Gasgoo.com (Shanghai August 5) - Guangqi Honda has been appearing in the Chinese media following a recent case of an Accord catching fire in Guangzhou. In an official response, Guangqi Honda stated that, after following an official investigation, they determined that the problem was not due to a design flaw, chinanews.com reported today. However, they have yet to locate the precise cause of the combustion.
On the early morning of July 4, Mr. Fu was driving his eighth generation Accord when he stopped at a traffic light. When waiting for the light to turn green, he noticed smoke coming from the rear of his car. Upon discovery, he found that the backseat of his car had caught fire. Mr. Fu rushed to open the fire extinguisher in his trunk, however he found that the electronic lock on the trunk had malfunctioned. Mr. Fu then rushed to the local fire department; the firefighters finally put out the fire soon after.
Following the incident, Guangqi Honda sent a professional team to inspect the car. According to the results of their inspection, the team hypothesized that the fire may have been caused by oil leaking from the release wiring harness' circuit board which controls the trunk lock. That would mean that the cause of the fire was external and not in any way related to a design flaw.
However, Mr. Fu disagreed with that assertion, claiming that Guangqi Honda was trying to relieve itself from taking responsibility. Mr. Fu pointed out that when he asked the Guangqi Honda team about the precise reason of the fire, the team stated that it was "unclear". He added that he did not leave any items on the backseat. Furthermore, Mr. Fu hypothesized that the trunk lock's malfunctioning was due to the release wiring harness circuit board short circuiting, which in turn caused the fire.
The firefighting team involved in the incident was also reached for an interview. According to the captain, the vehicle's cabin was entirely covered in flames, however both the front and rear of the car were unaffected. After ten minutes the team managed to completely put out the fire, with no injuries being suffered. The captain added that since the scale of the fire had not reached the level of severity requiring the fire department to determine its cause, they made no attempt to do so.
When reached for comment, Guangqi Honda's customer service stated that the they can't comment on cases of individual owners' vehicles.
Li Jinmin, an analyst working in the industry, explained that most combustion cases are due to damaged fuel or electronic circuits, and is not related to the vehicle's age. He adds that the reason combustion cases are more common in older vehicles stems from neglect in performing proper maintenance on the part of the vehicle owners. As new cars are also susceptible to combustion cases, their owners typically install fire extinguishing equipment in their vehicles. At the same time, these owners may also choose to add speaker systems or extra air conditioning units to their vehicles. Mr. Li stresses that if these modifications aren't professionally installed, they may lead to a problem like a combustion occurring later on. Furthermore, long driving durations or excessive weight may also cause vehicles' temperature to rise, which in the already hot summer season may further increase the risk of circuits short circuiting and causing a fire.
Mr. Fu explained that when he was driving his vehicle, the outside temperature was only around 30 degrees and the car's air conditioning was turned on. He added that his car, which was bought in November 2009, had had a navigation system and fire extinguishing equipment installed at a 4S dealership, with all maintenance work also done at a certified 4S dealership. No previous signs of a problem were ever found during this work.
