Shawn75067
Member
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2015
- Messages
- 17
Thank you for your insight. Still so surprised this happened. Would really like to know if anyone else has been effected by this.
Shawn75067 said:Thank you for your insight. Still so surprised this happened. Would really like to know if anyone else has been effected by this.
Glad you are OK.Shawn75067 said:... Still so surprised this happened. ...
True that, but if not gasoline (or oil), its usually the heat off an ICE that is the cause. The idea that this fire is due to a 12 volt electrical short seems unlikely (i.e., impossible) to me. Unless the 12 volt is run through a a very carefully wound coil (like an old style cigarette lighter) or a dead short across the battery terminals with a very heavy gauge wire, nothing 12 volt underneath that dash could produce the heat necessary to start a fire. But if either the 12 volt system or the traction battery was shorting you would think it would a) make a lot of noise and b) dramatically effect the operation of the car such that you would not find yourself driving “normally” until you noticed smoke.mwalsh said:Car fires happen, and gasoline is not always the cause.
12V is a common cause of car fires.jpadc said:True that, but if not gasoline (or oil), its usually the heat off an ICE that is the cause. The idea that this fire is due to a 12 volt electrical short seems unlikely (i.e., impossible) to me. Unless the 12 volt is run through a a very carefully wound coil (like an old style cigarette lighter) or a dead short across the battery terminals with a very heavy gauge wire, nothing 12 volt underneath that dash could produce the heat necessary to start a fire. But if either the 12 volt system or the traction battery was shorting you would think it would a) make a lot of noise and b) dramatically effect the operation of the car such that you would not find yourself driving “normally” until you noticed smoke.mwalsh said:Car fires happen, and gasoline is not always the cause.
Since no one was injured (thankfully) I can understand the relative lack of interest in the cause, but I would think your insurance company would be looking to push the cost onto someone else so at least they would send someone out to have a closer look.
Firetruck41 said:12V is a common cause of car fires.
jpadc said:True that, but if not gasoline (or oil), its usually the heat off an ICE that is the cause. The idea that this fire is due to a 12 volt electrical short seems unlikely (i.e., impossible) to me. Unless the 12 volt is run through a a very carefully wound coil (like an old style cigarette lighter) or a dead short across the battery terminals with a very heavy gauge wire, nothing 12 volt underneath that dash could produce the heat necessary to start a fire. But if either the 12 volt system or the traction battery was shorting you would think it would a) make a lot of noise and b) dramatically effect the operation of the car such that you would not find yourself driving “normally” until you noticed smoke.mwalsh said:Car fires happen, and gasoline is not always the cause.
Since no one was injured (thankfully) I can understand the relative lack of interest in the cause, but I would think your insurance company would be looking to push the cost onto someone else so at least they would send someone out to have a closer look.
We are talking about in a LEAF, under the dash. Everything is fused and a loose connection with high resistance would require a fuse failure (and likely the main fuse as well) and would likely kill the tiny 12 volt LEAF battery long before that type of heat built up. Its not like the materials under there are HIGHLY flammable. Take a torch to most of that plastic, it has to get really hot to flame. Now maybe if the car is charging overnight and the inverter keeps the 12 volt powered up as a loose connection heated up, but that would require a power draw on the connection and what's powered up under the dash when the car is off???? Its not like the car was driving for hours before the fire was going so it would seem (if caused by a 12 volt source) it had to take awhile to develop that level of heat.XeonPony said:You clearly do not have much experience with 12v! It is thee most fire prone voltage out there! just takes a high resistance connection and heat starts to build up in the plastic and on it goes till it goes poof! in flames! been there don that on systems from my solar power system to my diesel truck to my 92 4*4 ( I had to do allot of repairs from PO hacks)
jpadc said:We are talking about in a LEAF, under the dash. Everything is fused and a loose connection with high resistance would require a fuse failure (and likely the main fuse as well) and would likely kill the tiny 12 volt LEAF battery long before that type of heat built up. Its not like the materials under there are HIGHLY flammable. Take a torch to most of that plastic, it has to get really hot to flame. Now maybe if the car is charging overnight and the inverter keeps the 12 volt powered up as a loose connection heated up, but that would require a power draw on the connection and what's powered up under the dash when the car is off???? Its not like the car was driving for hours before the fire was going so it would seem (if caused by a 12 volt source) it had to take awhile to develop that level of heat.XeonPony said:You clearly do not have much experience with 12v! It is thee most fire prone voltage out there! just takes a high resistance connection and heat starts to build up in the plastic and on it goes till it goes poof! in flames! been there don that on systems from my solar power system to my diesel truck to my 92 4*4 ( I had to do allot of repairs from PO hacks)
I can accept its POSSIBLE, but you have to admit its just extremely unlikely in a newish LEAF. I'm saying I for one would sure would like to know the cause rather than dismiss this as just "another" car fire.
Valdemar said:A loose connection with high resistance is guaranteed to never cause a fuse failure, unless by "failure" you mean the failure to prevent from fire.
Of course its low risk... Most every car manufactured in the world uses 12 volts and has for years. Car fires (of all types) are EXTREMELY RARE. By definition that is low risk (ask an insurance agent if you doubt that statement). Yes, a 12 volt fire is possible, but as you note, lots of melting is way more common than a fire. The point here is that dismissing this fire as just some freak 12 volt accident, while possible, is not PROBABLE. That's why people here "dismissing" this as "cars catch on fire. Nothing to see here, move along" is a mistake IMHO.TimLee said:To start presuming 12V is low risk is a grossly inaccurate understanding of the reality
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