Who knew? I know I don’t research the car I’m renting… And if you purchase a previous fleet vehicle, I wonder if they need perform recalls before they’re put up for sale.
The 2004 incident that led to the legislation involved sisters Raechel and Jacqueline Houck, who rented a Chrysler PT Cruiser from Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Santa Cruz. Four days later, the two young women were dead, killed in a fiery crash triggered by a defect in the car. Chrysler had recalled nearly half a million PT Cruisers a month earlier because of the defect — a design that could result in fire from a leakage of flammable power steering fluid onto hot engine surfaces or catalytic converters. But Enterprise ignored the recall and continued renting out the car. The sisters were the fourth customers to rent the car after the recall was announced…
… Although Enterprise’s actions seem indefensible, it had broken no law because current statutes and regulations don’t require rental car companies to fix recalled vehicles.
I’m sure not being able to rent out a vehicle while it’s being repaired is a chop at the bottom-line. And if you have 100 PT Cruisers about to start on fire, what do you do? Dump them all at the local dealership? I wonder if the manufacturers can offer some sort of fleet support for things like this.
There needs to be a reasonable window where the rental companies are allowed to use the vehicle while arranging for the repairs, similar to what any of us would do when we receive a recall notice on one of our vehicles. I haven’t put a whole lot of thought into it, but 30 days seems fair. It’s not like rental agencies only stock one make/model of vehicle.
seems like it would be almost impossible to die in a pt cruise from fire. Thing is tiny, you would know if it was on fire, whos sitting in the car with flames going thru the firewall like “watch this I’ll make it so all rental cars have to have recall work done”
Experts hired by the parents’ law firm concluded that Raechel Houck lost steering ability because of a power-steering fluid leak. Enterprise argued that the crash was caused by Houck’s driving.
I find that argument (by the plaintiff) pretty hard to believe, considering you don’t lose all steering control on the highway just because the power steering stops working. Yes, it’s harder to turn the wheel, but to make it across the grassy median and into oncoming traffic? Come on now.
Regardless, recalls should be performed and unfortunately with big business it always seems to require big government to step in with a regulation to make sure something that should be common sense is done.
Dude its power steering fluid…its oil…it would have to get really really f’in hot to start on fire. I’ve had the power steering fluid boil over and cover my Corvette engine on a few occasions and these were on a race track. There was no fire or crash weird.
If power steering fluid leaks, you have a fire hazard. If the leak drips or sprays onto a hot engine part, there is a chance a fire will start. The flash point is between 340 and 392 degrees Fahrenheit. Though the fluid will burn, it won’t ignite easily. It will release toxic vapors that, when heated above their flash point, will ignite. A mist or spray of power steering fluid can even ignite below the flash point.
[QUOTE=JayS;3260606
I find that argument (by the plaintiff) pretty hard to believe, considering you don’t lose all steering control on the highway just because the power steering stops working. Yes, it’s harder to turn the wheel, but to make it across the grassy median and into oncoming traffic? Come on now.
Regardless, recalls should be performed and unfortunately with big business it always seems to require big government to step in with a regulation to make sure something that should be common sense is done.[/QUOTE]
Bingo, even with no power steering fluid you still have control. It is even easier at highway speeds. This case is garbage.
While I agree with having a recall fixed it should be a company policy not law unless it is directly related to safety. IE seat belts
For something to be recall worthy it has to already be safety related. And yes, it SHOULD be company policy, but clearly it isn’t, which is why government has to get involved and pass a law. And that law will probably be more restrictive than it needs to be which hopefully is incentive for asshole companies to do the right thing on their own next time.
I didn’t realize recalls were all safety related. Our truck has had a recall for a brake light and ecu flash…which I suppose could be safety issues.
Word, I was trying to imply in my previous posts that the article is just sensationalizing the accident to more easily pass a law and gain followers. I assumed that we’ve all worked on cars and have some fluid property knowledge. Power steering fluid is not gasoline lol.
In the case of the PT Cruiser recall though the power steering fluid had the potential to dump onto the catalytic convertor. Those are definitely hot enough to ignite power steering fluid. In fact, IT HAPPENED, which is probably why the recall came about in the first place: http://www.carkb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/chrysler/39/2002-PT-Cruiser-Fire
Today my wife drove her 2002 PT Cruiser (PTC) with 14K miles into a marina
parking lot. While doing a low-speed U-turn, a bolt in the power steering
rack area came loose, causing power steering fluid to spray onto the
catalytic converter, which instantly started a fire. A boat mechanic
instantly spotted the fire and came running with a big dry chemical fire
extinguisher. He was able to quickly extinguish the fire. They pushed the
PTC back into a parking spot and noticed a large amount of red fluid on the
asphalt. Further checking revealed the power steering fluid canister was
void of fluid. The PTC was towed to a local Chrysler dealership, where my
Insurance Rep was waiting. 3.5 hours later the leak was fixed and existing
fuel pump warranty work was completed. No other damage was detected,
primarily due to one fast-acting good Samaritan. Yes, we put kitty litter
down to soak up the fluid.
The internet still amazes me with the amount of info you have at your fingertips. The flash point for power steering fluid is 680 Fahrenheit. A cat runs up to 1200 to 1600 degrees, and doesn’t even start working until 400 to 600.
I guess I didn’t realize the PT had a cat in the engine bay, especially towards the front. I’m guessing it is one of those down pipe/cat in one type thing. Stupid… none the less power steering fluid on fire shouldn’t cause someone to die lol.
I figured they’d have a recall on the power steering unit regardless if it had a bolt that backed out after 20K miles lol.