When I was about nine years old, I was riding in the back of my family’s old ’68 Volkswagen Beetle when the car started to lose power and slow down. My mom, who was driving at the time, began to pull over to the side of the road, and at that moment I looked behind me, out the back window, to see an ominous column of smoke emerging from the back of the car. That was my first car fire!
And while I haven’t really had a full car fire since then, I have had plenty of cars that seemed more than willing to give fire a chance. A Volvo P1800 with twin SU carbs that loved dumping fuel on a hot exhaust manifold, brittle fuel lines hiding under braided fabric covers just waiting to drip onto a hot muffler, and so on. Basically, when it comes to older cars, they almost always seemed like it wouldn’t take all that much to get them to ignite, really.
Except, of course, for when they were off. And that’s what’s so different about what’s happening now to over 3.2 million cars that have been saddled with NHTSA “park outside” warnings. Because those cars, be they Jeeps, Kias, Hyundais, Chryslers, BMWs, and more, are all at risk of catching on fire while they’re off. So what the hell is going on?
Well, I talked about this in at least a little bit of detail with Flora Lichtman of Science Friday, who was kind enough to give me some leeway to rant like the cranky old bastard that I am:

That’s the whole episode, which includes a compelling interview with a food safety expert, for those of you interested in avoiding long, languorous drives down the Highway of Hershey, but if you want to be rude and just jump to the segment about cars, I guess you can jump to timestamp 14:18.
If you’re opposed to listening to that at all and prefer to listen with your eyeballs, using an exotic technique called “reading,” then I suppose I can recap the essence of what I was going on about.
So, why are all these cars catching on fire when they’re not even on? They’re all fuel-injected, so no leaky carbs, and they’re all relatively new and modern – you’d think this would be a very solved problem! But the problem is more complicated than it seems, and it’s from our own doing, really. The reason cars are catching fire when off and parked is mostly because modern cars are never really “off.”
If you want your car to, say, detect your keys when you approach and illuminate its lights seductively and unlock itself, or protect itself from intruders when it’s parked, or use its cameras, or get over-the-air software updates or any number of other things cars do when not being driven, then you have to accept that your car is still on, at least electrically, when it’s been turned off.

The engine may be off, but modern cars still have plenty going on, powered by their 12V battery (or a larger battery in the case of hybrids or EVs), meaning that there are many, many circuit boards and wires crammed deep within these cars that are hot, electrically. And components in cars are packed together incredibly tightly, especially in the case of hybrids, which means that there’s a lot of opportunity for parts and fluids and other bits to interact in unexpected ways.
For example, the issue with Jeeps has to do with the power steering system, an Electric Hydraulic Power Steering Pump (“EHPSP”), that can have electrical connections of very high resistance that can generate heat, and it’s close enough to other components that it can catch things on fire. The Kia recall is focused on a power seat motor that can be stuck on and generate heat and set things on fire, others have wiring that is hot and in the path of potentially dripping brake fluid that can cause a short and create sparks or resistances that can set things on fire, and so on.
While these details differ, the fundamental causes are all essentially the same: cars that are “off” are full of flowing electricity, and whenever you have that near flammables like fuel, a risk of fire exists.
If all this makes you nostalgic for a time when you turned a car off and it was really “off,” you’re not alone. But, like so much in life, we’re here because of tradeoffs and compromises. You want the convenience of keyless entry and security systems that work? Then the car needs to run sensors and computers and RF transceivers and more while parked. The reason we haven’t seemed to fully solve the problem of keeping cars non-aflame while parked is because we’re constantly making the problem harder.
Of course, that’s no excuse! Car makers should absolutely be able to make cars that don’t spontaneously combust while just sitting there! That feels like a pretty mild ask, really.
Anyway, thanks to Science Friday for indulging my ranting.
Top graphic images: Stellantis; DepositPhotos.com
 
 
 
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Nice job, Jason. You explained the problem, plugged the website, AND sung the praises of the 2CV.
Did Science Friday choose Jason, among the universe of car journalists, for a story about cars catching fire, because he is a “Torch”insky?
Hey, congrats on your appearance on a really cool radio show!
As with so many things these days, I honestly think this can be traced back to the almighty quarterly report, and how basically no publicly traded US company seems capable of thinking further out than 90 days.
When you are only governed by short-term thinking, putting in the cycles to create an actual, finished product (be it the whole car, or the software for the infotainment, etc) is nigh impossible and so shit like this happens, more and more frequently.
Aside from that, keyless entry and alarm systems haven’t (to my knowledge) been a fire risk on my 02 Mustang or 98 Integra or 09 Impreza. Those are solved problems IMO, but so were mechanical door handles and we couldn’t leave those alone either
1) You can’t prove anything.
b) I wasn’t anywhere near them.
III) Your accusations are baseless.
5) You can’t prove anything.
Oh, wait, quiescent power draw? That’s a great excuse. Explanation. Very believable, thank you.
My 1983 Dodge Ares that I had as a teen caught on fire whilst driving home one day. My buddy and I left it on the side of the road and walked a few miles home. Never went back for it, but some tow truck guy sent me a letter saying he towed it to the scrap yard and kept the money, which seemed fair to me. Things had a way of working out in 1995.
It’s always the new-fangled tech that lets ya down.
Everything in my 1990 Rover Mini works perfectly, with exception of the radio.
That fancy new age Kenwood unit got installed somewhere around 2004 and likes to randomly not turn on until you pull the fuse and “reset” it.
I had a similar problem with a different piece of electronics. . .I just put a switch in the power circuit so I could toggle it on and off quick to reset it. Cheaper than replacing the equipment
Sometimes it is easier to live with the problem than fix it.
Nothing more permanent than a temporary fix.
…nostalgic for a time when you turned a car off and it was really “off,”
I know what you mean. My two newest cars (1982) have constantly-running electromechanical clocks and I have mixed feelings about this. It’s nice that the clocks actually work, but still… Then again, both cars are British so presumably they’re already eager to engage in spontaneous combustion anyway.
My mom had a broken leg and a late ’60s Lincoln Continental. The front compartment was big enough she could still drive, just with her left foot on the pedals and the cast-bound right leg on the hump. Still better than letting my dad drive.
Well there was an electrical fire up in the dash, and as soon as my mom pulled over the next thing she saw was, “your father’s fat ass running down the embankment!”; leaving his stricken wife to burn, evidently.
The fire went out when the ignition was cut, and dad came back when he saw the coast was clear. He was not warmly received.
A warm reception would’ve required leaving the ignition switched on.
“I wasn’t running away, I was running for help!”
Well, that explanation sounds quite logical; however, I am a proud American and, as such, I much prefer to believe conspiracy theories. To wit: my sources (the usual high school dropout incels hiding out in mom’s basement, reeking of body spray and unwashed pits and crevices, and crusty, piss-stained, racing striped Y-fronts) have incontrovertible proof that gangs of liberal commie thugs have a clandestine side-hustle that involves setting cars on fire to generate false flag rumors of right wing terrorism, seeing as burning cars is a favorite fascist fun time. And what are these pinko fire bugs known as? Why, Torchinskys, of course.
I’ve been Torchin’ since I was a kid, starting with a magnifying glass used on ants, and graduating to real wood fires and gas fed fires and gasoline fed fires…well, you get the picture. I’ve dealt with electrical fires. Fun times we live in!
A lithium fire is fire to savor.
Maybe rather than our Department of War flying Million-Dollar missiles to blow up certain countries/peoples, we just give them self-immolating Jeeps?
“Here ya go – Have fun! Be sure to park it indoors!”
(This is meant purely as satire – and is not intended as a sign of condoning illegal wars on innocent peoples)
Pagers and phones are cheaper and easier to blame on the Chinese.
Some radio station somewhere was doing a traffic report and referred to a car on fire as a Car-B-Cue and that name has stuck with me for 30 years.
Wouldn’t a side effect of switching to 48v systems be less chance of fire due to high resistance connectors? 48v means less current so there should be much less power dumped to heat with a bad, loose, or corroded connector.
But also, maybe rate the connectors for the conditions and the “not catch on fire” feature.
48V means less current as long as you’re using the same power, but I suspect they moved to 48V so they could use more powerful devices. Also 48V will jump further than 12V because electricity want to escape.
I’m a mechanical engineer, electricity is magic to me, so I’m probably wrong. I also once designed a 400V prototype battery pack in an aluminium box, which seems wildly irresponsible now I look back at it. It’d be like asking an electrical engineer to design a petrol tank out of matches.
The electricity being let out of the bag is pretty much negligible at 48v. Arcing loose connectors a very slightly greater risk.
When I was building my power amp (SE class A tubes) I had a hell of a time trying to tie the top aluminum plate to earth. Just the layer of naturally occurring Al2O3 on the surface makes it waaay less conductive than you think it’s going to be.
The angry pixies will escape if given the chance. We need to respect the angry pixies and give their anger a righteous purpose. Like rapidly alternating large currents between poles of a motor to make the motor turn. They love that kind of stuff.
Most of the pixies that escape on my watch are the magic smoke kind. :/
As a fan of ’80s and ’90s Fords, and a former Ford tech from ’98-’01, this isn’t new to me. Ford recalled nearly 9 million cars in 1996 for faulty ignition switches which could catch fire. 1/3 of reported fires were while the car was parked. I remember seeing a row of ~1990 Fords parked at my dealership service department with interior fire damage.
https://www.wardsauto.com/news/archive-wards-in-largest-recall-ever-ford-will-fix-ignitions-/762237/
They did a good job editing your rant to sound coherent. Not a single mention of cured meats or bodily fluids.
Or clamgasms at taillight bars.
I love keyless entry, but I’ll swap it for a key and no fires.
Hey! Car company marketing idiots: can we have not-catching-fire as the new surprise and delight feature please? Ditch all that other crap.
Thanks,
Someone who has been in four cars that have gone on fire.
We ordered our 2024 Trax LS specifically because it still had an actual keyed ignition, analog gauges, and wheels that were not painted black.
Neither the wife nor I wanted a vehicle that ‘sensed’ you were near and then unlocked the doors. We’re fine with pushing the button on the key to lock and unlock the doors.
My 2010 pickup still requires me to put the key in the door lock and turn it in order to gain entry to the vehicle. As does my El Camino and the wife’s MGB.
Edit: You can still get the 2026 Trax LS and 1RS models with an actual keyed ignition.
The most modern car I’ve ever owned is a 2012 GT86. I don’t even trust the little jump the frameless window does when I open the door.
When I’m doing errands in town in my car, there’s no sense in locking it, as the top is down. You push the door handle button just like it was designed for 53 to 73 years ago.
Same with our MG.
This is fantastic. I think the VW Jetta is still available with an actual key. It’s like a weird acknowledgment from contempo VW that if something’s not broken, don’t fix it, aka its old ethos.
It’s still digital just using a blade style key, but apart from some low spec fleet or Police cars with unchipped keys virtually every car today uses sensors and the computer to start even with a blade style key.
I think any vehicle that was available with remote start uses the computer for starting. My 2010 GMC Canyon has a keyed ignition (and door locks) and does not have remote start but in the winter, all I have to do is ‘bump’ the ignition but it will crank for quite a few seconds until it starts.
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