Looking for suggestions!

[npunz19]

Hello my name is Nick and I am currently an Engineering student in college. I am trying to find a topic to write a technical report about for my technical communication class. One of the categories is Assessment of Engineering Failures, and an example topic to research about is “what caused the stuck-brake incidents leading to the Toyota Prius crashes?” I’m not looking to write a paper on this exact topic as it is just an example to build ideas on, but if anyone has good examples of repeated car failures that can be researched please let me know! Thanks.

[fuelcheck]

How about the fires resulting from rear-end crashes of Ford Pintos ?

[shorod]

Another good one that might be a bit more familiar to students might be the rollover crashes of Ford Explorers that were reported to the media to be due to Firestone tires rather than tire pressure, and how it created a stigma against Explorers such that Uhaul would not rent trailers if they were to be towed by an Explorer but had no restrictions against Mercury Mountaineers which were built on the identical chassis. Ultimately Ford re-engineered the suspension to claim the issue had been addressed.


-Rod

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted by shorod

Another good one that might be a bit more familiar to students might be the rollover crashes of Ford Explorers that were reported to the media to be due to Firestone tires rather than tire pressure, and how it created a stigma against Explorers such that Uhaul would not rent trailers if they were to be towed by an Explorer but had no restrictions against Mercury Mountaineers which were built on the identical chassis. Ultimately Ford re-engineered the suspension to claim the issue had been addressed.


-Rod

Taking this a step further, how about an analysis of the rollover characteristics (wheelbase, track width, center of gravity) of the vehicles of the era, focusing on the Ford Explorer, and compare that to modern SUV's.

[RidingOnRailz]

Originally Posted by CapriRacer

Taking this a step further, how about an
analysis of the rollover characteristics
(wheelbase, track width, center of gravity)
of the vehicles of the era, focusing on the
Ford Explorer, and compare that to modern
SUV's.

Yes!

It's so easy to just jump on the media-fueled Firestone tire-bashing bandwagon resulting from the Ford Explorer debacle, than it is to realize that both the vehicle and the OEM tires were flawed.