Posted on 04/04/2014 12:48:19 PM PDT by smokingfrog
DETROIT (AP) Mazda announced on Friday that it is recalling more than 40,000 Mazda 6 cars in the United States, because spiders can weave a web in a vent hose and cause the fuel tank to crack.
The recall involves cars from the 2010 through 2012 model years equipped with 2.5-liter engines. Mazda recalled cars in 2011 for the same problem, for which it put covers on the vent line, but has since discovered that spiders can still get past them.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtvq.com ...
If the crew and passenger/s leave the plane before it’s on the ground and a crane sets the plane on the ground does that qualify as a “landing that everyone walked away from?”
I recognize that it seems to be a frame grab from a movie, but I’d say that it was a successful landing, on a cable (happens in the Navy every day....)
OMG God,,Lord have mercy!!!!
Yellow sac spider? Would be of the Boehner or GOPe species?
A spider,,a S-P-I-D-E-R!!!
How do OTHER auto manufacturers get around this?
Must be an NSA spider!
So...
How are they going to fix it??
The article talks about “updating software”....WTH?>>>??
Is that to keep the spiders off the
WEB-site?
This cannot be real,,it just cannot be real!
We got in our van one time, and I was fishing around in the glove box for something. I had not closed my door yet, and hubby said, “back away from the van,” in a military command sort of voice. I listened for once without demanding an explanation. And, shiver, there was a tarantula in the glove box!!! Hubby killed it. Eww. Shiver. Ugh. Desert life was fun.
Hmmph! Used to be told that the fuel tank vent pipe ran back to the carburetor, so it was a sealed line, and aiding in getting enough fuel to the carburetor to start the engine.
That might be from a movie but I'm sure I have seen a real story of a light plane like that getting hung up on some cables.
Software will probably keep the car from running if there is too much pressure in the gas tank (or something).
Spider silk is one of the strongest natural fibers in nature. Clog it up with some dead bugs and the spider itself it makes a nice little cork to stop up a vent.
Of course rather than allow Mazda to just fix the problem with a filter of some sort Congress will call endless hearings and Holder will shake them down for a couple billion dollars.
There are going to be so many recalls now, with GM botching up this Colbalt situation.
I was living in the Chicago area and one year I had a mouse take up residency in the glovebox of my Honda Accord. I never opened that compartment. One day, my hubby opened it and found a nest made from chewed up paper maps and insurance papers!!!!
I was mortified until many of my neighbors said the same thing. Hey,,it’s cold, you park a warm car on a subzero cold night,,the rats will find your car...it’s just that simple.
Freaked me out!
I hope he didn't use a flame thrower.
I think the vent goes to a charcoal canister?
“If the vapor pressure build-up causes the gas tanks to crack, rather than the spider webs to blow out....it seems the problem is weak, cheap gas tanks!”
Things were at one time WAY overdesigned. This cost money and weight. Whereas 40 years ago a part might be 300% stronger than it needed to be, now it might be 110%. This could not be done without computers and simulations.
Transmissions are a good example in a car. You could probably put 800 horsepower, no problemo, through a Turbo-Hydramatic transmission of the 60’s and 70’s with maybe a tweek here and there. BUT...that transmission also cost almost 20HP just to operate!
Worse: BUILDINGS were way over-designed because there was no way to simulate stress, so people used the seat of their pants and multiplied by some number. The Empire State building is WAY over-designed. Modern skyscrapers...not so much.
You’re right.
And most tanks now are plastic (elastomers, actually)
Which is not all bad.
I’ve had several steel tanks on old cars rust through underneath the straps.
Years ago our heat pump quit working. I removed the cover and found an earwig squashed between two relay contacts. His juices had reacted with the electricity and the contact was ruined. Bad timing on his part. Damned bugs!
I don't know as "walked" away is right - that's a hellva big first step. (note the trees below.)
It must have been a tricky operation to get them off that swinging plane - not to mention eventually getting the plane down in one piece.
I had a acquaintance that hit a wire like this, over a river, at night, (passenger on board.)
They spun over and down, but nothing was found for 4 months - when a wheel assembly washed up.
If the vent line is plugged,the tank is possibly collapsing under vacuum when operating,rather than building pressure.
Yikes! That is spooky. Did I mention- I hate spiders!
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