Air Bag On-off Switch problems of the 2008 Ford Escape

There are two specific but related problems reported to Ford without resolution: 1. Dome light assembly - switch burnt: in early 2014 the manual slide switch on the dome light shorted out and melted – burning the inside of the assembly. Thus, the switch would no longer operate properly. It was disconnected by the owner. A Ford replacement assembly was purchased in September, 2014, which replaced the defective assembly. The assembly had an engineering change which eliminated the manual slide switch. Owner has pictures and has retained the defective assembly. Note: the melting of the slide switch and burning of the plastic housing could have ignited the headliner. Very dangerous. 2. Air bag fuse: when replacing the dome light assembly, it was noticed that a fuse had blow due to the switch melting. The fuse panel was accessed and it was verified that fuse #25 (demand lamps) was open. A spare fuse, per the owner’s manual, was moved from position #32 (spare) to position #25. The new dome light now worked properly. However, the next day it was noticed that the srs (safety restraint system) light was on which indicated a possible problem with the srs. The car was brought to the dealer on September 30, 2014. It was determined by the dealer that fuse position #32 is really not a spare as indicated in the owner’s manual – it is instead the fuse that controls the restraints control module circuit which when it was removed caused the srs light to appear. (of course the dealer charged for the service!) subject vehicle owner’s manual can be found online. ) note: the owner’s manual must be changed to reflect the appropriate fuse locations. If someone had to use the spare fuse incorrectly marked, while driving remotely, and then subsequently got into an accident, the airbags would not deploy! very dangerous.