U.S. opens probe into 1.7 million Ford vehicles over brake hose recall

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - U.S. auto safety regulators said Friday they are investigating whether a 2020 Ford Motor Co (F.N) recall for vehicles with front brake hoses rupturing prematurely is adequate.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is opening a recall query into 1.7 million U.S. Ford 2013-2018 model year Fusion and Lincoln MKZ cars after receiving 50 complaints alleging front brake hose failures. Ford recalled 488,000 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX vehicles in 2020 in the United States for brake hose failures.

Ford said it would cooperate with NHTSA's probe. NHTSA said many complaints reported brake hoses are rupturing, leaking brake fluid and occurring with little or no warning. The safety agency said it is aware of one alleged crash as a result of a failed brake hose.

Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jason Neely

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-opens-probe-into-17-million-ford-vehicles-over-brake-hose-recall-2022-08-12/

[KY_EnviroGuy]

1. Another good reminder to test our emergency brake periodically.

I had a brake line rupture on my Chevy truck a few years back while on the road and the emergency brake had not been adjusted, perhaps ever. I actually had to down-shift to slow it down and then put it in park to get it dead stopped. It had lost all brake fluid very quickly from a run of steel brake line tubing that had corroded through and ruptured.

If you live where salt is used on the road, it's also a good idea to have the runs of brake line inspected every few years.

Thanks for posting, Omaha Steve. I have a Fusion but it's a 2010, so hope we're OK.

KY......

[Old Crank]

2. Here is a video of the new emergency braking systems

I don't have a car and when I have rented them recently, they appear to have no emergency brake.
I grew up with the handle raise type, the pull out of the dash type, and not so much the foot pedal type.
The new ones are a push button and act quite a bit differently. They work on the front wheels and operate your disc brakes.

Here is a video showing an old Bronco and a new Honda stopping in snow with the emergency brakes

[cstanleytech]

5. I honestly would be rather antsy about having a small switch like that for the emergency brake.

[NullTuples]

6. Ugh. Too many points of failure. An emergency brake imo s/b as simple as possible

Electronic is fine for a parking brake, where it's assumed everything is in good working order. But in an emergency, I want something that will stop the car even if there has been a hydraulic or total electrical failure.

This brings to mind the Mercedes' that have a second battery in a hidden compartment under the passenger seat (requiring service people to cut the carpet to replace it). The battery exists only because M-B insisted on using an electric switch gear shift on the steering column stalk for the auto transmission. Safety regulations required a fallback should the main power system fail if there was no mechanical linkage. But there were/are still numerous failure points added by that only partially repetitive system. Honestly, the added complexity was a PITA.

And yes, there have been cable based disk brake emergency brakes for decades. Electric emergency brakes in my opinion are a corporate cost cutting measure, similar to completely replacing the safer mechanical-tactile knobs and sliders for a/c and radio control only being accessed via a cheap touch screen that requires taking one's eyes and attention completely off the road while driving.

[paleotn]

3. Very wise advice....

Same happened to my better half. Luckily, she was just rolling slowly when the brake pedal went to the floor. Even if it's not a defective part, things wear out. Even critical components. Particularly in salt country. Old mechanic friend of mine use to joke about having to beat the rust off the under side of older cars due to winter salt use by the county and state.

[cstanleytech]

4. Why so many recalls for cars even though modern car have been around for

decades?

[NullTuples]

7. Capitalism. So many parts are outsourced & corner-cutting happens.

It's not like outsourced work in nearly any field is actually tested by the recipient company. Typically they simply depend on contracts and lawyers to ensure quality after the fact if things go wrong.

[cstanleytech]

8. Perhaps then it's time for even harsher financial penalties on companies

who have x number of recalls over x amount of time.

[NullTuples]

9. We don't even penalize self-driving car companies for killing people

If a human person were to do so, they'd lose their license. But we have not-ready-for-production cars out there that mow people down and when there are fines they're minuscule compared to the profit made off the product.