Ford Motor Co. will add 4.5 million vehicles from older-model to those already recalled for a defective cruise control switch. These 4.5 million vehicles on tow for recall for defective cruise control switch add up to a 14.3 million registered vehicles over 10 years. This is Ford’s largest cumulative recall in history involving a single problem, a faulty cruise control switch.

Ford recalls are for defective cruise control switch that could cause a fire.

Ford Motor Co. has struggled for a decade with the defective cruise control switch problem:

• Hundreds of complaints and dozens of lawsuits over fires allegedly caused by faulty switches.
• A small number of injuries have also been linked to the problem, though none were reported in the latest recall

Ford began an investigation of Windstar vehicles in February 2008 after receiving a growing number of reports of fires under the vehicles' hoods.

National Highway Transportation Safety Agency (NHTSA) began its own probe of the problem in June 2008.

• Ford’s recall includes 1.1 million Ford Windstar minivans :The vehicle owners reported fires linked to the problem during an internal investigation
• Ford’s recall also includes 3.4 million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models from the 1992 to 2003 model years: Most of them are trucks and sport utility vehicles and use the same cruise control switches with no reports of fires
• Ford’s recall also includes some vehicles without cruise control: They have the switches with brake fluid routed through them

To repair the problem, dealers will install a harness to help prevent the fluid from flowing where it could be ignited. It is wise to park all the recalled Windstar minivans vehicles outside the garages until they are mailed instructions on how to get repairs.

These vehicle owners will be notified by mail starting at the end of the month with instructions on how to get the repairs done.

NHTSA investigators found that the switches

• Made by Texas Instruments
• Could leak internally
• Overheat
• Potentially ignite

There were four reports of leaking fluid damaging the antilock brake control module, resulting in a fire. The module was charged with electrical current and could ignite the fluid in some cases.

Ford used the Texas Instruments switch till 2003 but stopped using it thereafter. The latest group of vehicles recalled is the last batch that had the switch installed. This is the seventh Ford recall due to the Texas Instruments speed control switches.

Texas Instruments has a different story to tell:

• They manufactured a switch that met and exceeded Ford's specifications
• It is only one component of Ford's cruise control deactivation system
• They quote a 2006 NHTSA investigation that found multiple factors were to blame for fires
• They no longer own the division that made the switches

Only certain vehicles are affected, and concerned owners of are encouraged to wait to receive a recall notice in the mail before scheduling an appointment with their local dealer.

• Ford recalls 1995-2003 Ford Windstar
• Ford recalls 2000-2003 Ford Excursion diesel
• Ford recalls 1993-1997 and 1999-2003 Ford F-Super Duty diesel
• Ford recalls 1992-2003 Ford Econoline; 1995-2002 Ford Explorer
• Ford recalls 1995-2002 Mercury Mountaineer
• Ford recalls 1995-1997 and 2001-2003 Ford Ranger
• Ford recalls 1994 Ford F35 Motorhome

For more information on Ford recalls visit the government-run Web site, Safecar.gov.

In November 2008, American Honda Motor Co., Inc. initiated a safety recall of the driver's airbag in approximately 440,000 older vehicles of 2001-2002 Accords, 2001 Civics and 2002-2003 Acura TLs. The safety recall was due to a potential defect in the airbag's inflation system.

The accident rate for the Audi 5000 sudden acceleration defect was already 1 in 900, one of the highest on record. The problems in the cruise control systems and in the transmission are overlooked.

When Audi management highlighted a floor mat interfering with the pedals was causing the sudden acceleration, and NHTSA stopped its investigation into the car. Audi did not provide the complaints and NHTSA officials did not take any follow-up action to obtain them.

Without the 107 complaints, Audi had only inspected a small percentage of the reported cars and even though the company had failed to provide proof that floor mats were responsible for the sudden acceleration accidents.

Drivers who had the shift lock device installed in their cars were reporting accidents. Less than two months after those installations began, and before Audi installed the devices as part of a safety recall, the Center For Auto Safety warned that the devices were not working.

• Three accidents had already occurred in shift-lock equipped Audis - an accident rate that was higher than on Audis without the device."
• Of the small number of cars which do have the shift-lock device, nearly 40 accidents have been reported, according to CAS
• The shift lock flies in the face of the facts of virtually every runaway Audi accident ever reported to NHTSA
• Drivers consistently report that their foot was not on the accelerator when they shifted from park to drive or reverse - yet the car still accelerated uncontrollably

Audi's sales for February, 1987 were down 56 percent from the year before for the 5000 series and down 58 percent for Audi cars overall.

• In April, Audi took two new steps to bolster its declining image. First, the company sent certificates worth $5000 off the purchase of any new 1987 Audi to owners of 1984 to 1986 cars
• Resale values have dropped drastically for Audi 5000 owners
• Owners with 1986 cars find their cars are only getting $11,000, a 50 percent depreciation in one year
• The 1984 cars are only getting $2,000 on trade-ins and
• Older cars are virtually un-tradable

Audi discontinued the Audi 5000 name and in 1988, the car was known as the Audi 100, a name the car started under in Europe as a desperate attempt at cosmetic changes instead of finding the problem and fixing it.

Defective Regulation: Accelerating Accidents

• On August 15, 1986, the same day that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it would conduct a defect investigation for the Audi 5000, it dropped a similar investigation of sudden acceleration in 60 million 1973 to 1986 General Motors cars with automatic transmissions.
• The investigation involved over 3,000 accidents and 100 deaths with sudden ' acceleration accidents.
• The agency dismissed the problem as being one which was caused primarily by driver error.
• Despite NHTSA's explanation for the problem, sudden acceleration remains an industry-wide concern.
• NHTSA is investigating sudden acceleration in 1980-85 Nissan 280z/300z cars, 1983-84 AMC Alliance/Encore models, 1981-84 Toyota Cressidas and 1982-85 General Motors J-cars, 1985-86 Dodge-Plymouth Colts and 198687 Honda Accords LXI.
• But the agency is not expected to take action on these cases: Since 1980 NHTSA has closed sudden acceleration investigations into 13 car models

For sudden acceleration problems, private engineers have theorized that

• Faulty computer components could cause the computer control systems to malfunction,
• It sends messages to the car to accelerate when it should not.
• these malfunctions would not leave any evidence that could easily be detected
• Most people are focusing on the car's electronic controls: The person shifts and for some reason the computer gives the wrong signal and opens up the throttle
• This is a new generation of defects for a new generation of high technology cars Unlike the earlier defect investigations that often involved a single defective part, sudden acceleration is an example of a system failure

The New York area victims worked with NYPIRG to form their own organization, the Audi Victims Network were petitioning NHTSA to investigate and recall the car.

Manager of product liaison then reported the results of Audi's investigation into 93 cars that had had a sudden acceleration accident and announced that :

• There were common traits shared by all the sudden acceleration accident victims
• The driver's were inexperienced with Audi 5000s
• Most did not own the Audi
• Most instances occurred below 6,000 miles
• Most of the drivers were smaller than average, below five foot five inches

Audi hurriedly announced a few sops that:

• It would conduct its third recall
• Readjust the accelerator pedal and brake pedal to
• Provide more foot room and thereby
• Reduce the possibility of the misapplication of the pedals
• Provide free audio cassettes to Audi drivers to re-acquaint drivers with proper seating position and driver controls.

NYPIRG surveyed over 200 drivers that experienced sudden acceleration problems and found that;

• Many of the company's claims unfounded
• The drivers looked pretty normal
• They tended to be familiar with the car
• Had driven many years
• They were in the safest driving ages
• They were a full inch above the national height average reported by the national center for health statistics
• 85 percent of the drivers reported having their foot on the brake at the onset of acceleration
• Most of those who did not had the car suddenly accelerate while driving
• Less than 10 percent of the people said the brakes eventually stopped the car

Automatic Shift Lock Device

So fast was word spreading on the Audi 5000 in New York City, that parking garages began posting signs refusing to park Audi 5000 cars.

Audi announced in July 1986, a fourth recall that it said would stop most of the sudden acceleration problems once and for all with an "automatic shift lock device" as the solution.

It implies that

• A modification is being made to the automatic transmission,
• The device merely connects a sensor to the brake lights so that
• Drivers must touch the brake pedal before moving the gear shift out of the park position

The Audi Victims Network says the device will not address the accidents documented by their group.

• In August 1986, NHTSA upgraded the Audi 5000 case to a formal "defect investigation" - the highest priority the agency has for an investigation. And a special segment of "60 Minutes" coupled with pressure from Congress, spurred NHTSA to act quickly.
• In December, 1986 NHTSA announced that it would request Audi to voluntarily recall its 5000 series cars
• The Audi 5000 had become the most publicized auto defect since the Ford Pinto and the General Motors Corvair

In its recall, NHTSA merely asked Audi to install the shift lock device and change idle stabilizer valves, two things the company was already doing. And even Audi maintained that while a faulty idle stabilizer valve may cause irregular idle, it could not induce sudden acceleration.

Audi eagerly accepted the rehabilitation of the shift lock device as a credible answer to sudden acceleration and attempted to rehabilitate its image. The company modified its public relations line by saying Audi was no longer blaming the drivers for the problem and that the new device would correct the problem with the car.

New generation of defects for a new generation of high technology cars- unintended acceleration in Audi 5000S

The Audi 5000S, considered to be one of the best-built automobiles in the world, is the center of a controversy around a problem, called "unintended acceleration". Unintended acceleration is a phenomenon marked by an unplanned and uncontrollable movement by the vehicle. The driver would be totally unable to stop the car no matter how hard he or she may apply pressure to the brake pedal.

The Audi 5000, first introduced in 1978, it was the flagship model for Audi's American distributor, Volkswagen of America. In just seven years its sales were more than doubled in the U.S, so were the consumer complaints. The consumers complained of an unexpected sudden acceleration without notice.

• Audi 5000 drivers complained, the car would accelerate, often with devastating results
• Since the late 1970s hundreds of Audi drivers in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe have reported sudden acceleration problems with the Audi 5000 series or its foreign equivalent
• There have been 1500 sudden acceleration accidents reported in Audi 5000s and more than 400 people have been injured when their Audi 5000s sped out of control in the United States. Seven people have died
• The accidents have been strikingly similar

The car idles normally in the "park" position, but when the automatic transmission is shifted into "drive" or "reverse," the car suddenly accelerates without warning. Drivers try braking, but the car fails to stop before hitting cars, trees, walls or people.

• Audi AG - the West German affiliate of Volkswagen that makes the Audi 5000 - has steadfastly denied that the car is defective. Instead, Audi has
• Consistently blamed the cars' drivers for the accidents and
• Exonerated the Audi's sudden acceleration.

Accidents continued increase in numbers with Audi sudden acceleration problem in the 19781987 Audi 5000 cars.

• The Audi 5000's sudden acceleration occurs more frequently than any auto defect ever investigated by the U.S. government.
• By 1987, one out of every 170 Audi 5000s had had a sudden acceleration accident, according to the Center for Auto Safety (CAS), a national consumer organization.
• By comparison, the infamous Firestone 500 tires were recalled with an accident rate of 1-in15 000.

The Audi 5000 series, at $23,000, was designed to compete with the Volvo, BMW, Cadillac and other luxury cars. It was Marketed under the slogan, "Audi - The Art of Engineering," after the car was redesigned in 1984. There are an estimated quarter of a million Audi 5000 cars on the road in the United States.

By early 1982, 107 consumers had complained to Audi about a sudden acceleration accident. At the behest of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Audi conducted the first of five recalls to diffuse the problem.

• Audi theorized to NHTSA that a floor mat stuck underneath the accelerator pedal could cause the accelerator to stick while decelerating
• To remedy this, Audi proposed installing a plastic device to keep the pedal clear of the floor mat
• In April, 1982, NHTSA agreed and all 1978 to 1982 cars were recalled

By installing a floor mat device Audi could give the appearance of fixing the car to the government, but denied that there was any mechanical problem with the cars.

CAS reported receiving accident reports on the Audi 5000, after the floor mat recall, NHTSA once again put pressure on Audi to take action.

• Audi argued that drivers unfamiliar with the car may have been unknowingly stepping on both the brake and the accelerator pedal when they applied the brake
• In late 1983 Audi initiated a second recall of the car to installed a plate: This is to elevate the brake pedal above the accelerator pedal
• They hoped to make it more difficult for a person to step on the two pedals at once without realizing it
• The device was installed on all 1978 through 1983 cars and incorporated into the later models

Despite the floor mat and the staggered pedals, however, Audi sudden acceleration accidents continued.

http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1987/05/wathen.html

Toyota Motor will issue a recall for at least 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles. This is to fix a potential safety problem caused by a car's floor mat jamming the accelerator leading to an "unintended acceleration".

The Audi 5000S, considered at the outset one of the best-built automobiles in the world, is the center of a controversy of unintended acceleration.

Unintended acceleration is a phenomenon marked by an unplanned, uncontrollable movement by the vehicle. And the driver will be totally unable to stop the car no matter how hard he or she may apply pressure to the brake pedal.

This recall for unintended acceleration is the largest in Toyota's history. This follows a crash last month in San Diego in which a mat was suspected of snagging a gas pedal on a runaway Lexus, resulting in a fiery crash that killed four family members.

A minute before the crash, the driver called police to say the car had no brakes, the accelerator was stuck and the car was doing more than 120 mph. It hit a sport-utility vehicle, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames. The car, equipped with all-weather floor mats, was on loan from a dealership while the driver's own vehicle was being repaired.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urged the following list of vehicles to remove mats or other obstacles that could lead to unintended acceleration:

• 007-2010 Camry
• 2005-2010 Avalon
• 2004-2009 Prius
• 2005-2010 Tacoma
• 2007-2010 Tundra
• 2007-2010 Lexus ES 350
• 2006-2010 Lexus IS 250
• 2006-2010 Lexus IS 350

The affected vehicles accelerate rapidly after release of the accelerator pedal:

• More than 2,000 complaints have been made about General Motors models built between 1973 and 1986
• Owners of Toyotas, Renaults, Mercedes-Benzes and Nissans have also reported unintended acceleration incidents
• The Audi 5000 has the highest percentage of acceleration incidents, about 1 in 400 cars built
• Just about every single car model available with an automatic transmission since 1987 has had reports of unintended acceleration

Unintended acceleration is partly due to use of unsecured mats and particular configuration of the accelerator pedals in the affected vehicles:

• In cars with keyless ignition, a driver must hold the on-off switch for three seconds in order to shut off the engine
• Pedal placement in the Audi 5000 which contributed to its unintended acceleration problem
• Because of the extra space needed by the 4-wheel drive systems, the pedals in the Audi were offset slightly to the left, putting the accelerator pedal almost directly
• Under the center point of the steering column, and the brake pedal off to the left
• The Jeep Cherokee’s unintended acceleration is likely due Jeep's pedals that were placed much like the Audi's, offset to the left

A statistical analysis of all claims of unintended acceleration indicated:

• The position of each car's brake pedal in relation to the steering column
• Significant positive relationship between left offset of the pedals and reports of unintended acceleration
• Cars with brake pedals directly under, or to the right of the steering column have very few complaints against them.
• Cars like the Audi and Jeep have hundreds and thousands complaints against them

Toyota orders inspection of mats after runaway car crash in Santee that killed CHP Officer Mark Saylor, his wife, brother in-law and daughter, have lead authorities to think it may have been the car mat that caused the crash.

It was brought to the attention of The National Highway Safety Transportation Administration because of a 2007 recall on after-market floor mats which could slip and catch on the accelerator.

Toyota will order 1400 Toyota and Lexus dealers nationwide to:

• Inspect their cars for mismatched floor mats to approximately
• Make sure all their cars have the right floor mats
• Ensure they are properly secured

The public is encouraged to inspect their floor mats also.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18953-San-Diego-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m9d15-Toyota-orders-inspection-of-mats-after-runaway-car-crash

http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/29/automobiles-toyota-recall-business-autos-toyota.html?partner=executive_picks_newsletter

http://www.digest.net/bmw/archive/v7/msg13110.html