Personal Injury Law

General Motors Recalls 200,000 Vehicles for Fire Hazard

By Chrissie Cole

General Motors Corp. announced an automobile recall of more than 207,000 Buick Regals and Pontiac Grand Prix sedans warning consumers not to park them in garages or other enclosed structures due to a fire hazard.

The company has received reports of 267 vehicle fires and six injuries, five of them minor and one moderate. And 17 fires in structures.

The recalled vehicles include: 1997-2003 Buick Regal GS and Grand Prix GDP models with 3.8 liter supercharged V6 engines.

Fires may be caused by drops of engine oil being deposited on the exhaust manifold through hard braking, warns the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

A fire can start if the oil gets hot enough, NHTSA warned. The safety agency said that if the exhaust manifold is hot enough and the oil gets below a heat shield, "it may ignite into a small flame and in some cases fire may spread to the plastic spark plug wire channel."

General Motors is alerting consumers of the recall by mail. Driving the vehicles is safe, but they are unsafe to be parked in garages or enclosed structures until the fire hazard is eliminated.

Full post as published by New York City Personal Injury Lawyer on March 14, 2008 (boomark / email).