Fitting another brake pedal switch is an option, but a bit too much work IMO. If I were going to that trouble, I'd fit the old plunger type fitted to a stationary bracket - far more reliable than the std offering IMO. It may be possible to retrofit the EA-ED bracket and switch assy.
Well I tried to stick to common parts, and to utilise existing fitted components as well, and my design uses the factory cruise control brake pressure switch as a backup - GLI's without cruise will obviously not have this, but they can be picked up at wreckers for a few dollars - I still need to fit and test everything, and do a writeup for cars with/without factory cruise. Be patient . . . . .

But this isnt a brake line, or a steering rack. Its a simple mechanical device that, while important, can fail far into its life. How many hundreds of thousands of these switches have been fitted to e-series and a-series over the years, and how many of them do you see fail. Cant say out of all the Falcons I see on the road every day, I dont remeber that last one I saw with no brake lights. We are seeing them fail after 5, 6, 7, 8years... sometimes more. You get less service out of a globe, and they are just as important. Or a water pump, etc.

It is important, but it is a consumable. Like brake pads, or uni joints, or bushes. I dont think its designed to last the life of the car, and expected to last the life of the car, like a brake line is.

What do we say about bushes. They wear, they die... They can easily cause an accident if they are badly worn. They affect the handling dynamics of the car. I'm guessing, based on your theory, it should be recalled. After all, recalls are about safety.

The brake line was just an example in recent news - no problems had ever occured and even though brake circuits have some redundancy built into them since i think 1964, they were quickly recalled and fixed.

The fact that a component is mechanical or a serviceable item is irellevant. The issue is one of safety, if the component fails (without warning and consistantly before its servicable date) and could cause a serious accident as a result, then it is a safety issue and should be fixed. The fix can be either through redesign of a component or update of a service schedule. My experiance is that the Ford attitude is 'dont care' which i think is rather poor.

I wonder what you would think if a batch of some cheep brake pads are sold and subsequently fail with the lining coming away from backing plate due to a manufacturing fault. Because they are serviceable items i guess your view would be they should continue to sell and purchasers should just change them if they have problems ? or my view would be they should be taken of the shelfs and those who purchases them asked to take their cars in for check and rectification work ?

Glad we live in a world where we can each have our own views. I will keep mine

In any case, look at the web site above, you may find it interesting reading. You may also notice recalls happen for all sorts of seemingly odd things and to some interesting cars.

Cheers

I wouldn't say the brake light switch is a consumable! Consumables a items that are deliberately designed to wear out, such as brake pads & rotors, wiper rubbers, oils etc. Just because a part regularly fails doesn't make it a consumable, just poorly designed. That is what we have here. It is a bit late for expect Ford to recall EF & ELs what should have been done years ago. As owners we need to be vigilant and maintain all lighting on our cars particularly when we know the brake light switch is such a common problem.
Fitting a warning light to tell you your brake lights arn't working is just a bandaid to the real problem. It would be better to retrofit a EA-EB brake light switch, and fix the problem once and for all. Apart from that at least the EF-EL switches are cheap.

I know of someone running an EA pedal box in an EL.. lol. There's a funny story behind that. Anyway, they do fit, just with some cutting, and drilling.

So if you are really serious about changing this switch, then just letting you know that all you have to do is pull the dash back undo some (akward) bolts, fiddle for a couple of hours, cut some stuff, put back in, remember something else, take back out, put back in, remember where everything went again, and bolt everything up, and end up with 5 million spare bolts.

Cheers

Ii'm not that interested! I don't have a problem with mine, If I do I'll just change the switch, and not whinge about it.