2002 Saab 9-5: fire, smoke or burning smell

Filed Dec 5, 2007 · Fuel system · 66,500 miles · MA · fire

Tl*the contact owns a 2002 saab 9-5 arc. While driving 20 MPH, the engine misfired and the contact noticed a burning smell. Approximately ten minutes after she parked the vehicle, there were flames coming from the rear of the vehicle near the fuel tank. The flames engulfed the vehicle and caused damaged to the trees and driveway. The fire destroyed the vehicle. As of december 5, 2007, the insurance company or manufacturer had not inspected the vehicle. The contact stated that recall #07v087000 (fuel system, gasoline: delivery: hoses, lines/piping, and fittings) was performed two weeks prior to the failure. The contact felt that the recalled part caused the failure. The current and failure mileages were 66,500.

Filed Apr 3, 2007 · Engine · CT · fire

Letter from insurance company regarding loss of saab due to fire with request for payment**cc the consumer noticed that one of the lights on the dashboard had illuminated and the vehicle began to act strangely. The consumer arrived home parked the vehicle in the garage and then suddenly the vehicle caught on fire. *jb updated

Filed Aug 21, 2006 · Electrical · 59,518 miles · PA · fire

August 12, 2006 our 2002 saab 9-5 sportwagon caught fire. Returning home from vacation the check engine light displayed. Information in the owner's manual and a phone call to our saab dealer lead us to believe that the car was safe to drive. As we approached the toll plaza in mays landing, nj the car stalled and began to smoke. We evacuated the car. Toll personnel extinguished the fire and summoned the laureldale fire company and the nj state police. The action taken by the toll personnel prevented a potential disaster. The car was towed to an impound lot in egg harbor ctiy, nj . After a few hours we were able to arrange fora rental to transport us and our vacation baggage home. At this time we did not know the extend of damage to the car other than it could not be driven to our home and it was a saturday. The closest saab dealer in cherry hill, nj was not open for service calls. We arrived home 5 hours later than expected with a rental car that cost $125/day and $0.20 a mile + gas. We droveback to nj in the morning to return the rental because we did not want to incur any unnecessary expenses. Sunday august 13 we traveled back to galloway, nj to return the rental vehicle. This fire should not have occurred and saab should pick up any expenses relating to a car fire of a 2002 vehicle with 59,518 miles. The car has been repaired, we picked it up from the dealer in cherry hill, nj august 19, 2006. Repairsr were covered by saab along with the towing to the dealership. The failure of two ignition cassettes caused a fire in the catalytic converter, damaging the converter, exhaust pipe, and mounts. Saab has not explained why the mechanical failure caused the fire and has given us no assurance that it will not happen again. Saab has declined to pay the additional cost we incurred which total less than $500.00 we filed a complaint with saab customer service and a claim with our insurance carrier.

Filed Jun 23, 2006 · Electrical · 81,285 miles · NY

I was driving in traffic when my engine started to stall and lost power. I noticed a burning smell coming from the engine compartment. I pulled the car over and could not re-start it. It was towed to the dealer who diagnosed a failed ignition module. My car is a 2002 saab 9-5 and had been re-called because of failures of this component. However, despite the fact that the car engine was of the type that should have been covered by the recall, when saab notified its' dealers it limited the modules to be replaced to only certain serial numbers. This, despite the fact that according to the federal safety agency all engines not having the qp3 modification, which my car does not, should have been re-called. Thus, saab refuses to pay for replacement of the part even though it is the same part that was failing and prompted the recall initially. I believe that this is a hazard due to the overheating of the part which LED to stalling and could have started a fire. Saab should not be allowed to limit the serial numbers replaced because other serial numbers appear to have the same defect. *jb consumer called on 9/12/06 to report a second idm failure incident that occurred on 8/18/06. The following is per a conversation w/ mrs. Alder on 9/14/06: during this incident, his wife was driving the vehicle on the highway in heavy traffic when the vehicle started to lose power. As she was pulling off the hwy, she smelt a burning smell and saw smoke coming into the car. Pulled over and started to call husband when she saw flames coming from underneath the front of the vehicle. Fire department put out fire and vehicle was towed. She reported that the dealer said her catalytic converter had burned.

Filed May 4, 2006 · Electrical, Engine · 91,000 miles · MA

While driving to work 28 april 2006 my 2002 saab 9-6 b308 v6 engine car began sputtering and the engine light came on. I made it into the parking lot where I work then proceeded to call a saab dealership. Saab dealership mechanic stated that the car's computer put itself into "lame" mode and that the car was safe to drive to dealership (15 miles away)and that it was probably an ignition module. I simply pulled car onto the parking lot and it sputtered to a stop/stall, smoke came from the hood and it wouldn't restart. I had the car towed to the dealership. After the car had arrived at the dealership I was notified by the dealership that the defective part was an ignition module. After looking this information up I find that this part was defective in and recalled in over 100,000 saab's from 2000-2002 however after calling saab corporate they deny that this part is recalled in my particular make and year. My make, model, engine type and year however are listed as recalled on several web sites including your dot.gov web site. I had to pay $600 + dollars to have my car repaired and have the ignition module replaced as I need this car. After having the part replaced 2 days later the engine light came on; I immediately brought the car back to the dealership to find that they state the car now needs a new catalytic converter (as stated by the saab dealership) the cat converter was warranted for 8 years or 80,000 miles but has broken after the 90,000 mile mark. I feel that driving the car when the ignition module has gone bad may have damaged the cat converter (as stated can happen if driving car with bad ignition module)

Filed Apr 26, 2006 · Electrical · 76,000 miles · FL · fire

I would like to cite the federal safety agency campaign #05v399000. While driving my 2002 saab 9-5 6 cylinder on 4/20/2006 I began to experience rough operation and reduced power of the engine. I was a short distance from my destination where I parked thinking I would need to be towed. At first I thought my car was overheating because there seemed to be steam coming from under the hood but there was an odd smell. I went into the coffee shop I was visiting and within a minute or two I turned to check on my car and I saw that the interior was filled with smoke. I went outside and noticed sparks and flames coming from under the vehicle in the area of the back seat and I immediately called the fire department. They arrived and put out the fire under the car and in the back seat where the flames had burned through the carpet. I called a tow service and went back into the store to finish my coffee and wait for the tow truck. When I came back out I noticed that there was still smoke coming from under the hood so I called the fire department again to put out the remnants of the fire. The car was then towed to the nearest saab dealer which is in gainesville, florida, about 40 miles away. Later that day I called the dealer to ask about the above referenced recall which I had discovered on the internet, and they told me that my particular car was not covered. In the letter of acknowledgement dated september 13, 2005 from gm to the nthsa, gm states that "a sustained vehicle fire is unlikely and gm knows of none." due to the exactness of my situation and the recall, I can only assume that gm now has at least one fire on record.

Filed Oct 12, 2005 · Engine, Fuel system · KY · fire

Dt: consumer states on october 6, 2005 while driving on a road the vehicle caught on fire. The fuel line was ripped, and one smelled gasoline all over the passenger side of the vehicle. Consumer stated when putting the vehicle in reverse it will stall intermittently. Consumer took the vehicle to dealer and no codes showed up on the diagnostic machine. The dealer changed catalytic converter and the oxygen sensor twice. The dealer could not pin point the problem. The engine failure light did come on before the vehicle caught on fire. The dealer said that some type of debris came from the highway that caused the fuel line to rip.