Prius's spontaneously catching on fire?

Yeah our car alarm was a standard Prius one. It's not a bad idea to have one.
It most def- helped but if we had been in our previous home where we used our garage - I doubt we could of heard the alarm to well, or by the time it would of done some serious damage. Thanks,

 

I tried uploading pics of my car but failed. I'll keep trying.

 

i could totally imagine some squirrel or mouse trying to make the prius its home and boom!

 

I'm back.

After many head aches and much anticipation, Toyota has replied to us with their findings of our Prius spontaneous fire. In a nutshell - the Toyota report states that the cause of the fire is undetermined because there is too much damage to the vehicle and therefore they are not able to proceed any further with this case.

They did how ever offer to pay anything out of pocket, but the results are still frustrating and I am still not satisfied. What really sucks is that we had only 15months left to paying off the vehicle, but now that we had to purchase a new car we are basically starting all over again with a new 5yr purchase plan.

I'm not sure if we will get anywhere with this but we are looking into further action at this point. Were not looking to get rich off this, we just want to pick up where we left off after loosing our investment and asset.

I wish the other folks reporting spontaneous fires would report back on their experience.

Peace Yall'

 

Have you filed a report with NHTSA? If a pattern develops, it is more likely to be discovered from their database than from anywhere else.

 

Did your insurance company find any evidence of arson?

 

Do you think this a common issue and that people are just not talking about? Seriously.

 

This is more than likely rodents eating wires or arson.

 

Based on two years of Prius owners whining, "Waa! I have to press the Power Mode button every time I start the car!", as an example, I cannot imagine them neglecting to mention, even in passing, that their Prius burned up.

Is it going to happen to someone somewhere? Sure is. I see charred asphalt about every 20 miles where a car burned. Is it a Prius fault? The insurance companies would be all over Toyota.

We would have site like this: Main Page (Site Index) - Flaming Fords

 

I just did a copart search. There are a grand total of 4 Prii listed with burn damage. The only Gen II was in an obvious severe front end collision. There was a Gen I with an interior burn, and two Gen IIIs that appeared to have burned without any sign of accident damage. The Gen IIIs looked as if they had passed through a furnace, which suggests that they were consumed in a structure fire.

Spontaneous Gen II Prius combustion is not a widespread problem, and may well be a 1/100,000 kind of freak occurrence.

Having purchased a vehicle with an engine burn, I am not surprised at all that the root cause cannot be determined. Given the amount of brake fluid in the engine compartment, a fire will burn very hot and consume everything that will burn, and melt aluminum.

 

@fuzzy1 great idea. Thanks. 
@richard shcumacher vandalism was ruled out by d local FD, police, and insurance. Only toyota responded with an uknown cause. 
@F8L im not sure. I did manage to find a previous prius fire victim through G+ and they shared that their vehicle was hit by a rampage of prius haters. Ha. That sucks.

@2K1 toaster
Your the 2nd one to say that. LL

It really sucks what happened to my wifes prius but i continue to admit that i still love my 08 prius. I just hope mine doesn't blow up on its own. 

Another thing that sucked was that i could not find any law offices willing to take on my case for the simple fact that no one got hurt. Week.

 



 

I work in a field that gives me first responder access to structure fires. In the past two days there have been two house fires both caused by the Prius parked in the garage next to another car. More details as I get them but really?? I am not parking mine inside until Toyota gets this straightened out!

 

There are no problems with a Prius catching fire. The Prius is a very good and reliable car.

 

Very doubtful.

The only thing that could even be close is that both Prii were plug-in versions and the house owners were stupid enough to plug the EVSE into old garage wiring. Same as running a space heater on old wiring for many hours unattended.

Although judging from your troll-name, I doubt your entire story and are more likely than not a member of another forum trolling.

 

i sleep in mine.

 

maybe they were parked next to volts.

 

Last time this happened a couple years ago in Ca. it was a DIY homemade Plug-In Prius conversion so it was the fault of the hobbyist, not Toyota.

 

Yes, more details are essential. Otherwise, this will be written off as a troll.

My searches for Prius garage fires all point back to a single incident -- the March 5, 2013, Corte Madera fire of a 2004 plug-in conversion. It had a home-brew conversion for many years, then was swapped out for a commercial after-market kit in 2010. Some reports point specifically to the charger, others are not definitive.

I am finding no recent news reports of Prius garage fires. Not near Huntington Beach, not anywhere. Pointers, or it didn't happen.