Spare Tire problems of the 1997 Ford Expedition

The contact owns a 1997 Ford Expedition. While coming to a stop sign at 3 mph, the contact suddenly heard a noise. Upon stopping, the contact noticed that the spare tire had fallen off because of a broken cable. The contact called an authorized dealership and the dealer stated that they would not be able to inspect or repair the vehicle. The current mileage was 78,525. The failure mileage was 78,215.

The spare tire of my 1997 Ford Expedition (truck) is normally threaded with a wire rope and winched up into place beneath the back of the Expedition. It works well and is easier to use than the traditional bolt/plate. However, in January 2005,my wife was driving on grant road a major street in tucson arizona and the wire rope broke and the tire flew off from beneath our Expedition and bounced wildly down the road. Fortunately nothing and no one hit the tire; but there was potential for a very serious accident if it had been hit by one or more cars. Traffic stopped and my wife went back and retrieved the errant tire from the middle of three lanes. I do not know if the cable was corroded; but living in a dry climate of the arizona desert I do not believe this was the case. There was no rust of any kind I could see. I believe Ford motor company should notify truck owners to inspect the cable for defects. We were very lucky that a lot of damage wasn't done to other vehicles or humans.

The spare tire retention cable failed, causing the spare tire to fall out of the bottom of my 1997 Ford Expedition. This happened under normal highway driving conditions on a busy section of road. There fortunately were no vehicles following at the time or there most assuredly would have been an accident.

While driving and without warning spare tire fell off from back of vehicle.

Spare tire fell off of 1997 Ford Expedition while driving on road. The spare is suspended by a cable under the rear section of the vehicle. This event occurred while driving at very slow speed. However, the car following behind my vehicle could not avoid the fallen tire and drove over the top. The defective tire suspension cable was replaced, at my expense, by a local dealer. I am concerned about what may have happened if this had occurred while driving on the freeway.

Cable that binds up spare tire fails to release spare tire for use. Design was very flawed. Consumer states he bought design flaw to the attention of Ford, they pulled the part from the parts bin for the 2001 Expedition and it was exactly the same as consumer's vehicle.

Consumer states that spare tire cable snapped in half while driving at highway speed. Consumer saw the tire rolling down the highway.