Prius's spontaneously catching on fire?

Unfortunately there is a trend away from PVC insulation to soy based insulation in car wiring for environmental reasons - the soy based ones are quite tasty I gather (if you're a rodent:-().

kevin

 

After many months of investigation by Toyota and my insurance company, it came back undetermined.(I'm not a professional, but i called it the day the fire happened). My insurance company felt as though they had a claim and did pursue Toyota, in the end Toyota had many, many more lawyers working for them. I wasn't requesting anything more than I lost, ($10,000 or so) so my insurance felt it was necessary to withdraw, Toyota offered to pay all my deductibles without admission of guilt. Unfortunately when i told them i was reporting it to NHTS, they withdrew that offer. In the end, it was more important for me to report it than take any money.
For all you naysayers out there, it doesn't matter to me. I saw what happened and I'm more of a believer today than i was last year. With that being said, I love new technology. I was looking at a Prius Plug in just yesterday, I also believe it happening again to me is a long shot.
If i do buy another one, i ill keep it charging far away from my garage this time!

 

thanks for the update jeff, we appreciate it. too bad there was no conclusion, might have helped save someone's life someday. all the best with your next vehicle!

 

I would have never imagined me writing a post like this. Ugh.

I have a 2009 Prius 4 in MINT condition. All Toyota parts, never crashed, all maintenance done perfectly. The week before Thanksgiving (2017), I parked it at my Dad's drive while I left town on a job and vacation. The car was not used, it was locked, secured, and no foul play (according to the Sheriff and Fire Dept.).

NEW YEAR'S EVE six weeks later, I get a call from my Dad. The car spontaneously caught fire and exploded. My profile is the before of my car, attached are the after photos.

Called Toyota (Customer Experience Dept.) to report the situation and they were really rude and mean. Geeez. Really? They kept asking me "What do you want from us!" I replied, "I'm concerned about this issue, it seems very strange and dangerous. I just wanted to report the problem." They said, "They were not interested and they cannot give attention to every Toyota hybrid that catches fire!" Hahahaha really!?! LOL

Any ideas.

 

Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and there is nobody to blame. Stuff happens.

Cars catch fire all the time, this is not isolated to any particular make or model or type of vehicle. Some vehicles are more prone to it than others because of design flaws. The Prius has no such design flaw, you just got bad luck that day. Could have been anything.

Yes really. Over 400 cars a day burn to the ground. It is such a non-story that you never hear about it, unless it's a Tesla because batteries are magic and bad so they make the news to scare everyone into thinking their car with 20 gallons of explosive liquid behind them is much safer.

Your insurance company should cover it, send you a cheque, and now you can buy a new one.

 

We have had almost no Gen2 reports of fire like this.
One obvious possibility from looking at the scene is rodents chewing through a wire.
But in general electrical shorts happen. Going on 9-years old car so.
Hey though we just had a report this week of a close call..need to find it. Part fried in the hatch area.

PS- Sorry about the car and glad everyone is OK

 

Sorry.
Defication Occurs.

I can't blame Toyota for being twitchy about a nine year old car catching fire.
It was most likely caused by something completely outside the mothership's control since, as mentioned above, G2's do not have a track record for spontaneous combustion.
Even if (or I would say ESPECIALLY if!) your car was always serviced by a dealer, and only IAW the schedule of maintenance, and only adult driven in ideal weather conditions, then there's still the hundreds of thousands of units out there in the wild, being driven and maintained in less than ideal circumstances that are not self-igniting.

I'm absolutely no fan of Toyota USA.
There's a very good reason that I drive one, but do not OWN one (hint, it's not the car!)
However (comma!)
Toyota is clean on this one.

 

Yeah. I've had cars burn before and didn't think much. Engine running, oil on the engine, etc. I get it.

But parked for six weeks??? Physical science says there must be a kinetic movement for a fire to start. This car was at rest.

 

Kind thanks. What a way to start 2018 Hahaha

 

Science says there is lots of energy contained in gasoline and batteries (the 12v). Mouse could have chewed through the brake booster (which is always powered, meaning live 12v wires), lots of sparking later, some oil goes up, hits a fuel line, big fire. A million scenarios, lots of reasons why parked cars burn.

It sucks to have happened, and as others have said, glad it happened when it was vacant and just sitting there!

 

You've had cars burn before?
Plural????

Gee....
I haven't....
Nor has anyone I know.

Priuses are gas burners.....AND they have hybrid components that add to, rather than subtract from the list of possible fuel and ignition sources.
For all that, they burn very infrequently, probably less than other cars and light trucks, both statistically and real-world.

Good theory above on the rodents.
Were I you, I'd trade the insurance check on a good replacement.
If you're old enough not to care what the car looks like......maybe even a G4/Prime.

Good Luck!

 

Wheres the pictures of it burned up in the dads driveway? Its just a burned out car in the woods in these photos. There has to be insurance pictures of it burned up in the driveway. And a fire that big probably caused damage to the building it was near and damaged the driveway.
In the pictures it looks like the car was burned out in the woods. I see alot of burn marks on the ground.

 

... another recent warning for all cars is water bottles on seats acting like magnifying glasses in the sun, but in winter? I don't think so, but just to say you do not need kinetic energy

 

In the middle of no-where (where mice like to live...) that clearing is sometimes considered a driveway. All the more reason to assume something more natural, and with chewy teeth, caused the Prius' death.

 

Raleigh, although a large NC city, is very "country" and rural. Most drives in our area are gravel and dirt. It is parked in the turnaround. I hope the attached file helps. Thanks.

 

The other questions for this specific case, on a Gen2 to preserve the 12v charge for long time storage, you really want to turn off the SKS smart key system under the steering wheel. Was this done? If not one would think the 12v batt might be fairly low.

 

Noted. We do have those pesky creatures in numbers in our area. They are always trying to find a home in winter. Ugh.

 

No. I did not. So, I guess the battery was still quite "active" while the vehicle was not. I could see some tangible scenarios with this idea.

 

You are correct. The last two times I was away for long durations, the battery was fully discharged.

 

welcome!
sorry for your loss, glad you weren't parked near the house. i hope you were insured.