecat.250free.com/images/net/recall.jpg

While waiting for the recall, I spliced a 1 amp fuse into the hot wire.

Later model years (2004+) have the circuit connected to a ingnition switched bus and have a seperate 2 amp fuse.

Fritz

It comes with a new plug-in harness. The switch is completely different from the old one. The harness adapts the existing vehicle harness to the new switch.

Oh I see great thanks! Do i have have to worry about getting air in the brake lines if I take the old switch out and put the new one in? Do I need to bleed the brakes after putting the new switch in?

Thanks

I did not have to bleed anything. I swapped it out and had the same pedal I had before I started. I was thinking the same thing but honestly I dont think that bleeding the brakes could get that little bit of air out of the switch. You could bleed it at the switch by loosening the switch and having someone else hold the pedal down(with the ignition key off) but the air trapped up inside the switch has nowhere to go as it is the highest point in the hydraulic circuit besides the fluid reservoir.

Makes sense thanks for the info!

I don't know how I got it in my brain that there was no fuse on that circuit.... just looked at all the schematics again and, sure enough, there are fuses in them every year..... guess I've been staring at too many different ones over the last couple weeks. My humblest apologies..... I stand corrected.

-Joe

faulty switch
 

can someone look at the photo below and tell me if this is the faulty switch in my 2001 F150? Thanks,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3.../switch_02.jpg

I called two ford dealers today and had them check my vin and both said that my '01 was not affected. But, the switch sure looks like one that had caused problems.

Yes that is the switch. Yes that is the same switch as the ones that are involved in the recall. No, that does not necessarily mean your truck should be recalled too. It may be recalled in the future, but is not now.

-Joe

Thanks for the comment, Joe. Why wouldn't all switches be recalled? Do you think there a production problem with some of the switches put into the market? I will try to keep an eye on it for any signs of leaking. I would also be tempted to change it out since its an inexpensive part.

I don't know why all the switches haven't been recalled. From what I understand, not all of them fail, and they can't get a finger on why some do and some don't, and that's why they're testing them. They have identified that particular batch as having a significant number of them fail, and that's why they recalled them.

As long as you fill the switch with a couple drops of fluid before installing it, it's a simple install, and, like I've said before, if the $30 lets you sleep better at night, go for it.

I honestly don't know where the problem lies. My opinion (and this is strictly my own personal opinion) is that I'd rather have a known good design on the truck than a possible bad one and would replace it with the better of the two. It costs less than a tank of gas, but could prevent a total loss of the truck.

Again, that's only my opinion.

-Joe

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