As most of you know, Ford recently did a recall of 800,000 trucks because of cruise control switch fires. The switch detects pressure in the brake lines, then acts to shut off the cruise control. The official descriptions of the fires say that they are caused by a "resistive short" in the switch, after brake fluid has leaked in.

I have noticed that many of the fires are in Texas and Florida, and I wonder if something about their weather makes cars there more vulnerable to the problem.

BurntToo

 

Heat and humidity deteriorates wiring faster. I've never noticed any regionality to the failures myself.

 

There is no specific region that is more prone to it than any other. It's a supplier issue.... their switches fail more than the "other" supplier Ford switched to. The only reason it's a fire hazard on the trucks that are involved is because for those particular year(s) that particular circuit is hot all the time. On the same vehicles with the same switches that aren't involved in teh recall, the switch may still fail and leak, but that circuit is fuse-protected, so a fire is unlikely.

-Joe