https://boston.cbslocal.com/2018/10/25/jiffy-lube-car-fire-peabody-massachusetts-kia-sorento-michelle-noriega-wbz-tv-i-team/

This isn't the off topic section.

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Milan Brown 1979 240D, rebuilt OM617.952 turbo diesel, rebuilt 722.315 transmission (my only daily driver)

Instagram: @maximed93

While it does not look good for the oil change place, there are gaps in the story and with many sensational news stories, not enough information.

The automatic transmission and power steering have oil too, there was no mention of the exact type of oil.

While SD Lyons has investigation experience since 1990, there are gaps here. I wonder if the inspector drained oil from the engine and measured what came out. If there was sufficient oil in the pan, a faulty oil change was not likely to be the culprit.

A leaking drain plug has about zero chance in causing a fire. For the most part, the oil drain plug leads directly to the ground not an ignition source. A small drip won't catch fire and a major dump of oil will lead to the engine locking up. Also, it should be very easy to determine if the plug was tight, even without a gasket the plug would seal well enough not to dump all of the oil.

Leaking oil filter? Possibly but only if there was a fine spray of oil against something very hot ( Exhaust / cat converter )

Given the car is in the salt belt, a rusted through power steering or transmission cooler line could generate a fine spray that could catch fire.

Don't leave the out the possibility of insurance fraud given the car owner is financially upside down in the car.

The kia oil drain is close to the exhaust, but I don't think that oil would be likely to come in contact with the front pipe even if the plug was omitted. The filter is a top-loading cartridge, which is in a crowded spot. Four o-rings have to be replaced as well as the filter. If the top wasn't screwed down tightly, or if an o-ring was omitted or damaged, oil would mist over the top of the engine. A sloppy installer might leak a fair amount of oil as it was lifted out. It's not hard to imagine it finding it's way to a hot manifold or pipe.

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"I could see a little bit of smoke, but it wasn't a lot of smoke, so I wasn't concerned."

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When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

The writing is on the wall.

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1998 Ford Escort ZX2 5 speed - 279,000 miles My Daily

1992 Mercedes 300D 2.5 202,000 - Pure junk
2000 Mercedes E320 Black - 136,000 miles - Needs repair

Don't forget to grease the screw and threads on the spring compressor.

Also, ever notice all of the million mile cars are serviced by their owners?

Well, it's because at chain stores and lube shops their funnels and handheld oil containers have cruddies floating around.

That dirt will end up in your cylinder walls, bearings and the rest is history. The oil is contaminated.

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1998 Ford Escort ZX2 5 speed - 279,000 miles My Daily

1992 Mercedes 300D 2.5 202,000 - Pure junk
2000 Mercedes E320 Black - 136,000 miles - Needs repair

Don't forget to grease the screw and threads on the spring compressor.

This is why I call the investigators competency into question. Clearly a leaking engine oil drain plug was not the cause of the fire.


I'd accept that the filter may have leaked. Draining the pan would tell the tale as the level should have been near empty ( compensating for any oil that burned off in the fire though I'd expect not much loss unless the owner left the car running. )

We can't rule out the customer committing insurance fraud by loosening the oil filter or , at minimum, contributory negligence. " After leaving the shop, my brakes barely worked. I wasn't concerned because the car sort of stopped and I was late for the Disco."

TL;DR, ok?

That would be the first time I ever saw engine oil burning a car.

Back in the early 1970s I had a 67 Chevy II which had a really powerful 327ci engine. 12.5/1 pistons, steel crank, pink rods, Phase III Z28 cam, aluminum intake with an 800 Holly double pumper carb, 300 double hump chevy heads with zero rocker arms, orange GM springs and a 3 angle valve job. Behind it was a 40lb flywheel, purple, Zoom pressure plate, clutch and a lakewood blowproof bell housing. Behind that was a super T10 Borg Warner trans w/ a 264 low gear.

Behind that was a BW power brute u joint, stock drive shaft with a safety loop then another power brute u joint. The rear diff was a 12 chevy with a 5.13/1 gear and pinion. AP headers made by JC Penny because no one else made headers for the car other than fenderwells for which I would not cut into the unibody frame.

The owner of a Vette smarted off to me on Friday night in front of a group of fine women and I told him I'd blow all four doors off that snail he drove. He couldn't back down so we line em up on a ~2 mi straight hwy between Harriman, TN and Oliver Springs.

My BNL who was going to flag and sent his wife to mark off a quarter mile. Off we went, I didn't even remove my headers. I did a 4k hole shot because he wouldn't let me put my 9" wrinklewalls on my car. When I hit second gear I hooked up and left that stock vette like it was sitting still. No, more like reverse. Some long tim after I hit 4th gear turning about 7200 rpm I realized I was chasing a pair of tail lights which were moving.

Three things had happened. My sister in law had turn around to go back and find out how to measure a quarter mile on an odometer, after we had adjusted the poly locks on the tip of the rocker arms my BNL who was tasked with the valve cover replacement on the left bank had put the new gasket on so that the rear didn't seal and the engine oil was pouring out onto the header on that side. I lost a qt of oil and most of it went to smoke on the left header sticking out of a small block chevy engine which had just run a mile wide open at 7200 rpm over 3/4th of that mile.

So no. there's no way the oil would have ignited from exhaust. Maybe a hot cat converter but not normal engine exhaust.

If anyone has seen [with their own eyes} oil start a fire by leaking out of an engine and pouring on exhaust please inform us so I can withdraw my, 'It ain't happened,' opinion.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

Unfortunately, this is true on some cars after an oil change. On my Subaru, for example, the oil filter is idiotically located in between the legs of the exhaust header. It's impossible to change the filter without getting some oil on the tubes and heat shields. So far, it's only been smoke and no fire.

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Did you hear Southwest is going to start flying to Hawaii ?

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

Years back I had a Mercury XR7 automobile. The oil pan used cork gaskets. It was real easy to over-tighten the oil pan bolts which would destroy the cork gaskets. Just north of Dallas, the car caught fire. Fortunately, the gas station I pulled into had a fire extinguisher.

After I put the fire out, they put the car up on the lift. You could see large amounts of motor oil had leaked the entire distance of the car, much of it on the exhaust and muffler......

The auto ignition temperature of motor oil is about 700f. The manifold temp of a gas car will be anywhere from 500F-1200F, depending on load and tune. Oil can certainly start an engine fire. Even 50/50 antifreeze can cause a fire under the right conditions.

Thats the wrong tool, I use the claw tool which I have had since the early 2000s, (I only recently started seeing it in USA). - the claw takes a 1/2 inch ratchet and grips the oil filter hard. once its undone, I just reach in with long gloves and a rag to spin it off.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

news nowadays is pretty sensationalist anyway - the common man has no idea that the car takes any other "oil" other than the 19.99 "oil" change.

and also that the car is a magic box on wheels which empties their wallet when it visits a shop.

Lots of stories of jiffy lube across the press and almost half of them are quite amusing - Amusing in the sense that the car may have had that problem before showing up for oil change service.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)