Tesla Model S Engulfed In Flames During Worst Test Drive Ever

B00nie said:
Sorry but I haven't seen a car burn more than 1-2 times in my entire life if you rule out the deliberately torched insurance frauds and vandalism. Car fires are extremely rare, spontaneous (not a direct result of a collision to an 18-wheeler etc) car fires even more so.

I personally had a Mercedes CDI diesel that went to a diesel pump gasket replacement. The tard at the shop didn't tighten the high pressure diesel line properly and it popped off after 100 miles of highway driving and squirted diesel directly on the exhaust manifold / turbo. The result was a bit of diesel vapor coming from the hot parts - no flame.
Click to expand...

You do realize how diesel works in a diesel engine right?
 
ITT: Anecdotal evidence thrown around as fact. If you're going to argue that Teslas are less likely to catch on fire than ICE cars or the other way around, at least have some facts othee than "my cousin's friend's mom's friend's grandpa once saw a car catch on fire!"
 
nutzo said:
And I'm sure most of them where old cars, not new cars on a test drive.

Most car fires (ice) are due to a leak in the gas line, either due to a seal failing, or physical damage. Smaller amount are due to electrical shorts, but they usually don't cause the car to go up in flames in minutes.
Click to expand...

Hey that's a awesome assumption, it's really a pity it's wrong. Seen it span the entire gamut. a lot more electrical to go wrong with modern cars of any kind, in fact very few of them would qualify as "antique" AKA old car.
 
Sounds like something on the road pierced the battery pack, that or they had a bad cell blow out.

Still want one, much like I wouldn't mind a 458 Italia

article-1305396-0AE41C85000005DC-420_634x403.jpg
 
Sonicks said:
How do you mean 'makes you wonder'?

Tesla has been very open about their battery packs and never once admitted to them being anything other than hundreds of laptop batteries strapped together. The failure here was catastrophic for sure since they have all sorts of thermal precautions on the battery packs even if they are ruptured.
Click to expand...
Makes you wonder why it took Tesla to make cars like these when the battery technology has been around for like 15 years.
 
DukenukemX said:
Makes you wonder why it took Tesla to make cars like these when the battery technology has been around for like 15 years.
Click to expand...

Because it takes a hard headed idealist billionaire CEO, who is willing to tell his short-sighted board of directors to go to hell, to want to do what he is doing. Tesla likely won't be making tons of money for a long time. Making cars, the battery packs, and then getting charging stations actually IRL have all been serious problems for any and every wanna-be EV maker for the last 50 years of EV auto research and manufacture. It is a continual chicken-and-egg problem. The cars don't sell because there's no infrastructure, so the car cos don't want to make the cars (Board of Directors only wants profits)....The infrastructure doesn't get built because there's no cars.

In fact, if Elon Musk were to keel over dead anytime soon, Tesla and all its efforts would come to a screeching halt and it would all be for nothing. I'd wager.
 
86 5.0L said:
You do realize how diesel works in a diesel engine right?
Click to expand...
LoL I could help my self but I just had to do it not clue on how a diesel engine even works and P.S. diesel engine can catch on fire even more so with dam these diesel particulate filters [DPFs] they are the most dangerous pieces of equipment ever put on a diesel engine
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Looking at the picture and the fires raging in southern California, I thought, "Is this what started the fire in California?", but it says this happened in France.
 
Yeah I've had worse test drives as well. Driving a new vehicle off a lot, and it dies during the test drive. A Ford Tempo. Probably a good thing they don't make them anymore. It didn't catch fire, but it might as well have, me and the car salesman had to wait while one of their shuttle taxi's picked us up to take us back to the dealership. Was in college at the time, long long ago.
 
I ejected a glass t top going about 60 down the road. Didn't realize the guys at the dealership didn't have them latched and when I let off the gas I just heard a massive suction sound, looked up, saw it eject, and land in the road in one piece. Then, two seconds later it was run over and shattered by another car... I bought the car and they just gave me a new t top for the passenger side.
 
I guess I'll assume that most of the haters in here either work in the traditional ICE supply chain so they are threatened by technology progress, or are just luddites.
 
Gas, diesel, electric. A carbeque is a carbeque...
 
Beaflag VonRathburg said:
I ejected a glass t top going about 60 down the road. Didn't realize the guys at the dealership didn't have them latched and when I let off the gas I just heard a massive suction sound, looked up, saw it eject, and land in the road in one piece. Then, two seconds later it was run over and shattered by another car... I bought the car and they just gave me a new t top for the passenger side.
Click to expand...
280? 300?
 
Skripka said:
Many wrenches I know give this advice:

A) If the Check Engine light is solid, get it checked...but you're likely not in eminent risk

B) Check Engine Light is flashing...you're f*cked. Stop the car. Now.
Click to expand...


My experience is: Check engine light flashing = Your gas cap isn't on tight enough.
 
gglenn said:
My experience is: Check engine light flashing = Your gas cap isn't on tight enough.
Click to expand...

In subaru's flashing check engine light means detonation. That's a stop immediately or have fun replacing your engine kind of warning.
 
I say we switch to steam power. A boiler explosion is more exciting.

The main problem I have with EV is that the batteries have a relatively short life-span and are quite expensive to replace. It ain't like replacing a laptop battery every 5 years. ICE has worked for over 100 years and there's a reason early 20th century EVs didn't catch on. All we need to do is stop selling 6000 pound vehicles and make small ICE cars the norm.
 
/usr/sbin said:
They are switching to 20700 cells.
Click to expand...

21700, although they are calling them 21-70 for some reason.

Anyways the thing to know is that Tesla & its partner in Li Ions, Panasonic, are making their own special Li Ion chemistry. Making them safer for road use will be part of that development.

Another thing to know, someone said you can put out rechargeable Li Ion fires with an ABC extinguisher. That's untrue. Li Ions rechargeables unfortunately contain their own oxidizer. Its near impossible to "put them out" once they've started. The main thing you can do is bury them in something that won't catch fire itself and won't help the batteries short circuit. Sand for example. Water is bad (shorting), foam won't work since foam works by cutting oxygen, same for CO2. But a Li Ion fire has its own built-in oxygen supply, so these won't work. Unfortunately unless there's a gravel truck passing by willing to dump its load on the fire, there's little that can be done if a Tesla goes up in flames other than wait for it to burn itself out.
 
Out here in San Diego I have a few OG Tesla's on base; they are (AFAIK) on their first battery pack. They dude with the highest mileage (175K~ish) said that he sees 8% loss on the screen, but about 5% actual on the road. Apparently it gets a bit more confused if he runs it to single digit percentages, but it's never left him on the side of the road. Bums me out, honestly. I was hoping the S's would drive down the prices on the roadster. :D
 
jpm100 said:
You realize Check Engine Light means stop, now. Most people ignore it now because thanks to the government, specifically the epa, if your emissions go a bit out of whack it sets the same code because the tree huggers wanted you to treat it the same as an imminent failure and immediately stop. Kind of like setting the fire alarm off if someone doesn't recycle. So the majority of check engine lights are emissions warnings that if you ignore, you wouldn't notice. So everyone's learned to ignore check engine. You should only do that if you have a code reader and you know you're getting an emission code (most likely 02 sensor) often.
Click to expand...
Fully agree.

Not every short impedance can be tested for and some very small windows of short resistance can be low enough to eventually cause a "thermal event" but high enough to not blow a fuse.

Restive shorts are a bitch
 
jevans64 said:
I say we switch to steam power. A boiler explosion is more exciting.

The main problem I have with EV is that the batteries have a relatively short life-span and are quite expensive to replace. It ain't like replacing a laptop battery every 5 years. ICE has worked for over 100 years and there's a reason early 20th century EVs didn't catch on. All we need to do is stop selling 6000 pound vehicles and make small ICE cars the norm.
Click to expand...

Except that isn't happening. It hasn't happened yet...and, history as our guide, probably is never going to happen.

Yes there's reason EVs didn't catch on. There was no infrastructure for them. No source of batteries readily. The motors and batteries of the day sucked...and with plentiful cheap gas, no reason to spend the R&D and capital in making ICE go away.

It is like saying that smartphones never caught on in the 1990s and "there's a reason" despite Microsoft's many attempts to make it so...ergo dumb phone now and forever.
 
Quix said:
It's good no one was injured.
There are a lot of measures to prevent and control fires, and a gas fire is not an explosion.
Click to expand...
Name one measure - well other than the gas being in a tank and not just on the passenger floor.
 
Can't even count the number of times I've seen a car in flames on the side of the freeway. I've also personally witnessed brand new cars smoking and catching fire during test drives, one of them actually being a vehicle I myself was driving (battery shorted out). Gasoline-powered vehicles catch on fire on average 152,000 times a year in this country and kill around 200 people, but they don't have big "dangerous" batteries in them so not newsworthy, obvs.
 
jpm100 said:
You realize Check Engine Light means stop, now.
Click to expand...
This is absolutely, 100%, beyond all shadow of any doubt, WRONG.


A FLASHING check engine light means stop now. A solid check engine light means look at it soon.
 
OEM said:
This is absolutely, 100%, beyond all shadow of any doubt, WRONG.


A FLASHING check engine light means stop now. A solid check engine light means look at it soon.
Click to expand...
No it means put some black tape over it and ignore it for another 30k...

Reality is all the check engine light means is there is a trouble code in memory. That code can be anything from loose gas cap to bad sensor or a sensor sees a big issue...
 
EODetroit said:
21700, although they are calling them 21-70 for some reason.

Anyways the thing to know is that Tesla & its partner in Li Ions, Panasonic, are making their own special Li Ion chemistry. Making them safer for road use will be part of that development.

Another thing to know, someone said you can put out rechargeable Li Ion fires with an ABC extinguisher. That's untrue. Li Ions rechargeables unfortunately contain their own oxidizer. Its near impossible to "put them out" once they've started. The main thing you can do is bury them in something that won't catch fire itself and won't help the batteries short circuit. Sand for example. Water is bad (shorting), foam won't work since foam works by cutting oxygen, same for CO2. But a Li Ion fire has its own built-in oxygen supply, so these won't work. Unfortunately unless there's a gravel truck passing by willing to dump its load on the fire, there's little that can be done if a Tesla goes up in flames other than wait for it to burn itself out.
Click to expand...

Your post made me look into it a bit more, apparently it allows them to increase the battery size by 10%, but increase power storage by 33%. At the scale they will be using batteries it makes sense. I looked and I still show 20700, did they change their mind and swap to 21700 size later on? Also, good point on fighting lithium ion fires - scary stuff for sure.

WLbJER4.jpg
 
86 5.0L said:
Lolwut? Did you read the post I quoted?
Click to expand...
Lolwut? Did you read what I just wrote? We were discussing about flammable fluids in the engine compartment and that has absolutely nothing to do with the diesel cycle.
 
B00nie said:
Lolwut? Did you read what I just wrote? We were discussing about flammable fluids in the engine compartment and that has absolutely nothing to do with the diesel cycle.
Click to expand...

Ok let me guide you step by step, I was responding to this

personally had a Mercedes CDI diesel that went to a diesel pump gasket replacement. The tard at the shop didn't tighten the high pressure diesel line properly and it popped off after 100 miles of highway driving and squirted diesel directly on the exhaust manifold / turbo. The result was a bit of diesel vapor coming from the hot parts - no flame.
Click to expand...

My response of the diesel cycle is because diesel has a very high flash point and does not ignite like regular gasoline, it needs to be ignited by compressing and heating up the air in the cylinder, not spark or flame.

Infact, some military tanks spray diesel onto the exhaust manifold to create a smokescreen


EDIT: Science!

 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top