2008 Buick Lacrosse: fire, smoke or burning smell

Filed Jan 21, 2015 · Electrical · GA · fire

Tl* the contact owns a 2008 buick lacrosse. The contact stated that the fuse box caught on fire and the flames extinguished independently. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the relay shortage needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unavailable.

Filed Dec 5, 2014 · Electrical · 114,000 miles · KS

Our daughter was driving vehicle with a four year old in back seat when vehicle just died with no warning. She had just turned the corner traveling 20 MPH or less and had difficulty steering vehicle to curbside. She stated she could smell something burning and when my husband inspected vehicle he found melted ignition coil on cylinders 2 & 5, a blown fuse, and when taken to mechanic because it would not fire a bad ignition control module. Needless to say it was a very expensive fix.

Filed Oct 14, 2014 · Electrical · GA · fire

Tl* the contact owns a 2008 buick lacrosse. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to start. After inspecting the vehicle, the contact noticed smoke coming from the fuse box. The fuses were melted and burned. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. The technician diagnosed that the fuse box housing and fuses needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired and the manufacturer was notified. The failure mileage was unknown.

Filed Aug 12, 2014 · Electrical, Lights · 45,300 miles · CO · fire

While driving home from store my wife and I smelled something burning three blocks from home. We got home and I checked under the hood and the relay/fuse block on the passenger side was hot and slightly smoldering. I waited a while and the popped off the fuse block cover and saw the hdm module (according to the diagram in the manual) had melted and fused to the block. The melting and burning had also affected the surrounding relays and fuses. I immediately disconnected the battery and scraped away the burnt, fused portion of the hdm relay and visually checked the fuses which were singed or partially melted and replaced the bad ones. I do not have anything to check the relays with. My wife is on oxygen 24-7 and had a tank in the passenger front with her at the time of the incident which, if a fire had spread, could have become a catastrophic incident. After cleaning out the burnt portion of the fuse box of charred remains from the hdm module, I re-connected the battery cables and was able to start the vehicle without incident. The headlights would not work and some gauges appear to be erratic in their readings ( fuel tank and mileage). I then got online and found many 2006 thru 2011 buick's have reported this very same problem but no recall ( to my knowledge) has been issued for this highly dangerous and possibly catastrophic issue inherent in gm and specifically buick products. I purchased this car new and I have never received a notice or recall of any kind. I am in the process of having diagnostics and repairs done by an authorized gm dealer and will know more (hopefully) in the near future.

Filed Apr 22, 2013 · Electrical, Lights · 85,929 miles · OK · fire

Underhood fuse block caught on fire from the headlamp driver module micro-relay #35 melting down. Headlights went off and the battery started draining. Pulled over, turned off the car, and opened the hood to discover that the #35 micro-relay was arcing and had melted itself to micro-relays #44 windshield wipers and #38 air conditioning compressor. Both windshield wipers and air conditioner was off at the time. Even though the engine was off the relay continued to arc and was melting the underhood fuse block. Grabbed an insulated set of pliers and pulled the #35 micro-relay (the #44 and #38 relay came out at the same time). Arcing stopped with the micro-relays removed. I have filed a previous report on the #35 headlamp driver module micro-relay, because it had turned off the low-beam headlights while I was driving, at night, on the highway. Turning the light switch to manual-on did not turn the low-beam headlights back on. I had the #35 headlamp driver module micro-relay replaced and it too proved to be defective. After just a few months, it started turning on the headlights about 10 minutes after the vehicle was turned-off. Had to have my vehicle jump started, replaced the battery, and replaced the #35 headlamp driver module micro-relay, yet again. The 3rd #35 headlamp driver module micro-relay, caused an electrical fire, costing me over $700 to repair. Apparently there is no fuse to prevent the melt-down of the micro-relays. There is no caution, and no warning in the owners manual, to advise the user about what to do in the case of the low-beam headlights suddenly going off. There is no protection against an electrical fire being caused by the #35 headlamp driver module micro-relay, or any other relay from starting an electrical fire.