Tailpipe is close enough to spare tire to melt tire. Tire is unusable. Later vehicles have a heat shield in place to prevent this. Ford should have recalled earlier units.

- Carson City, NV, USA

The truck burst into flames while parked. It had been sitting for over 13 hours at the time of the fire. It destroyed one car on either side of it. The fire investigator could not say exactly what caused the fire at the time, but made me aware of a recall on that year of Ford vehicles involving the speed control safety deactivation switch. Information on the recall says that the wire could heat up and cause a fire. The truck along with two other vehicles were completely destroyed in the fire.

- Chino Hills, CA, USA

I was driving down the highway at 70 mph when my Ford F-150 blew out the #3 sparkplug resulting in having to slow way down, fuel vapor filling my cab and a very rough ride. I have taken it to my repair shop where they will attempt to retap the hole, put in a new plug and see if that works. If not, they told me we are looking at having to remove the entire head. I did not realize how common this was with Ford until I researched online today. I also did not realize the severity of continuing to drive it to the shop this morning as I have read that the fuel vapor could ignite while running.

- Jacksonville, FL, USA

My husband and I have a Ford F250 truck. It's a 2001 which we purchase in 3/2002. My husband was driving the truck when he heard a bang then the truck died. We had the truck towed to a local auto repair shop. The repair shop stated that they would not touch the truck because the spark plug blew out causing the head to blow. They stated that this is an ongoing thing with Ford trucks and Ford will not admit that they have an engineering problem with the motor. I brought this matter to the dealership and the Ford customer service departments attention. Neither one of them would assist me. They stated that we would be responsible for the repairs. After these phone calls I call a few other auto repair shops. They also stated that that was unusual that a spark plug would back out and even if the spark plug did back out that it was unusual that it would blow the head gasket. At this point we have to pay for the repairs which is $3,500. I would like this matter looked into.

- Hathaway Pines, CA, USA

Failure to repair apparent defect @4000 miles under Ford's bumper to bumper warranty. (nar)

- Landenberg, PA, USA