Seat Ateca SUV Forum banner

Car went up in flames!!

17K views 21 replies 8 participants last post by  O.Lee 
#1 ·
I had my car service (first) in May at 1 year old 10k, there was a fault with EPC engine light 2 days prior. So warned the main dealer who was servicing the car. They done the service and said they would recall car back when the had the part. 2 weeks went by no call. So I called them and booked in for Wednesday just gone.

Was supposed to be a quick fix, 3hours later, was shipped off in courtesy car. Collected my car the next morning. Drove car a max of 20miles between the Thursday and Saturday afternoon. 3 journeys

On Saturday afternoon, off to meet friends, about 1 mile from home, I notice 'dust' around the car. Although it's not dust is smoke - I'm able to pull over within 10 seconds of realising, but the breaks had seized so I used the handbreak. And the car suddenly plumes with smoke, whilst I'm in it. I jump out and call 999

The car is on fire!

Neighbours come out and attempt to hose it down then the fire brigade arrive. And put it out.

I've put through to insurance and told SEAT dealer what has happened and they refused to show me what work had been done in the Wednesday.

Today (2days after incident) I notice the trail of oil, which starts about 4/5m from where I was parked on my drive. And intermittently goes along he journey to where my car succumbed.

Anyone else had this issue or heard similar. I'm fuming and quite shaken by the experience. I'm ok, slight inhalation of smoke but other ok :)
 

Attachments

See less See more
3
#3 ·
Glad to hear you to got out ok and hopefully the effects from the smoke quickly pass.

The fuming and shock will no doubt be joined by frustration of getting it all sorted now - hope it doesn't take too long
 
#4 ·
Glad your okay which is what counts!

Do you think what the dealer did could be related to the fire? I'm curious what the interplay between them and insurance company would be. Them refusing to give you details of the work done would certainly have me suspicious.

You could ask try seat UK to see what they would have to say on the matter.

Hope you recover soon.
 
#5 ·
Thank you both :)

Yes Im quite sure it has something to do with the fix on Wednesday. I can't (and have spoken to numerous car mechanics) think of any other legit reason why this would happen. Especially Know we know there car started to leak oil just after setting off.

I've told the insurer I asked to see documents and that SEAT manager refused. I'll call The UK headoffice at some point. Insurance seem keen to see my dashcam and images do have sent them on, and hey said with such a young car and catastrophic result they would be more likely to investigate to reclaim their money.

All I know was it seem to be a turbo fault and they needed to replace a simple 'little rod' that took all day to do.
 
#6 ·
Pleased you are ok. Guess it could related to a oil leak caused by the incompetence of the dealer, you properly have a hard time proving it however! what did the local fire brigade say? are they reporting it to the VOSA a and/or trading standards? if they have not it may be worth you do this.

Incredibly suspicious of all dealers when they service car of mine, always pop the bonnet before I take car and inspect it to a fine tooth comb for any signs of fluid leaks or incompetence. About 12 years ago a Skoda dealer refreshed brake fluid all and was polite enough not to reattach the cap. Upshot of it was a week later I was broken down with brake failure. The dealer denied all knowledge of been incompetent; and said I must have removed the cap myself on the two year old car!

Also you could take the legal route of suing the supplying dealer of Ateca, as it's "Not of Satisfactory Quality", know slight understatement there!!!!
 
#7 ·
Thanks, Im guessing the actual service was fine, and the incident occurred when the fixed he turbo fault.

They are looking at going through a fire investigation - to see if it's worth checking over. I can't think why they wouldn't. It's pretty obvious. The work was freshly done and warranty work.... I thought they had to prove they hadn't done anything wrong. As it's under 6 months. Over 6months we have to prove

I shall give those people a call too. Thanks
 
#9 ·
Holy crap bet you did yr load when that kicked off... I have seen one go up before (not mine) and they go up real quick when they go...
glad no injury..

I remember had a service on a Vauxhall about 10yrs ago, left garage and short way down the road driving home noticed smell of burnt oil an a LOT of smoke started venting from bonnet..
pulled over and popped bonnet, and the oil filler cap was just laying upside down on the head where they had not put it back on...!!
 
#10 ·
Shocking how easily it happens.

I was really upset - the whole reason why I buy new is for peace of mind. I'm kind of reassured in myself that I controlled in panic (seized breaks are no fun) and I was hurtling towards a thatched cottage!

Yeah seem so obvious, I've reported to dvsa and seat uk etc I'll just wait to hear I guess

Some smokey pics attached. Where I stopped then second later (these are off 2 clips)
 

Attachments

#11 ·
Tet70 said:
Es0985 said:
Thanks, Im guessing the actual service was fine, and the incident occurred when the fixed he turbo fault.
Oil leaking from the turbo ends up on to a hot exhaust manifold, so the catastrophe is ready... :shock:
That's my punt too! I bet VOSA and seat head office would be very interested to know your story. Hopefully it wont turn into Samsung note 7 fiasco :D sorry couldn't resist
 
#13 ·
Es0985 said:
:) no worries there were lots of bbq jokes over the weekend

I called both dvsa (vosa) and Seat uk. I'll update in due course.
Look forward to your post updates.... what was the dealer name etc that did the work?
 
#14 ·
Insurance companies tend to dismiss such things and pay out regardless - can't see them being too bothered on how the fire started and more interested in how to payout the min. they can get away with.

Must admit it's a bit of a coincidence the car having just returned from the dealerships workshop. Would be good to obtain an independent report on the cause of the fire but not sure how to get this done for free.

Glad you're safe.
 
#15 ·
Golfmk56 said:
Insurance companies tend to dismiss such things and pay out regardless - can't see them being too bothered on how the fire started and more interested in how to payout the min. they can get away with.

Would be good to obtain an independent report but not sure how to get this done for free.

Glad you're safe.
Also with Current warm weather is be careful if anyone parks over on a grass field, as exhaust system could very easily spark a fire. There is an ongoing issue with Ford Rangers particularly in Australia where they catching fire.
 
#16 ·
I maybe be wrong but if insurnace pay out then your premium goes up as you made claim right? Whereas if it turns out it's a seat issue or the dealer issue then they should reimburse you. How to prove it though. Perhaps I'm just nieve (spelling?).

Did you take pics of the oil slick you left behind! Do update when you have more news though!
 
#17 ·
No real response from SEAT yet, if my insurers won't do a fire report (which hey so far haven't said no - so I presume all is going ahead) then I'll ask SEAT to pay for a independent one, quite happy to take them to court over it if needs be. But I'll scream and shout to the media first.

SEAT have been useless, they seem to think this is a standard customer service issue and it's ok to have me waiting for 48 hours for every persons response (higher and higher up the chain)

I'm not allowed a courtesy car because it's 'company policy' that the car is in dealership hands for me to have one.

I'm disgusted with they way we've been dealt with so far. They're aware and just ignore it.

It was seat in reading.
 
#18 ·
I feel for you..
My wife and I both own (our first) Seat cars.

I don't believe that we will purchase Seat again.

Rather than spend all of that money on advertising, Seat would do well to look after their current customers - something that they are VERY POOR at doing!
 
#19 ·
Es0985 said:
No real response from SEAT yet, if my insurers won't do a fire report (which hey so far haven't said no - so I presume all is going ahead) then I'll ask SEAT to pay for a independent one, quite happy to take them to court over it if needs be. But I'll scream and shout to the media first.
Sounds like you've got the wrong end of the stick. Nobody would expect SEAT to pay for an indi report - you have to pay for it yourself (that's why I mentioned if there was some way of having it done for free). If the fire was caused by some alteration the dealer made then your case is against the dealer. You're falling in to the trap that many don't seem to appreciate - the contract is between you and the dealer where you bought the car from / who serviced the car - SEAT UK should have an interest in it, but at this stage it's nothing to do with them.

Es0985 said:
SEAT have been useless, they seem to think this is a standard customer service issue and it's ok to have me waiting for 48 hours for every persons response (higher and higher up the chain)
That's standard practice - but see above, the issue has nothingwhatsoever to do with SEAT. Why should you be treated any different to another SEAT customer? At this stage you don't have a scrap of evidence the fault lies with SEAT. You'll need evidence before you can pursue a case.

Es0985 said:
I'm not allowed a courtesy car because it's 'company policy' that the car is in dealership hands for me to have one.
That seems reasonable. Not sure how you went about reporting the fault but did you have your car recovered via your SEAT roadside recovery? It's the roadside recovery insurance who initially issue cars ( usually for 1st 48hr ) until the car is back with the garage when they can take over proceedings.

Es0985 said:
I'm disgusted with they way we've been dealt with so far. They're aware and just ignore it.
Have all the sympathy in the world for you, would hate that to happen to me, but you're approaching this all wrong. Why isn't your insurance organising a replacement car? as per above you have no evidence thus far. Who's to say the fire wasn't cause by say a cigarette (bare with me on this). Are you expecting a the manufacturer / garage to provide you with a replacement car at their expense because of some fault which may be of your own doing? Until you have a report you can't be 100% sure the fire was caused by faulty manufacture or faulty workmanship.

Far too long a tale to explain but I was in a similar sort of situation when my new Honda broke down, I was told by recovery that the car was safe to drive back to the garage if I did it there and then. The European centre who deals with Honda claims had just shut for the weekend and I was left without a car (the garage didn't have any spare courtesy cars). And I desperately needed a car. What I did was hired one myself (from the same group Honda uses to hire cars from) and intended to claim the money back. Yes I forked out for the hire car but in the end Honda took over the hire leaving me with nothing to pay. A few weeks later the Honda broke down again... lesson learned - I insisted on the recovery firm taking the car to Honda which meant the first 48hr car hire was arranged by the recovery firm, not Honda Warranty.

Sorry for the long post but you're better approaching this with a level head rather that go off on a rant which has no basis.
 
#20 ·
Thanks for your reply, having never done this before let alone be in any kind of accident. I was very shaken up. I'm still stressed. Still no answers from car report as it's not been done. Change over means change of plan apparently. They are going through all my phone calls to find out if they did agree to do a fire report because at this point it's sounds like they won't. And they don't want to pay back my excess.

Insurers had offered full market payout and finance payoff is less but insurers only want to pay the settlement less my excess. Despite previously offering me the 'change' £1500 after settling the finance the change was mine. I was told this twice and also have it in writing. But then when finalising the settlement they changed the amount they would pay to the settlement figure from finance minus my excess. So I was then £500 out of pocket. Claim now on hold.

I've also been told by CAB this could go through consumer rights... against the finance company as they own the car therefore financially responsible.

My main concern though is that what ever has happened still hasn't been established. And the garage hasn't shown interest in finding out why, not has seat just incase this is a manufacturing issue. If insurers decide not to investigate. No one is making SEAT - so from a safety issue why would they not want to look into it. Well we know why.

They've been quite slow in responding to questions from the insurers too.

All been an absolute mare.
 
#21 ·
I really do feel for you the other possibility is the garage could of messed up something or removed Of the air-conditioning fluid gas, all cars built now have to have R1234YF which is extremely explosive and combustible, apparently it is more so than petrol! I guess it will be extremely difficult to exactly pinpoint was gone wrong anyhow now or if you be financially viable for the likes of the insurance company etc to commission an in-depth report
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top