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Thank you.. I remembered someone had the problem, just thought it was Chevy.. But, Chevy did have an ignition switch issue, right? Was that the one that would cause the car to stop while going down the road?
It is almost impossible to get away with insurance arson. A very clever perp could get away with it, but 95% of the attempts are evident to an investigator from 20 feet away. Cars really don't burn that easily and nearly all attempts to do so leave big fingerprints.
I have seen this happen at my previous work place parking lot at least 3 times. In one instance I knew one of the owners…fire started in the engine of his Ford Expedition…he was in tears. The even sadder thing is, other vehicles parked near the starter car get burned up as well. It is an amazing sight to watch flames though…esp. when it’s not your car.
Years ago there was a fire that was started by a prism. This insurance company gave out these prisms to hang on the rear view mirror. The sun reflected off it just right on a hot day into some papers sitting inside the car and caught it on fire. The insurance company had to pay out and didn't hand out prisms anymore.
Didn't Chevy have a massive recall for just this on the ignition switches back in the early '00's?
That being said, there's about three causes for vehicle fires.. Electrical, fuel-related or the aforementioned insurance claim (Be it by the owner or caused by ruffians with molotovs)
I've heard that some of the early DI engines had several recalls due to fires.. Not the engine itself, but the high pressure rail/pump developing leaks.
Electrical.. Even on a gas powered vehicle there's literally hundreds of places for a fire to start. A wire bundle routed in a bad place gets chafed... Shorts out when you get out and slam the door..
Antifreeze leaks are also a common cause of engine fires.
It is almost impossible to get away with insurance arson. A very clever perp could get away with it, but 95% of the attempts are evident to an investigator from 20 feet away. Cars really don't burn that easily and nearly all attempts to do so leave big fingerprints.
How could they possibly know that?
Yes they know how many there are that do leave big fingerprints, but not how many there are that do not leave big fingerprints. If they do not detect the fraud,then they do not know they failed to detect the fraud. They think it is a legitimate claim and record it as such. Thus, there is no possibility they can ever know how often the fail to detect fraud.
Most car fires are caused because someone did something stupid. Others are caused by a malfunction or defect in the car. It is not terribly hard to read up on people doing something stupid or a defect causing a fire and then simply recreate that stupid act or defect. Of course the insurance investigators mark those off as being an actual stupid act or defect and therefore covered and never know they failed to detect fraud.
Thank you.. I remembered someone had the problem, just thought it was Chevy.. But, Chevy did have an ignition switch issue, right? Was that the one that would cause the car to stop while going down the road?
Correct. Would cause loss of power steering and braking. Also caused some issues where the airbags would not deploy.
The new norm for car fires is advanced technology, Direct injection. Carburated cars 3 to 4 PSI, multiport injection, 35 to 60 PSI, noe direct injection 1500 PSI. Gasoline is very unstable under no pressure, never mind over a 1K PSI.
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