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Friend's neighbor's house burned down :(

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It's not completely out of the ordinary. Check out for early Gen1 fusions and ones with heated seats no longer working. They almost tell the same story they turned on heated seats, seats got ridiculously hot, tried to turn them off but wouldn't, they turned off the car. After that they wouldn't work again and a few people have swapped the lining to get them back up and running have found huge burn marks at one or two points on the backside of the lining.

All you need is a car that allows power to these functions (like windows and seat position as well) while off and you have a plausible if unlikely scenario (and once it goes from can't happen to shouldn't happen then it has happened).
 
Gillbot said:
If your jeep has a radio, it stays powered up to keep memory on the stations and time programmed in. There are ALWAYS certain circuits that are live when the key is off regardless of the vehicle.
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Not if it doesn't have a hot wire run to it. Might have a small internal battery like a motherboard does for the presets, but there's not an "always on" wire run to it.

That's why I said I wouldn't park a newer car in my garage. The old ones are dead when they are cut off....completely.
 
Pacfanweb said:
...
That's why I said I wouldn't park a newer car in my garage. The old ones are dead when they are cut off....completely.
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Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of old cars. But, to never park a newer car in the garage in case it could catch on fire seems a bit extreme to me. There are literally millions of new cars that get parked and don't catch fire. I understand 'playing it safe', but I only practice that up to a certain point (the point where I feel that something could happen not necessarily just unlikely it would happen).
 
Pacfanweb said:
Not if it doesn't have a hot wire run to it. Might have a small internal battery like a motherboard does for the presets, but there's not an "always on" wire run to it.

That's why I said I wouldn't park a newer car in my garage. The old ones are dead when they are cut off....completely.
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My 1994 cavalier had an "accessory" power and MOST cars do to keep power to the clock and other items. There's also memory in the PCM and other controllers. If you think your older vehicle is completely dead when you turn the key off, I urge you to go disconnect the ground lead and put an ammeter in there. I'd bet there are still a few things drawing power, even though they may be minimal.
 
Some cars have nonvolatile memory for the radio settings. Dunno if it would be 'true' NV (like a flash drive) or just an internal battery.

It's exceedingly more likely that a unit will not, though. If you've ever wired an aftermarket radio, you know there is both a 'constant 12v' and an 'ignition-switched 12v' wire. Mix them up and the radio will stay on all the time or lose its setting every time the car is turned off.
 
deadken said:
Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of old cars. But, to never park a newer car in the garage in case it could catch on fire seems a bit extreme to me. There are literally millions of new cars that get parked and don't catch fire. I understand 'playing it safe', but I only practice that up to a certain point (the point where I feel that something could happen not necessarily just unlikely it would happen).
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Exactly. This is the first time I've ever even heard of this happening. Apparently this has happened to other Audis before, it's just very very rare. Murphy's Law, I guess.
 
Gillbot said:
My 1994 cavalier had an "accessory" power and MOST cars do to keep power to the clock and other items. There's also memory in the PCM and other controllers. If you think your older vehicle is completely dead when you turn the key off, I urge you to go disconnect the ground lead and put an ammeter in there. I'd bet there are still a few things drawing power, even though they may be minimal.
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Dude, I wired in in myself. I KNOW there's not a hot wire running to it. It's a Jeep CJ. There is no PCM. There is no clock. There was nothing in it from the factory that was powered up with the key off.

Trust me. It's not "on" at all.
 
Pacfanweb said:
Dude, I wired in in myself. I KNOW there's not a hot wire running to it. It's a Jeep CJ. There is no PCM. There is no clock. There was nothing in it from the factory that was powered up with the key off.

Trust me. It's not "on" at all.
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Um. If we're talking about an aftermarket HU: you wired it wrong.

As I already noted not-very-far-at-all above your post, every aftermarket HU I've ever seen has two power supply wires, and will NOT hold settings without constant power. It doesn't mean the unit is 'on.' The switched power wire is what trigger it to power up.

I'm honestly not sure why anyone would argue about this at all. It's inconsequential...but if you wanna be fussy about it...yeah, there's a wire going to your radio that's on. Unless maybe you're talking about a radio old enough to be all-analog.
 
So, we can add another reason to the list of why not to get heated seats:

1)Adds cost
2)Kinda weak-ass
3)Makes you sterile
4)Burns your house down
 
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phucheneh said:
Um. If we're talking about an aftermarket HU: you wired it wrong.

As I already noted not-very-far-at-all above your post, every aftermarket HU I've ever seen has two power supply wires, and will NOT hold settings without constant power. It doesn't mean the unit is 'on.' The switched power wire is what trigger it to power up.

I'm honestly not sure why anyone would argue about this at all. It's inconsequential...but if you wanna be fussy about it...yeah, there's a wire going to your radio that's on. Unless maybe you're talking about a radio old enough to be all-analog.
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Not to mention, I've never seen a vehicle that didn't have something that drew power. But since he wired the whole jeep himself, he must know.

Hell, I've seen OLD carbureted cars that had power to an electric choke and they had power to them when the key was off!
 
We had a burnt garage in neighborhood due to car fire.. the thing is, it did not burn the house at all. Because city has code for new homes that garages must be fire insulated from rest of house for the obvious reason. So owners fixed only the garage and siding.
 
Seat heaters are controlled by a switch, relay and ignition switch. If the seat heaters were off, it would require at least 2 defects (very rare) for this to be the problem.

Also, the seat material obviously is very flame retardant. Not to mention, the seat heaters after an hour or two would serious draw down the battery which would start minimizing the output from the seat heaters.

More common are devices hooked into the cigarette lighter plugs that are always hot. Often some device that has been set on the passenger seat can start a fire and then it might appear to be a seat heater. Also power door actuators are hot all the time. Should an actuator fail, it can overheat and burn up in the door, causing the door panel to catch on fire and then it spreads from there. Many Mercedes and Impalas have this problem.

Again, it is almost impossible for the seat heater, by itself to start a fire in the seats. I have seen a few cases where McDonalds trash bags stuffed under a heated seat caused a fire. Greasy fast food bags are a great accelerant.
 
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Raizinman said:
Seat heaters are controlled by a switch, relay and ignition switch. If the seat heaters were off, it would require at least 2 defects (very rare) for this to be the problem.
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Apparently the Audi (I believe it was an A5) had automatic seat heaters. Never heard of automatic ones, mine have always required a button, but I guess these were triggered by temperature.
 
Did the Audi have keyless entry? Often times, owners leave their keyfob inside the car when at home. Maybe the car computer saw that there was a key within the proximity of the car and did not turn off the seats.
 
Kaido said:
Apparently the Audi (I believe it was an A5) had automatic seat heaters. Never heard of automatic ones, mine have always required a button, but I guess these were triggered by temperature.
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Depends on what you mean by automatic but if I remote start my GMC in cold weather the seat heaters come on to preheat things. I rather like it.
 
I tend to find all seat heaters obnoxious. Dunno why they can't tone them down a little...seems like it would be both safer* and less...intrusive. When I was working for luxo car dealers, I loathed the damned things. People would leave them on after bringing their car in during not-really-very-cold-at-all weather. I hop in and take it for a test drive...and it just...creeps up on you. 'Man, these seats need some ventilation, I'm feeling a little warm...wait, getting warmer and GGAAAH IT FEELS LIKE MY ASS IS IN BOILING WATER.' By the time you notice it's on, it's just gone into 'jet fighter afterburner' mode.

*not that I expect them to catch fire, but I've seen a fair share of scorch marks. Usually accompanied by an angry customer claiming that their pants damn near caught fire.
 
phucheneh said:
Um. If we're talking about an aftermarket HU: you wired it wrong.

As I already noted not-very-far-at-all above your post, every aftermarket HU I've ever seen has two power supply wires, and will NOT hold settings without constant power. It doesn't mean the unit is 'on.' The switched power wire is what trigger it to power up.

I'm honestly not sure why anyone would argue about this at all. It's inconsequential...but if you wanna be fussy about it...yeah, there's a wire going to your radio that's on. Unless maybe you're talking about a radio old enough to be all-analog.
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No, I did not wire it wrong.

The radio was removable. Had a handle on it and you pulled it out and took it inside with you. It wasn't even in the Jeep, so it damn sure wasn't on. Wasn't analog, either. Yes, it was (and still is, I suppose) old. Early 90's.

The one that's going in it now will likely have an extra power wire, as it's newer. But as it was, it did not. The radio was in the house with me. Even if there was a constant power wire, it wasn't powering anything without the radio there.

And I'm not the one arguing about it, I'm just telling you what I had. Someone decided they knew more about MY wiring than I do, and started telling me I must have something that was always powered on.
 
Taking a big step back: Attached garage FTL. Separate garage FTW.

I can't help but think that the damage would have been greatly reduced if their (presumably) attached garage was not attached to the house. Or if a genuine firewall was built between the garage and house.
 
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