[CARDEEP]

This one's again an old i20 catching fire, similar to almost all old cars catching fire. I fear company may claim aftermarket electrical installation which caused the fire, & this generally is the case of the faulty non-OEM parts in older cars that cause fire.

In this case, the fire has engulfed almost whole of the car, unlike many other cases, where the fire may be begin from one end, which bears maximum damage. This seems confusing, but, may point out to the reason of fire IMO.


Mods, please merge this thread with "Vehicles catching fire in India" thread, where the discussion can continue.

[shashank.nk]

Is this a petrol or a diesel i20 ? Lucky that the passengers had a narrow escape!
I hope Hyundai comes out with the findings for the cause of the fire as this doesn't seem to be an isolated incident.

I had a close call with my car too(Polo diesel), i'm no expert but what I learn't is the nut near the injector (on the overflow pipe) can go lose and result in a diesel leak. It can happen if the workshop chaps forget to check and tighten it whenever you drop your car for service, the nut itself goes lose as you clock in kms.

It may be a good idea to open the engine cap and inspect for signs of leakage by yourself. Say once a month atleast.

Just my 2 cents

[selfdrive]

Lucky and narrow escape for the driver & passenger. It is good that one of them was alert and could jump out before the fire spread.
So, the fluidic does not resist or reduce fire, eh? maybe the fluid is an inflammable one

[Fiest@DuraTec]

Going slightly OT, I may sound stupid but don't you guys see a trend here ?? I remember a few years back, very highly renowned mobile phones started bursting in owner's hands, a few refrigerators suffering the same issue and now these flurry of vehicles catching fire in the last couple of years.

The incidents have mostly been reported from India(not aware of any other nation). Doesn't this mean the quality of the equipments is being highly compromised for the Indian market, keeping in mind the general thinking of cheap/affordable products in India ?

There have been so many incidents recently that when my car heats up a little bit and the fan runs on its full capacity, it scares the hell out of me.

[Pancham]

Shocking.

P.S: A thread already exists. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ches-fire.html

[souravc]

I doubt whether NCAP ratings measure how susceptible a car is to freak fires , it primarily measures active and passive safety features that prevents accidents and minimises impact to the car , its occupants and pedestrians if there is any .

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by souravc

I doubt whether NCAP ratings measure how susceptible a car is to freak fires , it primarily measures active and passive safety features that prevents accidents and minimises impact to the car , its occupants and pedestrians if there is any .

+1 to that.

To add to it, I don't think we should be "finding" patterns by getting to know about fires w.r.t any models. I say it now for the i20, I would say it for the Rapid & Vento fires earlier. Even if the fire is due to some faulty part in the car, I doubt we would be able to figure it out here.

And there can be a lot more reasons for the actual cause of the fire, than really a faulty car. I hope Mr. Mondal gets the actual clarity of the fire in his car. But will I presume that other i20s are easily susceptible to fires? Not at all!

[CARDEEP]

Add a Swift to the cars catching fire in India (Asansol district of west Bengal):

http://in.news.yahoo.com/video/marut...060000925.html

[CARDEEP]

Another Nano has caught fire in Mumbai . Here is the link to report on the incident:

http://autocarpro.in/contents/NewsDe...=1&NewsID=1932

However, details of the car (now or old) are unavailable.

[cityvic]

A ŠKODA Fabia on fire in Calcutta.

The incident happened at Minto Park.
The cause of the fire as said by the owner is because of a short circuit.
Car belonged to a friend's friend.His mother was driving it at the point when this incident occurred,thankfully she left the car as soon as she saw the sparks coming out.

Picture Courtesy: Vandan Agarwal

[sushantr5]

Honda City (2007 purchase) owned by my former manager caught fire in last week. Fire started from dashboard and luckily he was outside of the car. Though some valuables were inside the car on backseat. He tried to open doors to take out valuables but doors could not be opened. Burnt valuables doubled his losses. He saw sad demise of his car with his own eyes.

[manolin]

Two cars catching fires on the same road within 300m of each other on consecutive days.



Last night while coming back from Chattarpur, around 7 pm, saw a Maruti 800 completely ablaze. The traffic was running on my side of the road so could not take photo.

Today morning while going to Chattarpur, right next to the Qutub Minar metro station, a Scorpio got completely gutted down. This was on my side of the road, around a 100m ahead of me. The fire tenders never reached. In the end, a delhi jal board water tanker was used, but the vehicle had completely been destroyed by then. car burning is a 30 min affair. One question - will diesel burn if there is no compression but very high ambient temperature?

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by manolin

will diesel burn if there is no compression but very high ambient temperature?

Yes it will. Also, there was a lot of combustible material near it like foam, rexine, paint, plastic etc, which made it easier to "hold" the fire.

99% of these car fires are due to electrical short circuits and wrongly fitted accessories. Gives me shudders to think of it.

[GTO]

Car catches fire at Maruti service station. Other customer cars damaged:

In the second case, an automobile service station at Mulund (W) caught fire on Saturday. The fire broke out at a Maruti service station on PK Road around 3am, police said, adding that 25 cars, parked inside the station for servicing, were gutted. The fire was put out around 5am. No casualties were reported. Officials said a short circuit may be the cause.

Source & Full News Article : Times of India

[svsantosh]

Originally Posted by GTO

Car catches fire at Maruti service station. Other customer cars damaged:

Source & Full News Article : Times of India

My immediate family of uncle/aunt/grampa/etc - all 7 in total were about 300 meters in the apt block in the next plot ... they all heard the commotion and around 2-3AM evacuvated their 2 apts safely! Close call, there are 100s of Apts in that locality!