Out of sheer curiosity, as here in taiwan, or at least on the news, in summer, practically every day you see a piece about this or that car catching fire and the driver making it with his life by the hairs of a bald frog. And not clunkers, I’m telling you, but brand new stuff, as it was a couple of days ago. What is going on? The gas? The heat? The stalling? The driving?
Do you know if those cars run on Compressed natural gas (CNG)??? That is highly inflammable!
Nope, that technology has not caught on here in taiwan. It is rapidly becoming popular in my birth country, but there has only been one fatal accident.
fuel leak in the engine bay? Could be from a split hose or hose that’s come loose from the fuel injection system, whilst being supplied with high pressure fuel from the fuel pump.
Happens in only a very small fraction of incidents, but there are many incidents across the country each day, and those are the dramatic ones that make the news. “Car breaks suspension arm in Miaoli county” is less dramatic.
even a torn fuel tank does not necessarily catch fire unless there’s a spark or flame. Simple contact with a hot exhaust can or pipe is not guaranteed to ignite petrol, it just vaporises away… however, the vapor can build up and become explosive if it’s under a hood, for example.
I have leaked petrol from a dripping fuel tap onto a motorcycle exhaust with no bad consequences. I have also had a backfire while kick-starting an old Suzuki that has caused my oil-soaked air filter to catch fire, needing hasty removal of said air filter and ending up with burnt fingers but still a working bike (crank turned backwards after the kick and let flames back from the intake valve through the carb?). And a couple of weeks ago a colleague spun his car arse-first into a pole and split the petrol tank, again no bad result even though he saw 20 litres of fuel running under the car when he got out.
Sometimes bad things happen, sometimes they don’t.
Gas is very popular amongst certain drivers here in Taiwan, especially some of the high kilometer’s (milers). Due to rising popularity with rising petrol prices, CPC has just installed a brand new LPG station next to my garage on Chende Rd. in fact.
Most people who have these systems installed however don’t acurately weigh the consequences of running gas cars, and according to my opinion at least and the opinion of my co-workers, it is not often economically viable.
I have been in a few taxis that run natural gas (the bigass fuel tanks in the trunkboot mean the stroller has to go next to the driver). If they’re uneconomical, I’ll take your word for it. Of course, the difference between ‘cheap’ and ‘economical’ may be hard for some locals to figure out. My wife, for instance 
According to the Mythbusters, it’s not easy to cause a car to catch fire.
Unless its being driven by the BAD GUYS. Then its going to go over a cliff (even if the car chase is set in Holland) and EXPLODE.
I used to get student - smartarse points by predicting which car-chase-car in, for example The Avengers, was going over the cliff. Little things…
(Hint: Look for the smoky exhaust)
youtube.com/watch?gl=US&v=TLe3yDgi0dk
Seldom fails
youtube.com/watch?v=MeuThdrBHcs
[OK, forget the direct Youtube links. None of these sodding browser things seem to work worth a damn any more]
[quote=“housecat”]According to the Mythbusters, it’s not easy to cause a car to catch fire.
dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbus … -and-burn/[/quote]
Eggs-actly… which brings us back to our question: why is it so popular here? Too many cars?
CNG is almost certainly safer than petrol, since if it leaks it’ll tend to disperse quicker.
Dangerous on boats though, because its heavier than air and collects in the bilges. Deck (and occupants?) goes UP, boat (and occupants?) goes DOWN.
[quote=“Icon”][quote=“housecat”]According to the Mythbusters, it’s not easy to cause a car to catch fire.
dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbus … -and-burn/[/quote]
Eggs-actly… which brings us back to our question: why is it so popular here? Too many cars?[/quote]
Dunno, according to this documentary footage, it happens almost spontaneously in India. Perhaps its something to do with higher ambient temperatures?
I doubt it is due to the temperature here. Typical automotive testing (for high temps) happen in the 100C range for fuel lines and other “under hood” parts. There is even higher temp testing but it is a heat soak with the vehicle not running.
Possibly poor service or fuel type and additives (this has huge effect on seals, rubber hoses ect). Back when worked for a car company whose cars burned gasoline I remember engine test being delayed as we waited for fuel from Brazil, China, Eastern Europe… There was a small spike in car fires in Cali when they added or removed some additive about 10-15 years ago. It was a bit tough on old cars.
Z
they start on fire from people smoking in the car…the wind makes the end of the smoke quite hot, blows on to the seat, chemical cleaner…
I heard cars often catch fire in Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, usually in public parks or council housing estates.
I guess the news doesnt get translated to english.
My wife just told me this one:
A taxi driver owned a camry, it was within its warranty period so its safe to say the car is younger than 2 years old.
He and many other taxi drivers place their cigarette lighters on the front of the dash by the front corner of the drivers windshield…
Heat through giant window into small cabin + plastic cigarette lighter = 
The kicker is he took it back to toyota and claimed their car blew up, took the mechanics a few minutes to figure out what really happened :roflmao: