my truck caught fire

[SKing]

Well after all the a/c problems I had with my blower not working my dash went up in flames as i drove down the road at 75 miles an hour. . The fire was due to the wire harness that plugs into the side of the steering column. When I would tilt the steering wheel my a/c blower would stop working and 3 dealorships had 3 different answers. . Well they were all wrong. . I drove down the road and smelled a hot smell for about 2 mins I looked around and saw no smoke and since this smell is what the dealors thought they fixed I just drove down the road a few more miles. . THEN O MY GOD my leg started burning like no other burn I felt before. I reached down and my arm an hand started burning. . IT WAS MELTING PLASTIC from around the steering column then my guage cluster melted and went up in flames. HIT THE BRAKES jumped out of the truck to watch my dash melt into the carpet. . Some how when I was looking at my 3rd degree burns someone put the flames out with a fire ext. Dodge wants my truck back real bad but wont pay for medical cost, just the truck. Think I have to sue.

 

[Casey Balvert]

Hope that you are ok. Dodge probably wants the truck back so they can hide the evidence. I would be contacting the NHTSA to report the problem. Definitely a safety issue that could effect all of us with third gen trucks. If Dodge was wise, they would be taking very good care of you. If Dodge was wise.



Casey

 

[EEngel]

Fire

SKing,



Sorry to hear that you were injured and that your truck is damaged.



Don't let those ******** off easy. Get the $ for the medical and the new truck. They are responsible for it.

 

[rbattelle]

WOW. SKing, as others have mentioned, I hope your injuries are not too severe. Definetly take pictures of all of them and save all your hospital receipts. Might be a good idea to retain a lawyer... they love these sort of cases.



And to Dodge (in the hopes someone is reading this): here's another example of how unbelievably inept your dealership service departments are, and in my opinion blame for this incident lies squarely with them. This time, you almost killed someone. What has to happen for you to fix the lack of brains at your service departments? Have you reached a point where lives actually have to be lost before you'll agree there's a problem? If so, how many lives? I sincerely hope the NHTSA goes to town on you. And here's the real problem: if you're forced to issue a recall, who in their right mind is going to want to bring their truck to a Dodge service department when in reality it was a service department that failed to recognize and repair a potentially deadly problem (3 dealers, actually).



The whole thing is pretty disgusting. Vehicle fires happen sometimes, but one should never, NEVER happen on a vehicle that visited 3 dealer service departments to fix the problem that eventually caused the fire. Have we reached a level where you are literally risking your life by taking your truck to the dealer.



Moderators: might it be appropriate to move this thread to a more public forum where it can get more readership?

 

[DGFoster]

WOW,I hope your burns are not to severe,make sure they do what is right and pay your medical bills,they know you got them by the short hairs,hope is goes ok for you. Good Luck.

 

[RobbieH]

I hope this isn't a sign that the problems that existed in the Gen1 and Gen2 trucks are going to creep up to the Gen3 trucks too. I had this nearly happen on my '96 several times, and they finally released a recall for it in 2000. I've helped someone fix a 91. 5 with the same issue. Here is the recall from the '96.



http://dodgeram.info/tsb/recalls/875.htm



The first time my dash started smoking it scared the living sthuff out of me.

 

[DF5152]

i find it amazing how they have these problems in older truck and dont learn from there mistakes... .

 

[lawdog]

MAn that is a drag, Hope your wounds heal good. A friend (A Fire Inspector at my city fire dept) had a CHevy HD Duramax. . emphasis on HAD... He got a call at 330AM when his neighbor saw his truck on fire in the driveway. Seems the wire from the alternator to the battery power distribution stud terminal shorted out and started on fire which toasted his truck AND burned up thru the eaves of his house up into his attick and burned up his garage pretty bad too.



He and AAA investigator both concluded that was the origin of the fire was that wire... GM said well... you had an amp wire also hooked to that stud so we cant say for sure it was our problem, it could have been your wire casued it... . Problem was the inline fuse was not blown for the amp and the amp wire showed no signs of being grounded anywhere... ... Another friend at GM tried to help him as he said that there has been more of these where GM gave them a new truck, but GM washed their hands due to the amp wire..... AAA paid off nicely on the truck and fixed his house and AAA is going after GM



Fire inspector liked my truck, but bought a new Ford 6. 0 F350 instead... .

 

[KKlepfer]

SKing,

Thanks for posting this thread. I started losing my blower intermittently for the last two weeks. After reading this thread I checked my connection at the steering column and found the short. The plastic insulation between two of the terminals were burned and discolored. I have the part on order for $55. I did notice a faint burning odor yesterday, but would have never thought of looking for a short. You saved me from a fire, thanks again.



I'm reporting this to the NHTSA. I hope you do the same thing. Bad press will get Dodge to recall this part. I'm sure we're not the only ones who are having this problem.

 

[JasonCzerak]

SKing,

Thanks for posting this thread. I started losing my blower intermittently for the last two weeks. After reading this thread I checked my connection at the steering column and found the short. The plastic insulation between two of the terminals were burned and discolored. I have the part on order for $55. I did notice a faint burning odor yesterday, but would have never thought of looking for a short. You saved me from a fire, thanks again.



I'm reporting this to the NHTSA. I hope you do the same thing. Bad press will get Dodge to recall this part. I'm sure we're not the only ones who are having this problem.

You should _NOT_ be paying for this. All you guys should be calling DC HQ and all them retards in Pontiac Michigan.



If you have fire burns already, this should be looked at, photographed and reported before it happens.

 

[fkovalski]

SKING- you have 2 trucks listed... . on which one did this occur? (i am assuming th '06 as I read these?)



ON EDIT: I thought that this was a recent post. I had to be on your '03 judging by the date of original post.

 

[JThiessen]

I find this very interesting. On my 03 that I just traded off, I had an issue with the tilt and electrical issues also. Sometimes my left turn signal would not work with the wheel tilted all the way down. Other times my overhead display would just show "- -". Wonder if its all related.

 

[HOBrian]

SKing,

Thanks for posting this thread. I started losing my blower intermittently for the last two weeks. After reading this thread I checked my connection at the steering column and found the short. The plastic insulation between two of the terminals were burned and discolored. I have the part on order for $55.

I smelled something twice this morning, where did you look exactly to find the short?? Did you have to remove anything?

 

[OHale]

Sking, I'm glad you're alive, if burned! That truck belongs to you, don't let DC have it back until a good lawyer tells you to. You should get a lawyer. I had extensive 3rd degree burns some decades ago and I can tell you that there can be complications later on, including nerve damage. In 3rd degree the damage goes deeper than just the skin layer.



I wish you a speedy and full recovery! Please keep us posted on how you're doing.

 

[SKing]

This is a post from 2004 and it was my 03. Someone looked this up due to problems and brought it back around. But its probably a good thing its back. It seems to be helping allot of people out. Again its the large wire harness on the right side of the column under the plastic cover. And yes 2 years latter I'm doing just fine.

 

[mlewis73]

WOW. SKing, as others have mentioned, I hope your injuries are not too severe. Definetly take pictures of all of them and save all your hospital receipts. Might be a good idea to retain a lawyer... they love these sort of cases.



And to Dodge (in the hopes someone is reading this): here's another example of how unbelievably inept your dealership service departments are, and in my opinion blame for this incident lies squarely with them. This time, you almost killed someone. What has to happen for you to fix the lack of brains at your service departments? Have you reached a point where lives actually have to be lost before you'll agree there's a problem? If so, how many lives? I sincerely hope the NHTSA goes to town on you. And here's the real problem: if you're forced to issue a recall, who in their right mind is going to want to bring their truck to a Dodge service department when in reality it was a service department that failed to recognize and repair a potentially deadly problem (3 dealers, actually).



The whole thing is pretty disgusting. Vehicle fires happen sometimes, but one should never, NEVER happen on a vehicle that visited 3 dealer service departments to fix the problem that eventually caused the fire. Have we reached a level where you are literally risking your life by taking your truck to the dealer.



Moderators: might it be appropriate to move this thread to a more public forum where it can get more readership?

Amen!!! Boy, folks... I'm really starting to get worried about my '06 Ram 3500--and I haven't even taken delivery yet!



These folks are MORONS!!! My God! I have 2 college degrees and work my butt off every day to do my job right. Should we not expect DODGE SERVICE DEPARTMENTS to do their jobs right, too?



What gives?



Dodge denies warranties and does slipshod service work when they DO ANY WORK AT ALL? Now we're BURNING TRUCKS because THREE service departments are INCOMPETENT?!?!?



A little story... My '91 F-350 had Ford's under-engineered headlight switch and pigtail. Dealer replaced both in June 2004 when they burned up while my new wife and I--and 3 horses--were coming back from our wedding (not including the horses) in Florida. In December of '05, I took the dash apart because of flickering headlights and weird electrical gremlins. Come to find out, the dealer who replaced the parts in '04 had just TWISTED the pigtail into the existing wire harness and used electrical tape to insulate. The headlight switch had again melted (only trailered a couple times--melting due to higher electrical load and no relay to take the load off the switch; stupid Ford) and the pigtail wires were MELTED TOGETHER. Electrical tape was crispy burnt. I could have had a cab fire at ANY time. I took the time to fix it right.



Point is, dealer service departments MUST START TO FIX THINGS RIGHT. These are expensive toys; there is no excuse for a dealership to skimp. Work till the problem is found, and fix it.



In my line of work (military), screwing around on a repair will kill someone.

 

[EBottema]

SKING-

what was the overall outcome? Did you get comp'd by DC?

 

[PAllyn]

Which truck, the 03 or the 06? Hope you heal fast.

 

[fkovalski]

Which truck, the 03 or the 06? Hope you heal fast.

I had wondered the same... SKing replied:

This is a post from 2004 and it was my 03. Someone looked this up due to problems and brought it back around. But its probably a good thing its back. It seems to be helping allot of people out. Again its the large wire harness on the right side of the column under the plastic cover. And yes 2 years latter I'm doing just fine.

 

[rjones]

what was the outcome on this Mine burnt also and dealer laughed and said 400 bux for a new harness because they dont sell just the plug that goes into the multfuntion switch so now I froze my arse off cuz the blower quit working again from the harness... . I getting really tired of this.....