ratpack

I am sorry to report that my 2002 Acura TL Type S (3480 miles) has caught on fire. This is no joke. One day the car would not come out of park. Apparently a fuse was blown and that disabled the shift lock release. I limped it to the dealer after using the manual shift lock override and after finding that the brake lamps were not working either. The dealer took it in and as I waited there for 3 hours, they worked on it. When they were finished I went to drive it away and noticed that the warning lights were still on (VSA, ABS and !). I alerted them about this and they took it back and later they realized that they could not finish that day, it was 5.30 by then and put me in an Integra. I heard the service guy explain to the manager that the diagnostic equipment could not recognize the computer in the car (I am summarizing, he said a PLS something or other). They told me that it might be due to a needed software upgrade. So I left.

The next day I get a phone call saying that the car had an electrical fire while it was sitting on their lot. Apparently they worked on it in the morning and the computer pointed to a bad brake assembly. They ordered the part and set it aside in the lot (8 am). At 4 pm someone noticed smoke coming out of my car. They opened it up and sprayed the passenger side with fire extinguishers. The air bag went off and when the fire department got there they hosed it down with water. The fire was under that glove box and was likely in the electrical system. I showed some of the pics to a mechanic friend of mine and he assured me that it was totaled. I hope so. I don't want them to try and fix it and be left with damaged goods.

So my question is, has anyone ever heard of electrical problems in Acuras or TL's? The dealer said that they did nothing wrong and it was a manufacture defect. Has anyone ever have to get a new car after a lemon law or damage do to defect or dealer? Do you believe this or is it unlikely considering Acura's reputation.

Thanks for reading. I hope none of you have this happen to you. Thank God I did not add anything to the car after I bought it. I will try and post some of the pics later.

I will let you know what happens
jl

seqiro

How horrible!

I know it's probably hard to see a bright side to all of this, but at least it didn't happen while someone was in the car or while it was parked in your driveway setting fire to your neighborhood.

Let us know what happens and post those pics when you get a chance.

Paul

Mr.T

DAYAM,

That suxs donkey man. Aight, are you telling the truth. Your not gonna post somthing later saying it's april fools or somthing? Man, that SUXS. That's a big time lemon. Probably one of the mechanic was smoking and ash in your car with the cherry hehe. I don't even know how that feels man. Don't know what to say. I'm speechless.

Mr.T

RedLined

HOLY SH!T!!! And I thought getting a new tranny at 9500 miles was bad.

I don't know about the lemon laws but if it's not totaled it seems Acura should replace out of good faith. If not, threaten going to the media or something. They'd probably eat that up.

Post those pix.

yee

an aunt of mine had a Volvo 850 a few years back. one day when she was entering the ramp to get on a freeway her car lost control and she ran straight into the ramp divider. The front portion of her car was split in half! right through the engine.... Volvo shipped the car back to study the case and gave her a fully loaded Volvo 850 Turbo...

maybe you should see what Acura/Honda America can do to compensate.

best of luck

coffeefingers

Dude,

WTF? That's horrible!

Reading all the threads on this message board about TLS problems is really bumming me out. Especially since mine is only a couple of weeks old.

WTF? Back in the day, Honda and Acura were some of THE cars to get if you wanted reliability.

Now they seem like American cars back in 80s! LAME!

Maybe I should say a prayer everytime I get into my ride now.

unx979

It's all about the 1st Gen TL's. Made in Japan baby

Edub-TL

HOLLY CRAP!!! I can't believe it!!!

Glad no one was hurt..

did the BMW X5 people work on your TL-S too?

New cars catching on fire.. WTF is up with that??

Is fire covered under the warranty?? Hope you get a replacement soon..

TL4Mo

So sorry to hear about your loss. At least no one was hurt, but I know that it does not solve your problem. Do you know in this case if there is a possibility that Acura will replace or do you have to file it against your insurance (bummer!)? What is the dealership saying?

If it is any concelation (probably not), I was reading today that a member's wife's BMW X5 caught on fire this week. So, it's not totally just an Acura problem. Apparently there have been several reports of X5s going up in smoke. Maybe it's just in the day and age of all these computer gizmoed cars that this type of stuff will happen more often.

Hope all ends up well. Either way, will you be getting another Type S?

Best wishes!

daverman

My condolences! I hope insurance (or Acura) ponies up the dough to replace your ride.

There must have been a serious electrical short somewhere down the line which manifested itself as the erratic behaviors that you saw earlier. The short was probably what caused the fire.

coffeefingers: Don't get discouraged by the number of complaints on online bulletin boards. Thing is, a lot of people start posting on bulletin boards only because they're desperate to find a solution to a particular problem, or need to vent to a sympathetic audience. Rest assured that there are many more people that have TLs with no problems; but they're not on the boards, they're too busy driving!

I call it the "b!tching Board Syndrome". You see it everywhere, especially on open tech support forums.

Guest

This is freaking ugly and first time I heard it happened to a Japanese car. I guess the people in Ohio factory are smoking crack. These japanese cars may have electrical problem (Nissan?) but caught on fire is very rare. Maybe the technican is smoking crack inside the car and set it on fire.
Well it only happen to 1 car so I don't think it bad at all. Anyway, insurance (if you got full coverage) or Acura or the Dealer should get you a replacement soon.

PlanoTLS

Sorry to hear about your great loss ratpack. Not that anything can make you feel better, but I'll try.

I'm a service advisor at a Lexus dealership in Dallas and I walked a customer to the finance office today from the service drive. I asked if I could help her with any service issues while we were walking and she said no. Her Lexus caught on fire in her garage and burned down their house and her husband's car too. They live in a posh neighborhood. They were in the newspaper and the damage was estimated at over $1 million dollars. Now that sucks!!!!

Everyone is right. It's good that no one was hurt. Cars can be replaced, people can't.

Goodluck with Acura. We're all curious how it is going to turn out. Keep us posted.

imax

Sic YOUR insurance company onto the Acura dealership! Tell your insurance agent what happened and that you expect the Acura delaership to replace your car, touch base with them. If you have a family, or personal, attorney I would give him/her a phone call to review ALL of your options BEFORE you need to know. Just some good advice imho.

Good Luck

CarFreak

Now I'm getting worried! I hope everything works out ok.

ratpack

Thanks for all of the replies. Yeah I hope it works out and Acura or the Dealership does the right thing and steps up to the plate. Right now the dealership is saying that they did nothing wrong. But we are waiting to hear from Acura.

I will let you guys know what happens. I am glad to hear that nobody has heard of this before in Acuras cuz I will probably get another one.

jl

ratpack

The powder is from the fire extinguisher. The passenger airbag went off too. The could not get the fire out with the extinguishers so when the fire dept came in they hosed it down. I babied that car for the first 7 weeks and then it got the crap kicked out of it. =)

The powder is all over the seats, front and back. There was a pool of water on the floor. I am not sure if the fire fighter hosed the whole dash or just the pass. side.

I left cd's in the stereo, but took out the ones I leave in the cd cases in the glove comparment. That would have sucked if I lost all of those discs.

But it is as bad as it looks if not worse. If they don't total it and try to screw me into fixing it I will have a cow. Does anyone know Johnny Cochran's phone #?

jl

Mr.T

HOLY **** MAN,
YOUR GONNA TRAUMATIZE US MAN!!!!!! DAYAM I WISH YOU WERE JUST JOKING MAN. R.I.P MY SYMPATHY TO THE TL-S

Mr.T

1000bpm

HOLY F**KING COW

This really sucks. My condolences go out to you.

After what happened there's NO WAY Acura can get away without replacing your car. At the very minimum. I'm certain Acura will do whatever it takes to make you very happy, very quickly. Can you imagine the PR damage this is going to do.

See a lawyer, call Customer Service, escalate it to the highest level, and do not settle for an Integra as a loaner while they sort this sh*t out.

yee

1000bpm is right... they should give you NSX as a loaner. LOL...

they should give you another TL-S to drive until everything is sorted man...

look on the bright side.... maybe you'll have the 1st 'totaled' TL-S.
jk.

and I still think that Acura should compensate for your lost.

oh and one more thing, can you let us know as soon as you've found out why this have occurred? cuz you know it might happen to our love ones too...the car I mean, thanks.

regards.

thejavagod

Sorry to hear about this! And of course...do not accept anything less than a brand spanking new car.

hyc2000

Haven't you guys heard that Acura is gonna include an auto fire extinguisher system on the 2003 TL as standard feature?
Then soon it will become standard safety feature for all cars, like an airbag!

Moo

What a horrific site!!! Sorry dude!!! I'm speechless.

ACTUP

That's terrible, glad you weren't in the car. Don't take no sh!t from Acura get a new car.

DJ Iceman

What a tragedy. But I'm sure Acura will make it right--that's the kind of company they are.

A few years ago Saturn had a problem with cars "spontaneously combusting". A friend of mine came out of a dance club one night to find a burned out husk where his Saturn used to be, and a service rep told me that on a tour of the plant in Spring Hill, TN that he acciedntly saw a huge room full of scorched Saturns. When the factory rep saw him looking in there, he got really upset and reminded everyone not to go into unauthorized areas. Then a couple of months later they had a "warranty campaign" (their way of performing a service recall without it sounding so bad) to replace some wiring in the ignition system. It even made the national press, but not in a front page kind of way. The point of my long story is that Saturn never admitted there was a problem with the cars and refused to do anything for the owners who lost them. They had the audacity to tell my friend that he must have been smoking in the car which is what caused the fire, but he was a clean car fanatic and wouldn't let a cigarette within 100 feet of it!

I have much more faith in Acura and their commitment to their customers. Please keep us all posted.

rockinTLS

Wow, I feel for you. Hopefully, Acura will ante up. Since it was on the dealers lot I can't see how they would try to pin it on your insurance.

Iceman is right, Acura promotes themselves as a classy company. As other posters have said, the PR damage could be really bad if they don't set you up, and fast.

mikester

Your best bet is going to be to press Acura for a replacement vehicle under warranty and/or lemon laws. Unless you have gap coverage, your insurance isn't going to help out much here. If your insurance totalled the car, they would probably give you a few thousand dollars less than you paid for it, leaving you to cover the rest.

Were you leasing the car by any chance? If so, it gets even easier, because if the car is totalled, you have automatic gap coverage through your lease company, so you can just walk away from the car (you lose whatever you have put into it, however, which is why you should never put a lot of money down on a lease).

I would be putting the full-court press on Acura to replace your vehicle, and if they give you any crap at all, go to a local TV station. Many of they have "consumer advocates", and they would love to hear this story. Also wouldn't hurt to contact a lawyer ASAP.

Good luck.

PhiTL

BTW what dealer is that in Ellicott City? West?

TL4Mo

Ratpack,

I totally sympathize! It definitely hurts to see your pics....especially since I am driving a Black/parchment too.

Best wishes on getting ACURA to replace your car.......definitely don't let them make your insurance replace it.

Who are you insured with anyway?

tl4mo

Robbdogg

Ratpack,

That sucks big time bro!! I am sorry for your loss, but like everyone else said, nobody was hurt.

I just feel bad for you because of all the BS you will have to deal with!! Hopefully Acura does right by you man.

Sorry again,
Robb

ratpack

Thanks for all of your sympathies. I just heard from the dealer (Tischer). The service manager seems to think that Acura will pony up. But we will have to wait a couple of days. I do wish they would lend me a NSX though. =)

I will keep you posted on what happens and what the cause was.

Thanks
jl

R Man

This is absolutely shocking. You have my condolences, and I hope that Acura treats you better than other manufacturers treat their customers.

A friend of mine bought a brand new Kia something-or-other for his daughter. After two months of being in and out of the shop for warranty repairs, the car’s engine finally blew up. I don’t know the particulars of what exactly happened, but I do know that he ended up taking a loss on the car through his insurance. Kia did not give him a new car, even with that great ten-year warranty they are always bragging about.

Best of luck.

Tag66

Sorry to hear about (and see) your loss! I'd be devastated if anything like that happened to mine, especially after I babied it with Zaino! Anyway, here's your chance to get a new one-- this time GET THE NAVI!

TL4Mo

If Acura is going to "pony" up, then make sure they pony you up to a Navi upgrade.....that's the LEAST they can do for your troubles. Make sure you get the color you want and ask for extras........you have the upper hand if they are wanting to keep you happy.

I wonder how long before they give you a replacement, any indication? Are you still driving the Integra in the meantime?

RAdams

I'll join in by saying that I'm sorry this happened to you... but I'm also glad (as everyone else is) that no one was injured in all of this.

As far as the remedy, I can't imagine that Acura wouldn't replace the car. If you've made no electrical mods then it was either something the dealer did or a manufacturing defect -- in either case you're "covered". Please let us know how everything turns out... I'd be curious to see how your dealer and/or Acura handles this.

thejavagod

The best bet is to say that you don't feel safe driving that vehicle....whenever they hear mention of safety they stand up and listen because they don't want to attract any lawsuits. I bought a Camry from Keyes Toyota once and it was a lemon - sometimes the right and left wheels would not turn in sync and I almost met with an accident on the freeway. At first they were saying that they would fix it...but when I told them the car endangered my life they quickly took it back and rolled back the contract (after one and a half months)!

acuraguynj

Smoking crack!!??? That was funny! The workers are all the same here in America, so even if the assembly / system is as good as Honda / Acura, you still have the same workers.

For some reason, the Japanese care more about the assembly, or just have better equipment. It's still a mystery, but also a fact.

RedLined

Even if they do give you a new car, tell Acura you want a new NSX too or you will call 60 Minutes or Dateline. Hahaha. Just kidding. Sort of. Good luck.

acropora

so any news from Acura?

ucla107

GAWD DAYAMMMMM....... sue their a$$es =P and request them to give you a new TL-S WITH NAVI... LOL.. and other upgrades.. body kit, comptech wouldn't hurt =P

good luck man.. keep us posted

2001TL4KCdude

Geez