Serious Question - Need Help!

[6219_Rules]

Does ANYONE know if the 2001 Ford Excursion V-10 has had a problem with the engine shutting down on an emergency stop?

What is the stopping rated distance? Is 75 feet enough at 48 mph cruising (not excelerating)?

Could the inertia switch turn off the engine if the brakes were engaged at 48 mph as hard as possible?

This is a very serious situation and I am looking for as much information as possible.

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Guest 31tudor]

If the inertia switch is shutting off when the brakes are jammed on, there's a major problem with the switch! The easy way to know if the inertia is tripping on heavy braking is if the car won't start, you'll have to flip the switch back to the "on" position completing the circuit.

Maybe a stupid question (from me), and no insult to your intelligence intended, but do you have an automatic or a manual tranny? If you're cruising along in high gear and hit the brakes without hitting the clutch the motor will certainly die, not to mention increasing the braking distance.

[6219_Rules]

Not a stupid question at all! It is an automatic. The Excursion is a V-10 and when the brakes were applied suddenly...and I mean VERY suddenly...there was no tell tale squeal, no rubber laid on the highway...no studder from the ABS...nothing. However, we have tried to get some determination yesterday from the computer log and found, because the check engine light was not lit, there was no corresponding error and therefore no log of the event.

We did find out from the various Ford forums that there is also a tendency for brake fade on these vehicles. But that does not explain the engine cutting out and refusing to run after. The truck had to be towed. It is still a mystery and now the Ford dealer is playing mum.

Either way, the indication is that there was some kind of mechanical failure which was not cause through driver carelessness.

My son is contemplating rebuilding the entire brake system with much larger rotors and trying to improve an obviously inferior system for such a heavy vehicle.

By the way, did you know that it takes 260 ft to stop that truck at a cruising speed of 60 mph on dry pavement? This does not count the loss of response time due to the driver. Consider that the next time you are whizzing along at 65 on the highway and one of those monsters is a car length and a half off your rear end. It gives me the willies.

[Guest Dave Wyatt]

Go here and ask around if you have not done so already.

http://www.fordtruckworld.com/

[6219_Rules]

Thanks, Dave. I will check this out.