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EF / EL Brake Light Switch 

 

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Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 1:21 am 
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{USERNAME} wrote:
um.. Ive been thinking about this brake switch over-ride or atleast a warning light.. and in reality you would just have another brake switch (possibly somewhere else), which is just gonne fail aswell... and both may fail... its a vicious cycle..
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.
{USERNAME} wrote:
Snap, what have you got in mind? atleast in terms of triggering. unless its a secret?
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 . . . . .

 

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Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 2:37 am 
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{USERNAME} wrote:
{USERNAME} wrote:
What is there to recall. Its a part with moving mechanical internals that is bound to wear out over time. Its like asking Ford to recall their cars when the brake pads get low and dont work as well.

And for the record, my brake switch is the original factory one, so its now over 7 years old. And checking my brake lights is a weekly task.

A ford recall is a sensible thing for all road users as a single ford part can fail with no indication to the driver until he is hit in the rear. The fact that a mechanical part is the problem has no significance. I am sure if uni joints failures were common and flipping cars by dropping drive shafts, there would be a recall in a flash. After all, recalls are about safety :)

Just look at the last recall, magnas were recalled back due to a brake line being too close to the firewall insulation which could lead to the line rusting and the line bursting just when you need it.

Maybe rear endings are a bit differant in that they are probably not looked at so closely. They asumption may be that atleast one driver was not paying attension :)

Frankly, ford should be ashamed for having such a pissy brake switch design with no failure warning and i for one have lodged a defect notification with the Federal Office Of Road Safety (FORS) via the Department of Transport and Regional Services.

You too can lodge your own defect notice via the following link http://dynamic.dotars.gov.au/recalls/index.asp (bottom right of page) or peruse the mothly defects list (top right of the page) :)

Cheers


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. :D
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:50 am 
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{USERNAME} wrote:
But this isnt a brake line, or a steering rack. Its a simple mechanical device that, while important, can fail far into its life..... We are seeing them fail after 5, 6, 7, 8years....

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. :D

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 :wink:

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. :D

Cheers
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 11:00 am 
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{USERNAME} wrote:
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.



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.

 

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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 3:12 pm 
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{USERNAME} wrote:
{USERNAME} wrote:
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.



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

 

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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 8:51 pm 
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{USERNAME} wrote:
{USERNAME} wrote:
{USERNAME} wrote:
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.



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.

 

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