Hello. Linda, an employee of mine has a 1998 Ford F150 4x4 with 107,000 miles, and hardly ever a problem with it until a couple of days ago, when she began to smell something like burning plastic and rubber, and saw white smoke pouring from her left front wheel-well. Opening the hood, they discovered that whatever it was the point of origin was somewhere on the driver’s side of the engine. Somehow she and her husband managed to limp it home and park it. My question: what would cause it to put out white smoke? Thanks
This may be caused by the cruise control deactivation switch. Many Fords are under a Recall for this problem and yes, it originates in this area and is deadly serious.
They need to call the Ford dealer NOW and have them run the VIN to see if this Recall has ever been performed.
In the meantime, tell them do NOT park this car near their house or in the garage. Several homes in OK City were burned a couple of years ago due to this problem. One home lost its garage and the other lost the garage and most of the kitchen. This also occurred at night after the people had gone to bed.
A letter I received from FOMOCO a few years ago about this on my Lincoln advised me to “not park your car near your home, trees, or anything flammable until this Recall has been done”.
Need More Guesses ?
A stuck brake caliper ?
An automatic transmission cooler line depositing fluid directly on an exhaust pipe ?
Are there drips of anything underneath the truck ?
CSA
It sounds exactly like the cruise control brake pressure switch to me too.