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2004 MERCURY GRAND MARQUIS — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

fire · 1837814 · 2022-09-01

Vehicle

Make
MERCURY
Model
GRAND MARQUIS
Year
2004
Manufacturer
Ford Motor Company
Component
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Severity

Deaths
0
Injured
0
Fire
Yes
Crash
No
Police report
No
Medical attention
No
Vehicle towed
No

Narrative

While driving, I came to a stop light and suddenly, the car idled high and lurched forward while my foot was on the brake, luckily, I was stopped well away from the vehicle in front of me. The car idled high and seemed to have a mind of it's own. I took the back roads home and backed into our garage. The car smelled hot, and I though I had smoked my brakes, trying to keep control of it. Later that night, I told my husband about the car's actions and he did not believe me, though my daughter who was with me at the time confirmed that the car had indeed accelerated on it's own. My husband started the car and it did idle high and get hot once again, although only parked with no one in it. He thought he knew what the problem was and we turned off the car and closed the hood and went inside to order the part. A few minutes later, we heard a couple popping noises and I opened the door that led into the garage from the basement. Smoke was coming into the house and my husband said that a flame shot over my head. The car had caught on fire under the closed hood. We called the fire department, but by the time they arrived, a good portion of the basement was on fire. The house was a total loss. My husband though that the pvc elbow under the hood was sticking closed, so that is the part we were going to order. Unsure, if that was the real cause or not. The car did not have any warning lights or any other indications of a problem before this incident.

Source

Authoritative
NHTSA ODI Flat-File Downloads
ODI Number
11482417
Machine
JSON-LD · Markdown