Ping
Posted on 08/03/2005 11:09:49 PM PDT by presidio9
A sport utility vehicle is believed to have started a fire at a southeast Houston apartment complex Wednesday, fire investigators told Local 2.
Investigators believe the fire started at about 1 a.m. in a Suzuki SUV parked under a carport at a complex on Broadway Street and Moline Street.
The fire destroyed the SUV, and two apartment units suffered minor damage.
No injuries were reported.
Ping
I must have said it 100 times on this forum. Bush MUST stop allowing migration of SUVs from terrorist states.
well - I dunno about Suzukis, but a passel of Ford products have been recalled over a defective hydraulic switch which remains live even when the car is not running, and which has failed and started catastrophic fires several ltimes over the last couple of years.
A Ford F-150 did that today in Pearland, TX.
Houston? Isn't Rove from Texas...?
Halliburton Company
5 Houston Center, 1401 McKinney, Ste. 2400
Houston, TX 77010
So now Bush is detonating SUV's to get Rove off the front page...
got photos? I love a good carfire, provided no one is inside
The laptops are in it with them. We had a house blown up by a laptop this week on my block.
I heard it was shooting out balls of fire, until the house caught. It's a conspiracy.
There was one on TXCN, I'll go look for it. Nobody was hurt, the female driver parked it outside her house for an hour or so before it burst into flames. Nobody injured, house and structures not involved.
The stupid part is that she'd gotten her recall letter and hadn't contacted her dealership to get the fix (or to get the cruise disconnected, which is the interim fix until they get the recall fix parts in if they're short) as she figured that "if it was important, Ford would have sent more letters."
Abysmally BAD design on Ford's part (why the **** is the cruise control system live when the car is off???). but astoundingly stupid on the part of the operator.
if you apply the following axiom, you cannae stray far:
"when in doubt, bank on dumb."
Here's today's fire: http://www.khou.com/news/local/houstonmetro/stories/khou050803_mh_fordfire.3aa94c16.html
Confusion continues over Ford fire danger
05:50 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 3, 2005
By Janice Williamson / 11 News
Another Ford truck burst into flames in Pearland late Tuesday, seven months after Ford announced a massive recall because a cruise control problem could lead to fires.
"It's scary. It could have burned down my house," said Laura Voos, who owned the truck.
Voos said she never expected her Ford pick up truck to catch fire. "The truck had been in park for about an hour, turned off, locked up and everything," said Voos. "It's kind of crazy to come out and see your truck on fire in your driveway."
The Pearland woman knew about the recall of Ford F-150's because of a faulty cruise control switch. But she says she didn't know her truck was part of the recall until last week when a letter arrived, reminding her to get it repaired.
"My husband had told me the cruise control didn't work so we didn't take it seriously because the cruise control wasn't working," said Voos. Experts say that should have been a warning to get the switch replaced immediately.
"The first signs of an issue could be a cruise control malfunction which is definitely a sign to get into your dealership quick," said Jay Stout with Tommie Vaughn Ford.
When Ford first recalled 800,000 vehicles, a dozen people a day were stopping by the Tommie Vaughn dealership to get free repairs. It's dwindled to one or two a day.
Stout wants customers to know it doesn't take long to replace the switch. "Less than an hour, no appointment needed, we'll do it while you wait," Stout said.
It could prevent what happened to Laura Voos, from happening again. According to the Ford Motor Company, about half the customers notified about the recall have actually gotten the needed repairs.
The recall has recently expanded. Buy a Ford, get a free car-b-que!
sweeeeeeeet
You know, for some inexplicable reason, I find the malice of the Left strangely more forgivable than its mindless consensus.
Because the cruise control switch/connector is placed next to the brake fluid reservoir on the F150, it can get brake fluid into the switch from overfill or leakage...this is where the fire starts (brake fluid is flammable!)
Actually, the brake fluid is getting into the switch from underneath - from inside the master cylinder.
It's a horrible, horrible design.
I always wondered about things like this, too. It doesn't make sense.
Mother had a heater in a late 80s Cadillac that would stay on after the car was turned off. Nothing could be done to shut the thing down. And we were out of town for the holidays when it first happened, so had to wait a week before getting it looked at. It didn't do it every time, so we could turn the car back on and then off and it might not happen again. But how was it running without the battery?
Wow, I'm glad it didn't burn up in someone's driveway while we were all asleep. It's strange, too, that these things don't happen when the car is running (the Ford truck fires), when there are actual live electrical sparks.
Brake fluid is not flammable from what I understand. Very corrosive yes but flammable, uhuh.
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