Washington - One small 20-dollar switch is being blamed for dozens and possibly hundreds of spontaneous fires in Ford vehicles, often hours after the engines were turned off and their owners had gone to bed.
Insurance investigators have blamed the cruise control deactivation switch, which turns off the cruise control when the driver steps on the brakes, for the fires that have burned down homes and caused thousands of dollars in damages.
A recent lawsuit against Ford also alleges that the switch caused a fire that killed a 74-year-old woman.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been looking at the matter since the beginning of the year, and expanded its investigation in March to cover 3.7 million vehicles that are equipped with the switch.
Both Ford and the NHTSA have received more than 200 under-the-hood fire complaints allegedly linked to the switch. But it might not be at fault in all of these cases, Ford sposkesperson Kristen Kinley cautioned.
"We know that the switch seems to be the source of the issue," she said. "But we have to take each case individually ... In addition to the switch, there could be a dozen other causes, such as faulty repairs, a previous accident or arson."
A NHTSA spokesperson said that the agency does not comment on ongoing investigations.
Ford said in a statement that under-the-hood fires represent a very small percentage of the thousands of non-collision vehicle fires that occur in Ford vehicles each year.
Nonetheless, the fires prompted Ford, the second largest U.S. automaker, to issue two separate recalls targeting more than a million vehicles.
The first recall was issued in May 1999 and affected Ford cars, while the second recall in January 2005 affected Ford pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.
The allegedly faulty cruise control switch is designed to always be powered, even when the engine is turned off. The only thing separating the switch's electrical components from brake fluid is a thin film.
Investigators have ventured that the film can crack, allowing the brake fluid to run into the electrical components, leading to a fire.
Ford stopped using this switch design starting with the 2004 year models, according to a Cable News Network report.
Nonetheless the company defended its past decision to use the "hot" switch design.
"It was a design that at the time, we felt was appropriate for what we needed," Kinley said. "The investigation may reveal that it was inappropriate, but so far we have not reached that conclusion."
Ford, who recently cut its 2005 profit forecast, has had a number of problems with its vehicles over the last couple of years.
In 2001, Ford recalled 1.6 million vehicles because of a defective windscreen wiper mechanism that was a fire hazard. A few weeks later, Ford had to replace 13 million Firestone tires installed on sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks.
© dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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