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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 2 april 2019

U.S. safety agency opens probes into Hyundai and Kia fires

By TOM KRISHER to investigate why so many
AP Auto Writer Kia and Hyundai vehicles
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. have caught fire when not
government’s highway involved in crashes.
safety agency has decid- “While it may be six months
ed to open two new inves- post-due, we are gratified
tigations into fires involving to see NHTSA’s Office of
Hyundai and Kia vehicles Defect Investigations open
after getting complaints of formal investigations based
more than 3,100 fires and on our petition,” Levine
103 injuries. said. The center contended
The National Highway Traf- that there are more non-
fic Safety Administration crash fires in the Hyundai
said Monday that it grant- and Kia cars and SUVs than
ed a petition filed last June in similar vehicles made by
seeking the investigations other automakers.
by the nonprofit Center for Hyundai and Kia said in
Auto Safety, a consumer statements that they’re
advocacy group. cooperating with the inves-
The investigations, one for tigations and have been
Hyundai and the other for open and transparent with This Oct. 4, 2012, file photo shows a Hyundai Sonata at a Hyundai car dealership in Des Plaines, Ill.
Kia, cover non-crash fires NHTSA, providing compre- Associated Press
in almost 3 million vehicles hensive data. Messages problems that can cause size engine due to engine fluid to leak and catch fire.
from the affiliated Korean were left seeking comment fires and engine failures. failure and fire problems, It’s not clear whether this
automakers. The probes from NHTSA. In addition, the automak- but for reasons unrelated death is the one cited in
cover the 2011 through In documents detailing the ers are doing a “product to the Veloster’s issues. NHTSA’s figures.
2014 Hyundai Sonata and investigations, NHTSA re- improvement campaign” Most of the engine failure Kia’s statement said it will
Santa Fe, the 2011 through ported that it had received covering another 3.7 mil- recalls are for problems keep working with NHTSA
2014 Kia Optima and Soren- complaints of engine com- lion vehicles to install soft- with Hyundai’s 2.4-liter and “in achieving our mutual
to, and the 2010 through partment fires, as well as ware that will alert drivers 2-liter “Theta II” four-cyl- goal of protecting U.S. ve-
2015 Kia Soul. The com- fires involving other com- of possible engine failures inder engines. Debris left hicle passengers.”
plaints came from consum- ponents including tail light and send the cars into a re- from manufacturing can Hyundai’s statement said
ers and from data provided housings, wiring harnesses, duced-speed “limp” mode clog a port and cut off the it is monitoring the perfor-
by both automakers. and light bulbs. Agency in- if problems are detected. flow of oil, causing the con- mance of its engines on the
One death was reported vestigators sent information Just last Friday, NHTSA an- necting rod bearings to fail. roads and it has made nu-
involving a Kia vehicle, ac- requests to both automak- nounced a recall of about That can damage the en- merous improvements to its
cording to the documents. ers in September and Oc- 20,000 Veloster cars with gine block and cause oil engine manufacturing. The
NHTSA had previously said it tober of last year, accord- 1.6-liter engines in the U.S. to leak and catch fire. The company also said it has
would incorporate the non- ing to the documents. and Canada because fuel automakers also have an- made “substantial efforts”
crash fires into a 2017 in- The investigation will look can prematurely ignite in nounced recalls to inspect to address engine issues in
vestigation that examined into how often fires hap- the cylinders around the a fuel pipe problem that some of its vehicles.
recalls of Hyundai and Kia pen, how many vehicles pistons. That can cause ex- can cause leaks and fires. During a two-year pe-
vehicles for engine failures. are affected and the safe- cessive pressure and dam- Levine has said fire com- riod starting in November
It opened the new probes ty-related consequences, age the engine, causing plaints to NHTSA have of 2016, Hyundai did fire-
“based on the agency’s the documents said. vehicles to stall and in some come from across the related inspections of 428
analysis of information re- Engine failure and fire prob- cases catch fire. country, including a death vehicles out of the roughly
ceived from multiple man- lems with Hyundais and Kias But that’s a different prob- in Ohio involving a Kia Soul 8.7 million vehicles it has on
ufacturers, consumer com- have affected more than 6 lem from what has caused in April of 2017. Kia says the the road today. The state-
plaints and other sources.” million vehicles since 2015, the rest of the recalls since driver in that incident dam- ment says that for every 1
Jason Levine, executive di- according to NHTSA docu- 2015. aged the transmission by million Hyundai vehicles on
rector of the center, said in ments. So far, Hyundai and In February, Kia announced pushing on the brake and the road, 49 had a non-
a statement that it is long Kia have recalled about that it would recall the Soul gas pedal at the same crash fire during those two
past time for the agency 2.4 million vehicles to fix small SUV with the same- time, causing transmission years.q