Heh yes. Mind you, you never know - there are always those people who use every ounce of their strength to force some widget into a whatsamajig where you have to line up a a protusion on the widget with with a recess on the whatsamajig, in order to connect them together. Ever seen someone struggling to force a polarized plug into an outlet the wrong way? Then you know what I'm getting at .

 

I guess I consider the worse the safety hazard, the more disappointing the issue in this context. I believe GM's most recent disappointment was their new Chevy Aveo that liked to have wheels come completely off the hub during highway driving. That's pretty dangerous if you ask me, and pretty easily prevented. It wasn't even from the technicians not torquing the wheels down enough when rotating the tires or whatnot, it was just built like that from the factory. They had to order a stop on all production and recall all aveos.

Designing an oil filter connection to where an improperly installed filter would not catch fire seems like a little less of a "you built this car with sticks and stones just to save a few bucks" and more of an engineering oversite where they tweaked something mid-model to fix one problem and ended up with much worse consequences in the long run.

 

On the ignition switch, you're assuming the car was inside a garage when it happened. Seems like this could be the same if you just parked your Honda in a garage and the oil dripped on the exhaust and caught the car on fire.

It's a little strange that simple dripping oil catches the car on fire though. I've known a number of people who have oil leaks on the exhaust (including my old 84 Firebird ) that never caused a fire....

How do you install an oil filter wrong anyway?

Chris

 

I guess it's pretty unlikely for the exhaust to be hot enough a few minutes after you've parked if it wasn't already hot enough while you were actually driving.

The ignition switch problem I know first hand. My 2000 Silverado had an electrical fire from a faulty ignition switch that had a faulty fuse that didn't trip. It happened when I went to start my truck up in the morning. The truck died and smoke and flames started going everywhere. I ended up being smart enough to tell my mom to call the fire department, push the car in neutral, and roll it outside the garage. Then the fire department was right around the corner and they came and cut the negative battery cable and then put the fire out. But still, it started in my garage.

Probably severely under-torque it to the point that it's leaking. They probably just had a catalytic converter underneath the filter or something like that.

 

LMFAO @ Pacer!!!

I don't understand why the Japanese get a free pass. It is so frustrating. Threxx, a fire is a fire is a fire. It isn't acceptable in a Big Three car, no doubt, but why marginalize Honda fires? Or Toyota engine sludge? Or all the problems Nissan has with their quality (they are consistantly ranked in the bottom half of quality surveys but get a consistantly good reputation from the public....WHY?!?!? Because it's made in Japan it must be good???? )

By the way, the Aveo wheel problems were not problems. Chevy temporarily stopped selling them, did an investigation, and nothing was wrong. I don't even remember where those stories originated.

 

Because even after burning down to the ground the door to fender gap is still REALLY REALLY good.

 

Ya, and I could buy into that if it happened once or twice, but when it happens at least twenty seven times , there is a design flaw.

 

If this happened to Ford, GM, or Chrysler, the media would be all over it and people would be saying "Domestics suck". But this is Honda, a Japanese import, they can do no wrong.

 

If this had happened to GM there wouldn't even be a peep here. The only reason this is getting ANY attention is because it is Honda.

Here look at this GM recall.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosins...utos-90467.htm
123 complaints including one where a fire started in a garage and burnt down part of the guy's house.

Compare that to the 27 Honda fires that is causing such trouble.

To those who said that if this had happened to Ford, GM, or Chrysler, the media would be all over it and people would be saying "Domestics suck". Well it did happen to GM, only they had 5 times as many fires as the Honda recall.

Now, where are all those media stories?

Where are all those threads saying "Domestics Suck"?

Has there even been a peep here about this GM recall?

Who got the free ride?

 

As a service writer, I am no longer allowing CRV's to come in for Oil changes. They can light on fire on there own time.

Yeah, American companies have had there day for recalls...but the companies like Honda and Toyota who have built there rep on making good, safe cars...having there cars catch on fire for an oil change? From a Honda? Now thats something to note.

 

A CRV is one of those cars you wouldn’t really notice while driving around. But After I read this yesterday my eyes picked up on one while heading over to my boss’s house. Looked brand new and I chucked to my self about how it could burst into flames at any moment. Then I noticed one of the brake lights had gone out. Great Quality lights from Honda. So if yours doesn’t catch on fire in the first 10,000 miles expect the lights to stop working.

 

This IS a design fault, pure and simple. If it was anything else, it would be happening to older CRVs as well. Honda is just taking cheap shots at their dealers trying to get out of the storm its gonna cause.

 

1 fire > 27 fires???

Not saying that is acceptible, but 27 TIMES more fires seems worse to me.

Not that even one is accepitble.

As for media coverage, you just linked to it... it's from March... it's kind old news.

 

to be fair, GMs arent much beetter as far as lights go, watch the new trailblazers around town, generally have a running light and a brake light out

 

I don't think I've got a single day without seeing a Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban, Escalade, and Yukon with their daytime running light burnt out. Even on my truck I had both of them burn out (and I replaced them immediately) within the 2 years and 35,000 miles I owned it.

Let's not even start on my 94 Z28... I had to change the fog lights on it around every other month, and they didn't even make it easy to change at all.