Ford Everest Catching Fire

Stephen

He was a newspaper motoring writer so he probably never buys a car!

Bad enough the car catches fire, worse when a media type is driving it. Bit hard to cover that up with some corporate spin doctoring

Cheers

The base chassis, mechs etc is the same as the Ranger, but the Everest (looking at both least Ranger and Everest brochures last week) has a host of extra electronics, that may require different wiring, at least in part.

Would have thought they'd be Thai made ?

In the article the Ford spokesman mentions RANGER, so one would assume they have a relationship. Then again maybe it being the only Ford selling in any numbers he is in damage control.

Quote "As with all non main stream Fords if it does not sell it will have a quick death anyways ,max 2yr life span then it will disappear "

Well it's lasted more than 2 years. This article states it has been around since 2003

The Everest models have been big win SE Asia for that long, over a decade, big seller.
I think Ford kept them of the Aust market for fear of losing sales of the Territory.
In the end with the MUX and Colorada 7 coming online, they probably had little choice.

hi
Nomadic N
U may have misunderstood what I was saying
There are many vehicles that have that have been short lived and disappeared from ***Fords Aust model line up **** .

This is despite some of those models being car of the year in there country of origin . This problem is one generated by Ford either by overcharging for purchase/ parts .
Transit van is claimed to be affordable In Oz. Purchase and parts are off with the fairies .
Mondeo is another ,Ford could not make up there mind with this one .
In the seventies the Capri was an extremely underated. Ford did not update the model in Oz nor did they bring a most of the options . This killed the Capri . Yes there was a v8 option in some countries . The last 4th ? generation of capri appeared very refined .

The parts for a Holden steering shaft were 45$ the Capri unit was 480$

Once the 4x4 were coming from Thailand and the ozzy market preferring 4x4 suv [comparable cost to falcon ] the writing was on the wall . The Thailand vehicles are more profitable .

The planning of Fords demise was in the planning years well b4 it was public knowledge .

Due to the lack of people buying ozzy made and Ford not producing what the cust wants the ozzy consumer is left with sub standard imported product . The discretion will be at Fords will . Import cars will be at a better price ha ha ha .The current Ford Ranger is not a cheap choice .
Ford are not the only ones playing this game .
Remember that vehicle reliability is not considered when vehicles win award after award .
History is littered with award winning vehicles having major catastrophic failures .
Some makers have many different transmission oils [not avail to the public ] just to get a vehicle thru warranty .
The next 2 yrs will be interesting with the ozzy market being 100% import
swampy

I think people just thought you meant the Everest was a new model, which it is *here*.
It is has (or should have) all it's bugs flattened from the overall time it has been made / supplied overall through SE Asia and beyond.

Beside SE Asia, I am sure I have seen people with them in other countries, fairly far afield too.

Yes, manufacturers care little for the Australian market, we are just too small.
This will only get worse once we lose all our vehicle manufacturers here, and we are left with 'suppliers' here via car makers market located in various low cost regions around the World.

Look at the Nissan Patrol, no more diesel.
Though I met a bloke the other week with a new petrol V8, he'd upgraded from a very nice (although 3.0) diesel Patrol, and he said it better, and muuuch nicer to drive.

Suspensions are the same.
Solid axle which suits a lot of Aussie harder core 4WDn are fast disappearing.
Changing to IFS, because it's what other countries want !!

Diesel and IFS are what the Saudis want in their Landcruisers for example, they just don't give a stuff abour diesel econ for towing, or solid axles for sand driving.

Cos there aren't 1500 that would admit to being Toyota owners, just guessing.

Has it ever happened to a new Toyota..?

Just saying.....

Howz it going Bantam

I missed the bit in this post where people are comparing Fords quality and reliabillity to Toyotas - could you point that bit out please ?

Cheers

Gazz

that would be your post

Hey Bantam

I know I might be getting on a bit in age and my eyesight might not be 20 / 20 anymore and the old grey matter, whilst a bit slow sometimes, still works very well - so after re-reading and re-reading my post - I still cant see the bit where I said Fords quality and reliabillity is better than Toyotas ??

I will happily apologise after you point out where I stated that !!!


All the best mate and look forward to your reply

Cheers

Gazz

Les, I just had a look at the Ranger fire damage in your post and it certainly stuffed that car. I am no expert but the fire seems to be the worst on the front of the battery under the battery clamp area. They have thermal insulation around the whole battery and where the fire is the worst there is really no wiring. What aftermarket fitters do in that area, is fit relays for aftermarket spotlights and fog light.

Another unusual thing is the battery positive terminal is untouched,the positive cable to the starter is not on it and the cabling totally splayed out.

I don't believe it is from someone fitting a bigger battery but many are fitting larger ones that are higher. When they do this, I have noted that they all have to find some extra length on the battery to starter cable with statements like "I had to pull on it a bit but I got enough length".

Human error aftermarket vs brand new factory. Brand new should never happen.

Exactly!
When we see a fire in a car, chances are it was something the owner did.
From what I see, very few DIYers understand the importance of and how to prevent short circuits.

Well said Ron

I couldn't agree more


Cheers

Gazz

Agree with what you say, but these are only my views on it.
Quite often I think "have not heard of this before", but with so many forums and social media these days any incident gets communicated quickly and often in a distorted way (Chinese whispers). Not sticking up for the manufacturers in any way, but with distorted and biased reporting it is often difficult to get the true story.
These things may have happened many years ago but we just did not hear about them.

Truck fires and the common causes.

Artsa on truck fires.

Slow one - Excellent article in the link - thank you. The majority of the causes of fire are common across most on-road vehicles.
One thing I found recently, that was a bit of a surprise to me, was that I found the main starter cable on my Isuzu truck was made out of aluminium wire.
No doubt this was done to avoid the high cost of copper when it was built.
However, when reconditioning the truck, I found the aluminium cable was broken across many strands right at the lug where it was attached to the starter.
The aluminium cable consisted of a relatively small number of large strands - and regular engine movement had fractured a number of these strands, as the aluminium wire is quite a bit more brittle than copper wire.
The reduced number of strands carrying power to the starter had the potential to cause major heat buildup, at the point where the strands reduced in number, upon starter activation - as well as potential arcing from the broken strands.
I tore out the entire cable and replaced it with a heavy-duty fine-strand copper wire cable - with additional corrugated tubing for protection - and the difference in starter cranking speed was quite exceptional and easily noticed.
The engine now bursts into life within a second or two of turning the key, rather than the 3-4 seconds it previously took.
I'm not sure how many other manufacturers have moved over to aluminium cabling or wiring, but I would regard that as a backward step, if I ever found it on any other vehicle.

Cheers, Ron.

Totally agree Ron, substituting copper for aluminium to save costs. Fine strand copper wire has a lot more flexibility than aliminium.
But got to remember most parts are outsourced to the lowest tenderer.

Dion, I presume you actually meant to put "substituting aluminium for copper to save costs"?
A bit of the old Sunday morning dyslexia, creeping in there? LOL
The lack of editing on this forum, even for just a few minutes after posting, is a curse!

Yes, the bean counters have ruined many a good vehicle brand with penny-pinching - and Ford excell at it.
If there's a way to make it cheaper, Ford will find it. They employ teams to pore over every single part to find ways to reduce its cost.
A friend remarked on the amazing differences in construction between the Ford 7.3L V8 diesel engine and the identical Navistar 7.3L diesel engine.
Navistar designed and built the engine originally - then when Ford purchased the right to build it under licence, they set to and cheapened nearly every component.
They did the same with the ZF automatic transmissions that they build under licence.

We all like lower purchase costs, but the cost has to be balanced against any potential downsides caused by moving to cheaper materials and method of manufacture.
Many manufacturers care little about the potential downsides of cheaper designs, they are happy to have items that need to be replaced more often, thus improving their profitability.

Yes, definantly a case of Sundayitis.

I've had plenty of experience with loose battery terminals - but I've never had one cause a fire yet!
Ford must be cutting back on insulation and wire sizes, if a loose or dirty connection causes a fire?
What happens when the vehicle gets older, and natural corrosion causes increased resistance? - in either battery terminals or elsewhere in the wiring harness??
Maybe this is some kind of planned obsolescence for new Fords??
Your Ford reaches 5 years of age and it automatically self-combusts, so you have to buy a new one?? [;-)

It doesn't say a lot for Fords if a near-new car being offered for road test has a flat battery?
Maybe there was some other electrical problem in play, that Ford aren't admitting to?

I bought a brand new HQ Holden sedan fitted with the 308 V8 in 1972.
The dealer rang in the morning and told me it was ready to be picked up.
I went in and picked it up and drove home, then drove other family members around for the rest of the day, as you do with a new car!

During the afternoon, it got harder and harder to start - the starter was struggling to crank the engine over.
I rang the dealer and told them the problem, and they asked that I bring it in straight away.
I did so, and left it with them overnight. Next morning the dealer rang and said it was ready to be picked up.

When I went in, I asked what the problem was? Sheepishly, the service manager said they had discovered that the charging wire between the alternator and the battery had been inadvertently left out of the wiring harness!! So much for GMH quality control!

Ron,
An Aussie fella that works in Thailand on these vehicles but not for Ford posted.

"There are a lot more Everest's in Thailand than Australia and if there was a problem it would be widely spread on social media".

If that guy works on the vehicles, he would also know that with being LHD, they also have completely different wiring looms.

Well said Boobook, there are definitely no flies on you.

You are correct and he may have been referring to all the countries around them, like Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and China . He works on both right and left hand vehicles that they modify for clients around the world, including the middle east and India.

Actually Slow one, I think there may be flies on me!!!

I seem to recall now that Thailand may be RHD after all.

I can't recall exactly now. I was pretty sure they were LHD but I could be wrong.

You may want to ask your mate. I may have to eat my words.

LHD / RHD, should be just a straight mirror of each others electrics.
That said, there can be issues with the position of certain things on some vehicles, like coolant hoses and steering racks / components, so it could have a bearing.

Below is the world map of RHD and LHD countries. LHD in Green, RHD in Yellow.
You can zoom in on the map to see the detail.
Thailand is unusual in that it is RHD in amongst all its LHD neighbours, apart from Malaysia.
The RHD countries in Asia are generally those occupied by the British first, in the history of colonisation.

World map of RHD and LHD

Cheers, Ron.

Les the looms for LHD and RHD are completely different, not just a mirror or swapped over. For example the dashboard is on the other side but things like fuse box, alternator, ECU, etc etc will not change. Looms need to accommodate that.

The Ranger and Everest are made in Thailand, a RHD country, maybe they make them like that std and change out for LHD, who knows for sure.

Ford Ranger and Mazda BT-50 are both built in the Rayong, Thailand, AAT factory (AutoAlliance Thailand - a joint venture between Mazda and Ford).
Both models are built in both RHD and LHD on the same assembly line - along with four types of body, 4x4 and 4x2 drive type, two types of ground clearance, and up to four versions of luxury finish, depending on the market.
CKD kits are also produced at this factory for assembly in low-volume assembly plants in some other countries.
Both vehicles are exported and sold in over 130 countries around the world.

AutoAlliance Thailand company website