As I was driving, the bumper and spare tire came off almost causing an accident.

- Dry Ridge, KY, USA

My vehicle is a 2004 Ford Ranger XLT pickup truck with 4 wheel drive. The vehicle is in excellent mechanical condition. The brake system malfunctioned, allowing the brake pedal to hit the floor. This incident occurred while I was pulling into a parking spot on a snow covered parking lot. The air temperature was very cold (0 deg. F) at the time, and the 4X4 system on the vehicle was engaged. When I applied the brakes as I was pulling into the parking spot, the brake pedal hit the floor so the vehicle did not slow down and there was no pulsing sensation from ABS. As a result, my vehicle collided with a parked vehicle immediately in front of my vehicle. My vehicle and the other vehicle were both damaged as a result of this brake system failure. I have tried to reproduce the problem many times and have been unable to do so. The Ford dealer in my town was unable to reproduce the failure and did not find any mechanical problem with the braking system. Also the dealer stated that the ABS controller on my vehicle cannot be upgraded with new firmware. The dealer invoice for the brake inspection is attached. I have found other reports on Ford auto enthusiast forums of this same problem occurring to other Ford Ranger and Explorer vehicles when the driver was making a tight turn at very slow speeds. So it seems there is a design defect with this particular Ford braking system.

- Colorado Springs, CO, USA

On November 2, 2012, I went to the place where I purchased my tires to have them rotated and the mechanic reported to me that my rear drum brakes where metal to metal. The next day I pulled the driver's side rear tire and drum and verified that there was no lining on one of the shoes. I purchased a new set of brake shoes (10") at autozone and on November 5, 2012 drove to my father's home to replace the defective shoes. Upon removal of the old shoes, we discovered that the lining of the shoe on the other side of that same wheel was cracked down the middle and coming off on one end. We also noted that the missing lining was a bonded shoe and the cracked lining was a riveted shoe. This was confirmed after inspecting the shoes on the passenger side which appeared to be wearing normally but that side also had one bonded shoe and one riveted shoe. Don't know why there would be a mix match of brake shoe types. The replacement shoes purchased from autozone were riveted only. I kept the original shoes for anyone's inspection. I recall having my vehicle being stuck from movement after sitting in my driveway, even after removal of the parking brake, on several different occasions. I had to shift from drive to reverse several times to get it to break free. The brake shoe problem could have been the reason behind that happening.

- Millersville, MD, USA