GM recalling 1.37M vehicles-Fire Hazard

[Vizzy]

That's a good observation Scdevon.

The ironic thing is that when all these unnecessary gizmos go wrong and the "warranty" is up that owner will biotch to high heaven about how unreliable and costly it is to repair said car. It's sad to see how dumbed down the American public has become, almost clueless and the bizarre thing is that seem to revel in that aspect of their lives ...oh well time to veg out some more watching American Idol... Makes me think of that werid tv commercial for hulu.

 

[bigmike]

Originally Posted By: Vizzy
That's a good observation Scdevon.

The ironic thing is that when all these unnecessary gizmos go wrong and the "warranty" is up that owner will biotch to high heaven about how unreliable and costly it is to repair said car. It's sad to see how dumbed down the American public has become, almost clueless and the bizarre thing is that seem to revel in that aspect of their lives ...oh well time to veg out some more watching American Idol... Makes me think of that werid tv commercial for hulu.


People like this just buy another vehicle.

It's more of "well, I finished paying the car off, so let's go shopping for another car!"

 

[Vizzy]

Originally Posted By: bigmike
[
People like this just buy another vehicle.

It's more of "well, I finished paying the car off, so let's go shopping for another car!"


That may have been true 5 years ago but the economy has drastically changed. Lots of people who used to be able to simply buy another new vehicle can't afford it or can't get the credit they need to do so.

This is a game changer for the industry.

 

[GMBoy]

Originally Posted By: kb01
Originally Posted By: cchase
I wonder how many people will skip this recall since it involves disabling the system (most of the people I know with the feature love it).


I had never even heard of such a feature until this recall came out. What is the advantage of a heater vs. just using the low temperature washer fluid?


It's not about the fluid freezing, its about melting ice on your windshield which unheated fluid can't do. The heated fluid also cleans bugs off much better too. My CTS has it and I love it. Just push a button and hot water completely clears the ice from the w/s and off you go while others are still waiting for the defroster to work so they can scrape ice. A great idea, but the supplier screwed it all up and are now out of business. I'm not getting the recall performed on my car. I'll take my chances there.

 

[GMBoy]

Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Sadly, it was a retarded idea in the first place...I actually saw a few fail, right at the factory!

I wondered how long it would take for them to start toasting cars...



I never saw one fail at my factory. Not one. The problem is NOT the feature not working because it always does -the problem is the CHANCE of a short/smoke/fire incident. This usually happens to the owner, not at the plant during the electrical checks which are less than 60 seconds.

 

[GMBoy]

Originally Posted By: MrHorspwer
This is what happenes when a supplier doesn't live up to their end of the bargin.

Microheat came to GM with a product. GM installed product. Microheat's product was causing fires. Microheat chose to file bankruptcy instead of dealing with the cost of recalling their defective product (the first recall, in 2008)... leaving GM to shoulder the burden, fix the system, and handle any further issues. At one time, GM was seeking damages against Microheat in the $20-25 million range.

That raises alot of issues and highlights some of the issues with dealing with smaller, niche suppliers. Where waqs GM quality control in the beginning, when the system was being integrated to the vehicles? Would all of this been avoided had Microheat not punked out and filed for bankruptcy instead of actually fixing their product?



Perfectly said. My problem is I know GM has somebody that can fix the system after studying how it works. I mean, the recall only offers me $100 for loss of use of the feature that was a part of a premium luxury package I paid for. That is B S.

 

[bigmike]

Originally Posted By: Vizzy
Originally Posted By: bigmike
[
People like this just buy another vehicle.

It's more of "well, I finished paying the car off, so let's go shopping for another car!"


That may have been true 5 years ago but the economy has drastically changed. Lots of people who used to be able to simply buy another new vehicle can't afford it or can't get the credit they need to do so.

This is a game changer for the industry.


I disagree.

I grew up in rather poor conditions and in a lousy neighborhood (see ghetto). Everyone had new cars. No money? Check the welfare, unemployment, and food stamp office parking lots for cadillacs.

Never underestimate the quality of credit. Putting the "light bill" in a child's name is surefire way to keep that credit good.

 

[Vizzy]

Originally Posted By: bigmike


I disagree.

I grew up in rather poor conditions and in a lousy neighborhood (see ghetto). Everyone had new cars. No money? Check the welfare, unemployment, and food stamp office parking lots for cadillacs.

Never underestimate the quality of credit. Putting the "light bill" in a child's name is surefire way to keep that credit good.

Welfare money USUALLY doesn't afford people, even claiming multiple children enough money to get a pretty nice car...I'm thinking drug money if anything.

Heck I bet the only "ordinary" folks buying cars today are in the illegal drug selling business. Sad times for the USA.

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted By: Nick R

And what would YOUR solution to the problem be hmmm? Well, they could simply order new and improved parts from the company- OH Wait no they can't, they WENT BANKRUPT and liquidized. It would be way to expensive and a pain to replace the entire system with a different one, having to redesign it to make it be compatible with the old setup.


Me? I'm just glad I don't own a Gubmint Motors product...

 

[Vizzy]

Originally Posted By: MCompact


Me? I'm just glad I don't own a Gubmint Motors product...


I think you DO own a Gubmint Motors product..Jeep and Chrysler were you guessed it bailed out by the gov't. TWICE!

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted By: Vizzy

I think you DO own a Gubmint Motors product..Jeep and Chrysler were you guessed it bailed out by the gov't[sic]. TWICE!

Well, I bought it used in 2002 out of necessity(I needed at least one American car in the garage for a political strategy- and it paid off, by the way), so the first bailout was long past and the next was @7 years off. In any event, that Jeep will be the last car I buy that was/is built by the Big 2.5- with the possible exception of a Mustang GT 5.0...

 

[Scdevon]

Originally Posted By: mc2lizard
Fix is easy, wire a nice little resistor in line with the unit.. lower voltages=lower heat output But that would make sense, and actually cost them money to fix the right way...


You're talking about a fairly high amperage circuit probably (hence the fire hazard). I don't know much about the system, but I'm guessing that it quickly heats a quantity of washer solvent up in a smaller resivoir other than the main resivoir.

Even so, it would take a lot of amperage to accomplish this in a short time on a cold morning. Any resistor placed in line in the circuit to drop the voltage would have to have a stout wattage rating. Probably a nichrome wire from an old blower resister or something would work. One could always experiment with a heavy duty rheostat. I'm aftaid that this would essentially render the heater function useless anyway, though.

 

[brianl703]

I wouldn't use a resistor. A MOSFET PWM driver (identical to what they use to control seat heating elements) would be a much better solution.

 

[LAGA]

I have this feature on my 07 Silverado. It works pretty good and I do not want to get rid of it. There are over 1.5 million of these out there and there has been only 5 fires. I will take my chances. BTW the problem lies in the circuit board and not with the heating unit. GM knew about the problem 2 years ago and had an earlier recall in which an inline fuse was installed.

 

[ProStreetCamaro]

It is rather amusing the people that bash GM. They had some [censored] poor management but there products today are fantastic. No auto manufacture is immune to occasional issues. None of them. I buy nothing but GM and will buy nothing but GM for many years to come. I believe GM has the very best powertrains in the business. The LSX is unstoppable and the ecotec engines are fantastic. The new DI engine issues are not specific to GM and will get worked out shortly.