Small car fire today..poor GN

rodentranger · May 22, 2010

So my GN had extinguisher powder all over it. I wiped the stuff off all the plastic after removing the cover. I rinsed the cover in the bathtub. I know Graco says I can machine wash it, but I have a toploader and don't like the idea of it being agitated. Do you think that's sufficient?

Everyone is fine. A previous owner of the vehicle left a positive wire exposed or something under the seat in DH's Ranger. It caught the foam on fire but DH saw it before it spread far and put it out. ODS was in the truck with him at the time and is quite happy to tell you all about it.

ketchupqueen · May 22, 2010

Uh... Are you sure there is no smoke/heat damage to the seat? What does Graco say???

Glad no one was harmed (other than the truck, lol!)

crunchierthanthou · May 22, 2010

Oh my! glad no one was harmed.

I'd maybe consider replacing the harness if it was an extinguisher casualty. :twocents:

Judi · May 23, 2010

my ranger burned too. It is a ranger thing. When I got my nauti back from someone thatv borrowed it, I did wash my cover, a couple times. It came out perfect.

fyrfightermomma · May 23, 2010

What the heck? My DH's Ranger caught on fire too. Started as seeing tiny small whisps of smoke by the steering wheel, but it was so faint we thought we were seeing things. It went on for a few weeks. One time the whisp wasn't so small anymore and then there was fire. Ford had "never" heard of this problem before (started under the steering wheel). Atleast I know we didn't have a freak car!

Anyways, if he didn't spray the extinguisher directly ON the seat and it was just residue from the air, I'd probably just wash the plastic real good in the nooks and crannies with a wet washcloth and then just handwash the cover (or order a new one). I have had no problem putting my cover on our GN in our top load washer. I may or may not get a new harness based on how much was really on there

It is REALLY hard though to get out of the nooks and crannies. We had a house fire once about 2 years ago. I put it out with an extinguisher but the girls had all their Little People stuff by where I sprayed (doll house and castle). I cleaned and cleaned and to this day there is still dust in some areas we just can't get out. It's just there.

Glad everything turned out ok!

trippsmom · May 23, 2010

fyrfightermomma said:
What the heck? My DH's Ranger caught on fire too. Started as seeing tiny small whisps of smoke by the steering wheel, but it was so faint we thought we were seeing things. It went on for a few weeks. One time the whisp wasn't so small anymore and then there was fire. Ford had "never" heard of this problem before (started under the steering wheel). Atleast I know we didn't have a freak car!
Anyways, if he didn't spray the extinguisher directly ON the seat and it was just residue from the air, I'd probably just wash the plastic real good in the nooks and crannies with a wet washcloth and then just handwash the cover (or order a new one). I have had no problem putting my cover on our GN in our top load washer. I may or may not get a new harness based on how much was really on there

It is REALLY hard though to get out of the nooks and crannies. We had a house fire once about 2 years ago. I put it out with an extinguisher but the girls had all their Little People stuff by where I sprayed (doll house and castle). I cleaned and cleaned and to this day there is still dust in some areas we just can't get out. It's just there.

Glad everything turned out ok!

I have personally witnessed this happen in two 67 my Mustangs and one 88 my Mustang! This.very.thing!

rodentranger · May 23, 2010

ketchupqueen said:
Uh... Are you sure there is no smoke/heat damage to the seat? What does Graco say???

Glad no one was harmed (other than the truck, lol!)

I didn't call Graco because they weren't open when I finally found out about it. Only the foam on the underside of the seat was on fire, so there shouldn't be damage to the Nauti. Not much smoke either. I guess when DH was buckling his own belt, she saw orange shininess through the hole in the seat and said, "That shouldn't be there!" He then evaluated whether it would be better to get DS out the truck then put the fire out or just put the fire out.

crunchierthanthou said:
Oh my! glad no one was harmed.

I'd maybe consider replacing the harness if it was an extinguisher casualty. :twocents:

The harness was actually the cleanest part of the seat! The adjuster strap was dusty on the bottom, but that's it.

Judi said:
my ranger burned too. It is a ranger thing. When I got my nauti back from someone thatv borrowed it, I did wash my cover, a couple times. It came out perfect.

Good to know, thanks!

fyrfightermomma said:
What the heck? My DH's Ranger caught on fire too. Started as seeing tiny small whisps of smoke by the steering wheel, but it was so faint we thought we were seeing things. It went on for a few weeks. One time the whisp wasn't so small anymore and then there was fire. Ford had "never" heard of this problem before (started under the steering wheel). Atleast I know we didn't have a freak car!

Anyways, if he didn't spray the extinguisher directly ON the seat and it was just residue from the air, I'd probably just wash the plastic real good in the nooks and crannies with a wet washcloth and then just handwash the cover (or order a new one). I have had no problem putting my cover on our GN in our top load washer. I may or may not get a new harness based on how much was really on there

It is REALLY hard though to get out of the nooks and crannies. We had a house fire once about 2 years ago. I put it out with an extinguisher but the girls had all their Little People stuff by where I sprayed (doll house and castle). I cleaned and cleaned and to this day there is still dust in some areas we just can't get out. It's just there.

Glad everything turned out ok!

I wiped down all the plastic with a wet paper towel. I'm thinking about blasting it with some canned air to get it out of the spots my fingers couldn't reach. I'm okay with the harness as it didn't really have anything on it. It was all just the stuff that floated through the air. I will call Graco on Monday though just to check with them.

obamamama · May 23, 2010

Ford doesn't know about this?

It's a Ranger thing?

I won't be buying any Fords anytime soon. Glad my Dad sold his Ranger years ago.

rodentranger · May 23, 2010

Or fire was a wire that DH thinks was added after manufacture. He doesn't think it was a "Ford problem".:twocents:

Jeanum · May 23, 2010

Does it have cruise control? There's a cruise control switch recall affecting a huge number of Ford models and certain model years of the Ranger pickup are included in the recall according to this: http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/13/news/companies/Ford_recall/index.htm The faulty switch had caused fires in vehicles even when some were turned off and parked in garages, etc. and caused the garages/houses to burn as well in some cases.

fyrfightermomma · May 23, 2010

Jeanum said:
Does it have cruise control? There's a cruise control switch recall affecting a huge number of Ford models and certain model years of the Ranger pickup are included in the recall according to this: http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/13/news/companies/Ford_recall/index.htm The faulty switch had caused fires in vehicles even when some were turned off and parked in garages, etc. and caused the garages/houses to burn as well in some cases.

Nice....ours was long gone by then (fire was in 05 I wanna say). The fire was small so it was traded in for a Taurus (the dealer actually took it). Too bad we couldn't recoup the money we spent to try to fix it. Thankfully the Taurus never started on fire

But it did blow a transmission at 54000 miles *sigh* and hence why we own a piece of poop minivan now.

rodentranger · May 23, 2010

Jeanum said:
Does it have cruise control? There's a cruise control switch recall affecting a huge number of Ford models and certain model years of the Ranger pickup are included in the recall according to this: http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/13/news/companies/Ford_recall/index.htm The faulty switch had caused fires in vehicles even when some were turned off and parked in garages, etc. and caused the garages/houses to burn as well in some cases.

Nope, it's a 1990 Ranger.

Judi · May 23, 2010

Mine is, I think, an '87.

fyrfightermomma · May 24, 2010

I think ours was a 2000

rodentranger · May 24, 2010

The CS rep at Graco said, "Well, it's up to you ma'am whether or not the seat is clean enough. If you don't think it is, you can buy a new cover and harness."
Thanks, that's helpful.

Small car fire today..poor GN

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