I’m a defense attorney. Client’s 2005 Mustang GT died when he hit a bump. Need to show lack of reckless driving by finding a magazine or other authority to corroborate client’s assertion that the fuel cutoff safety switches are hyper sensitive on these cars.
You are a defense attorney and you are asking for help on a forum of anonymous people , really ?
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As a current owner of an 2013 S197 Mustang and former owner of a 2007 S197 Mustang (and a retired automotive engineer and amateur race driver) I can state without reservation that I have had NO occurrences of the inertia switch triggering on any type of rough road or even rough use on a race track with these cars. I have never had the switch trigger at any time. Neither car has ever been hit while I owned them.
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You sent me to Google , I now know a trivia answer that I did not know . Not only that I found an interesting article explaining the terms ( such as Fox body ) , Thanks.
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Why is there a lawyer involved?
What’s the whole story?
What happened after the car stalled?
I have the ‘06, potholes and a few bad RR crossings, 100K+ miles, never a problem.
What I would like to know is why your client is willing to pay you for a nonissue?
This happened to the brother of one of my friends with his -14 Mustang. Hit a speed bump, car died instantly because of the fuel cut of switch. The owner complained to Ford, but they’d have none of it. MAYBE that was because a surveillance camera showed that the car left the speed bump with 5 (five) feet of air UNDER the car (long story).
And I’m not even joking.
Actually, he did have some other issues with that poor thing afterwards.
I suppose that You’ll say, that he was not driving reckless either, I just wonder how many feet or air was under Your clients car. Might be good to know, as to certain how high you can go with a Mustang.
I’ve had several Fords that had the fuel cutoff switch (pushbutton reset). And I’ve never tripped one. That’s including offroading in my old 95 Bronco (lifted, bigger tires,etc.), in situations where tires and (and the vehicle) left the ground. I’ve heard nothing about the switch being especially sensitive in S917 Mustangs.
A 14 year old car and you’re trolling for some lame excuse to go after someone with deep pockets? Come on.
Stop perpetuating the quite often applicable vision of an ambulance chaser.
The inertia switches are NOT sensitive. However, they will trigger if the vehicle has had an impact or extreme jolt; which is the purpose of the inertia switch anyway. To cut the fuel off in the event of a collision.
For what it’s worth, I’ve driven Fords for decades with never an issue including my old, long Mercury with well over 400k miles on the clock. Same goes for my daughter’s 2005 Mustang with 220k miles on it.
I used to do a lot of work for a Ford dealer’s used cars in my shop. Not once have I seen or even heard of an inertia switch problem although I have seen the inertia get the misplaced blame when an engine randomly died.
Maybe you should have your client take a polygraph test and determine just how high off the ground his car was before it came crashing down or just how hard he hit that curb while cornering…
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Ambulance chasers aren’t public defenders, sir.
Hah, that would be all of us.
Edit
You did not dare to let Your reply post be as it was?
Evening, all. Let’s not call names. It seems Mr. Millikan is defending someone against reckless driving charges, not suing. Does that really change the question at all? Probably not. Not for me to say. Everyone has the right to a defense. And as for the responses, you get what you pay for.
Nevertheless, @JACKSONEMILLIKAN - I edited out some language from your post. We aim to keep the language tame. Thank you.
I don’t understand how an engine dying because of an allegedly defective inertia switch amounts to reckless driving.
IF, and I say IF, the inertia switch did trip because of a bump in the road then this means the engine will not run again until the switch is reset.
So was the inertia switch reset and the engine ran fine?
The inertia switch has a pendulum in it much like a grandfather clock. It is pinched tightly between 2 contacts. Even with a diassembled Inertia switch the pendulum is not easy to dislodge even by hand.
It can’t be designed to be easily dislodged or the engine would die all the time and resettting it would accomplish nothing.
Ford has used an inertia switch since back in the 80s. So the production numbers of Ford vehicles over 40 years is in the many millions. If inertia switches were a problem the complaints over the decades would number in the millions.
Not sure how I offended y’all. I’m sure I will prevail in defending this person. There seem to be a great many people on here offering legal advice. I had a simple question. I appreciate the feedback (not the legal advice). Have a great weekend.
And yes, the switch required resetting.
Please don’t take this the wrong way . . .
I completely disagree with your statement
And I’ll call you on it . . .
WHO was offering legal advice?
And what WAS the legal advice?
Mind you, I’m talking about THIS particular discussion, concerning the 2005 Mustang, not some other discussion from the distant past
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Just the opposite, He’s trying to prove it’s a known issue about super sensitive cut-off switchs that caused the car to die when his client “carefully” drove over a speed bump,
Other party is saying it was reckless driving over the speed bump that triggered the cut-off switch
Got you. However the switches are not designed to be super sensitive. Ford has been using them since the mid 80s and if they were a problem there would have been countless complaints decades ago.
The Mustang is 14 years old. Assuming the inertia switch has legitimately tripped once, why should it be assumed that a part on a car is supposed to last forever?
Hitting a bump and dying could also be due to a faulty crank sensor, faulty CPS wire harness, faulty firewall plug, faulty pin on a PCM, faulty fuel pump, faulty pump relay, faulty fuel pump harness, faulty pump driver, faulty ignition switch and./or switch harness, and on and on and on.
Should Ford get the blame for a 14 year old part failure on any of those parts? Not in my opinion.
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The full story might never be known. Why is there a reckless driving charge that requires a attorney ? What does the inertia switch have to do with it. What kind of lawyer would do research on a forum ?
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