Ford recalls nearly 200,000 SUVs because they could catch fire.

wemay

wemay

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Front blower fan can catch fire. Blower motor is most likely not made by Ford. Should have used a better supplier, but to your point it can happen to all of them. Still I stopped buying anything Ford years ago after I changed EVERY sensor on my 2002 Grand Marquis. Design was fine, quality was very poor.
 
I had a 1985 F-250 nearly go up in flames due to the resistor unit (nothing but a crude coil of wire) that controlled blower speed, which was located in the air intake of the blower motor, which draws air from the windshield cowl. After buying the truck and trying out the A/C I was greeted with clouds of billowing smoke to the point I had to exit the vehicle and nearly called the fire department. It took a good 30 minutes for the smoke to dissipate, it was still smoking when I got to work-- I went in for my shift thinking that if I heard sirens outside, I'd know what happened.

After, when I opened up the air intake tract, the resistor (the coil of wire that probably gets quite hot, which is why they put it the air intake) was stuffed with charred pine needles, leaves, and anything else that dropped through the windshield cowl. No recall for that model.

Something has to be seriously amiss or just the right circumstance for the actual blower motors in the subject vehicles to catch on fire, maybe a wiring issue? I bet the supplier uses that same blower model in different manufacturers / models.
 
I grabbed on with my hands as it was being tested as a kid. It burned the coil marks into my fingers. Didn’t do that twice.
 
The MFRs provide the specifications and price points to the 3rd party suppliers. Trade-offs and compromises can be negotiated. Sometimes, the supplier will refuse if they feel the part will be too shoddy for them to put their name too. Remember the chrysler steering racks in the LH cars? According to an old allpar article years ago, chrysler forced such a low price point for their steering rack at some point that the supplier (trw?) backed out and wouldn’t build it. Idk the details or legitimacy, but the point being that it may not be a clear “who’s at fault” thing.
 
92saturnsl2 said:
After, when I opened up the air intake tract, the resistor (the coil of wire that probably gets quite hot, which is why they put it the air intake) was stuffed with charred pine needles, leaves, and anything else that dropped through the windshield cowl. No recall for that model.
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Is the resistor on that model on the upstream side of the AC evaporator and heater core?

I took the cowl grille off of my 2004 Crown Victoria to clean out the junk (leaves, etc) that accumulated in there, and there's no way any of that stuff could have gotten near the resistor, it would had to pass through the AC evaporator and the heater core first.
 
brianl703 said:
Is the resistor on that model on the upstream side of the AC evaporator and heater core?

I took the cowl grille off of my 2004 Crown Victoria to clean out the junk (leaves, etc) that accumulated in there, and there's no way any of that stuff could have gotten near the resistor, it would had to pass through the AC evaporator and the heater core first.
Click to expand...
Yep, right in the path between cowl and blower motor. The blower motor then pushed air through evaporator or heater core depending on blend door position. That was a 1985 truck though, they've probably improved the design many times since then.

But an actual blower motor catching on fire in 2015-2017 Fords, I find hard to believe-- I suspect it's something ancillary like wiring or resistor placement (though most mfgs are probably using solid state motor control these days) or something to that effect.
 
92saturnsl2 said:
But an actual blower motor catching on fire in 2015-2017 Fords, I find hard to believe-- I suspect it's something ancillary like wiring or resistor placement (though most mfgs are probably using solid state motor control these days) or something to that effect.
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If they used too small a motor for the application, it can pull too much current for its design, run hot, degrade the insulation between windings over time, and catch fire or heat enough to catch what's around it on fire. I would say a modern "value engineered" motor is far more likely to do this than a motor made 30 years ago.
 
SC Maintenance said:
Front blower fan can catch fire. Blower motor is most likely not made by Ford. Should have used a better supplier, but to your point it can happen to all of them. Still I stopped buying anything Ford years ago after I changed EVERY sensor on my 2002 Grand Marquis. Design was fine, quality was very poor.
Click to expand...
The price was right but what is the actual cost to Ford? Deja vu all over again.
 
I'm glad I wrote them off a few years ago. I love my old 88 E-150, but that's the last Ford for me.
 
My F-150 has been through 3 transmissions. First one went out just after warranty period. Sorry...no warranty or loaner. Walk home.
 
SC Maintenance said:
Front blower fan can catch fire. Blower motor is most likely not made by Ford. Should have used a better supplier, but to your point it can happen to all of them. Still I stopped buying anything Ford years ago after I changed EVERY sensor on my 2002 Grand Marquis. Design was fine, quality was very poor.
Click to expand...
I am not doubting your experience and I have never owned a Panther....but I've owned 6 Fords and replaced 1 sensor - Fuel Pressure Sensor on my 07 Mustang.
 
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