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(800) 392-3673

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Ford Customer Service

Mail:

Ford Customer Relationship Center
P.O. Box 6248
Dearborn, MI 48126

2004 Ford Crown Victoria NHTSA Defect Investigations

• Defect Investigation #DP05005 - On September 6, 2005, ODI received a petition requesting that the Agency investigate allegations of engine spark plug ejection in certain model year 1997 through 2004 Ford vehicles with Triton V-8 and V-10 engines.ODI received a total of 474 non-duplicative complaints on the subject vehicles where the complainant, or the dealer repairing the vehicle, reported that a spark plug detached from the cylinder and/or ejected from the engine.as of December 8, 2005, ODI is not aware of any allegations where the alleged defect resulted in a loss of vehicle control, a crash, an injury, or a fatality in any of the 10,319,810 subject vehicles.in addition, ODI is aware of only two incidents where the vehicle stalled without restart.information contained in the ODI consumer complaints and obtained from 72 telephone interviews with complainants showed the following:(1) 99% of the complaints were on MY 1997 to 2002 subject vehicles.(2) most the complainants reported hearing a loud pop while driving or upon starting up the vehicle followed by a loud, repetitive clicking or popping sound.(3) many of the complainants reported that the popping sound was accompanied by some loss of vehicle power; however, in 99% of the incidents reported, the vehicle did not stall.in the very few incidents where the vehicle did stall, most vehicles could be restarted.(4) only a small percentage of the complainants cited that they smelled gas or a slight burning smell when the incident occurred.(5) in all but a very few incidents, vehicle damage was limited to the engine.in one incident, the complaint reported that the fuel rail was damaged and replaced after one of the spark plugs ejected from the engine; however, the complainant reported that the damage did not result in any type of fuel leak or fire.in another incident, the only incident where a fire was alleged, the complainant reported that no fluid leak was observed, but that a fire resulted after the spark plug had ejected from the engine and he had restarted the vehicle and driven to another location.none of the complainants reported any damage to the vehicle hood.(6) only two complainants reported that they observed what appeared to be some drops of fuel coming from the cylinder where the spark plug had failed or on the spark plug itself; however, each of these complainants reported that there was no smoke or flames as a result of his incident.as the petitioner noted, and ODI¿S analysis showed, it is possible for a spark plug to detach from the engine cylinder threads in the subject vehicles.however, ODI¿S analysis of 474 complaints describing such incidents found only a very few alleged any safety-related consequences.none of these showed any evidence of a serious safety consequence.given the large population and relatively long exposure time of the subject vehicles, the complaint analysis indicates that the risk to motor vehicle safety from the alleged defect is very low.in view of the foregoing, it is unlikely that NHTSA would issue an order for the notification and remedy of the alleged defect at the conclusion of the investigation requested in the petition.therefore, in view of the need to allocate and prioritize NHTSA¿S limited resources to best accomplish the Agency¿S safety mission, the petition is denied.
• Defect Investigation #RQ04007 - During a September 23, 2004 meeting and in subsequent discussions in November, Ford advised the Office Of Defects Investigation (ODI) of their plans to introduce an improved steel wheel for manufacturing and service component use on the subject vehicles, indicating this would occur in December 2004.the new wheel design incorporates an additional manufacturing process (shot peening) which lowers tensile stress in the surface layer of the rim material adjacent to the circumferential weld. Theoretically this should improve rim durability by reducing fatigue crack initiation sites.indications from Ford¿S accelerated testing methods show an improvement in the performance of the new wheel.in addition to prior safety recall 03V279 and service action (sa) 03M03, Ford will announce a new extended warranty sa for vehicles built prior to December 2004 that suffer rim fractures in service.the new wheel design will be used as a remedy.Ford advises that a sa is sufficient for addressing future wheel failures (including recall 03V279 remedy wheel failures) because: 1) failure rates are low based on Ford¿S analysis, and 2) driver warnings (repetitive slow air loss, and or steering wheel vibration) allow early and safe detection of cracked wheels.ODI has received 25 vehicle owner questionnaire (voq) reports (involving 22 vehicles) which allege a rim fracture of one or more steel wheels.about half the reports involve vehicles built with the remedy wheel used for recall 03V279, and most of the remaining vehicles were subject to the recall.the process of identifying pertinent Ford complaints is made difficult by Ford¿S prior recall and warranty program activities.the manufacturer complaint and warranty counts, which primarily involve failures of recall 03V279 remedy wheels, are based on analysis conducted to date and are considered to be conservative.further investigation is required, thus ODI is upgrading this investigation to an engineering analysis (ea).during the ea, pertinent failure reports and consequences will be identified and reviewed.ODI and Ford will discuss details for conducting an audit analysis of failed wheels replaced under the new sa.additionally, ODI is awaiting Ford¿S lab analysis of two wheels which were the subject of voq reports, one of which was involved in the noted crash event.a determination will be made as to whether Ford¿S service action is sufficient for addressing ongoing rim fractures.