Don't leave your sonics in the garage

[bluejay]

What do you want them to do?

It appears that your incident and the original poster's incident are extremely rare events.

I've put literally millions of miles on the GM vehicles (two Pontiac 6000's included) I've owned and never had a fire of any kind.

I probably hit my first million miles back in the early 80's after driving a Pontiac Bonneville, an Olds Jetstar 88, multiple Chevy Biscaynes, an Opel Rekord (I lived in Germany for over 3 years), a Pontiac Ventura (purchased new), a Chevy Camaro, a pair of Chevy Malibu's, a Chevy Caprice Classic (puchased new) and a Pontiac Gran LeMans (purchased new and had 211,000 miles on this one when I sold it).

My most recent million miles has been done on my current company car - a 2011 Chevy Impala (177,000 miles) and my previous company car - a 2006 Chevy HHR (165,000 miles), my current 2006 Pontiac Torrent (127,000 miles) and 2014 Sonic (18,000 miles), my previous 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix (160,000 miles), my previous 1999 GMC Pickup (217,000 miles) and my 1999 Chevy S10 pickup (160,000 miles).

This doesn't include any miles put on my toy cars - during the same time period - the '49 Caddy limo, '64 GTO convertible, '72 Camaro or the '81 C10.

lol it was a joke ! i paid $50 for the car there is nothing wrong with gm vehicles i was just trying to get a rise out of who ever i could , you win!!!!:banana:

 

[5.0]

My Corvette almost burned to the ground this year from a rodent building a nest on the engine cradle. And it took me two attempts to find it. It was hidden that good and out of arms reach. It's entirely possible the techs missed or overlooked a nest, which would be the most likely scenario.

 

[bluejay]

do u have any pics ? some of us may not know what a small rodent nest looks like . its a good thing to keep an eye out for.

 

[5.0]

do u have any pics ? some of us may not know what a small rodent nest looks like . its a good thing to keep an eye out for.

I don't as 1. I already removed the nest and 2. I couldn't get a camera in there anyway.

For anyone one that might encounter this problem:
The nest I found was placed in a pocket on the engine cradle and the rodent basically made himself a nice little bed made of maple leaves(helicopters), small twigs, and a few cigarette butts. I was able to feel it with my fingers but not actually fit my whole hand up to remove it. So I ended up having to spray it out with a hose.

Odds are if you ever have this problem is you'll smell it first. I could smell something burning when I would park the car. So I popped the hood and noticed smoke billowing out from the the passenger side of the engine bay, and slowly traced it from there.

Exercising a little common sense goes a long way. Engines don't just "catch fire" or start smoking unless there is gas, oil, or another type of fuel present. In my case, leaves and cigarette butts. The odds of having an electrical harness or something similar catching fire would be extremely rare and would be the last place I look.

 

[Natesriv]

I managed to start a fire, while putting in my dual Sickspeed horns, the relay came in contact with bare metal, arced and started the wire coating on fire. Luckily I had a fire extinguisher on hand..whew.

It happening twice to him sure makes me think there's a bare wire or some contact going on unseen by the techs...

 

[tyreno91]

Spoke to Christine today and she called to be sure i got the remaining amount of the money back from ally and made sure that the loan was paid off and was checking up on me. i asked her what was the cause of the fire and she looked at the paperwork from the dealer and told me that they think fire was from the front of the engine by the transmission. 1st time they changed out the catalytic converter and other parts damaged by the smoke and fire. the 2nd time they took out the entire engine and transmission and took it apart and looked at almost everything and replaced the catalytic converter a manafold.. (whatever that is) and drive belt motor and a few things the smoke and fire damaged. she said that they can't call out what the problem is but it will be picked up and inspected and worked on to find the problem. i drove by today and my car is still in the back of the dealership behind a gate with a big orange sticker on it that says not for sale. i think GM did a great job with helping me with the car and when they couldn't fix it they bought the car back. then she told me that she was so sorry for what all happen then told me if i ever wanted to buy another GM product they will give me a discount she said 17k and below i think ill get $2000 off and from 17k - 25k i'll get $3000 off and anything over 25k ill get $5000 off and that's on top of any promotions they have so me and the lover is going shopping for a new Malibu next month so that way we have 2 new cars. very happy how it turned out.

 

[spacedout]

An oil leak or spilled oil would be the only ting that could possibly catch fire in that area. There is a reason the Gen2 1.4T has the oil fill on the opposite side of the engine as the hot exhaust/turbo. It also no longer has the oil filter housing on top, its a normal filter on the bottom of the engine.

 

[kevjam79]

Who changes your oil?


14 Sonic LT 1.8A MBM

 

[tyreno91]

Who changes your oil?


14 Sonic LT 1.8A MBM

dealership.. had the free 2 year oil change so they been doing mine the past 2 years.

 

[mja]

An oil leak or spilled oil would be the only ting that could possibly catch fire in that area. There is a reason the Gen2 1.4T has the oil fill on the opposite side of the engine as the hot exhaust/turbo. It also no longer has the oil filter housing on top, its a normal filter on the bottom of the engine.

This is how mine caught fire once, after the turbo blew the first time, I popped my hood, and there must've been oil sitting on that plastic underbody tray that GM did away with in '12 on these cars, some was dripping near the oil fill also.

When I popped the hood the oxygen must've rushed into the turbo area where there was dripping oil, and a little fire caught on bout the size of a hand. I grabbed a gallon of water and dumped it on the motor, fire out. Let it cool down, cleaned all the oil off thoroughly, car was towed to dealer and they replaced turbo/hoses, never had an issue with that much oil leaking since. Been about a year since that happened.

Also, OP, I don't garage my cars but I've found rat/mouse droppings around the garage, so I'm sure they'd nest in if I parked my car in there often.

 

[kevjam79]

I think the oil change is the culprit. The housing on the filter cartridge must be cleaned and a new o-ring used every fill. If you don't, heat will allow oil to run down the block and migrate all over the place, especially if you are using a synthetic with lubricity modifiers. A build-up over time will definitely create a fire hazard.


14 Sonic LT 1.8A MBM

 

[Chevrolet Customer Care]

Spoke to Christine today and she called to be sure i got the remaining amount of the money back from ally and made sure that the loan was paid off and was checking up on me. i asked her what was the cause of the fire and she looked at the paperwork from the dealer and told me that they think fire was from the front of the engine by the transmission. 1st time they changed out the catalytic converter and other parts damaged by the smoke and fire. the 2nd time they took out the entire engine and transmission and took it apart and looked at almost everything and replaced the catalytic converter a manafold.. (whatever that is) and drive belt motor and a few things the smoke and fire damaged. she said that they can't call out what the problem is but it will be picked up and inspected and worked on to find the problem. i drove by today and my car is still in the back of the dealership behind a gate with a big orange sticker on it that says not for sale. i think GM did a great job with helping me with the car and when they couldn't fix it they bought the car back. then she told me that she was so sorry for what all happen then told me if i ever wanted to buy another GM product they will give me a discount she said 17k and below i think ill get $2000 off and from 17k - 25k i'll get $3000 off and anything over 25k ill get $5000 off and that's on top of any promotions they have so me and the lover is going shopping for a new Malibu next month so that way we have 2 new cars. very happy how it turned out.

Hi Tyreno91,

I am sorry to hear about your Sonic. We are thrilled to hear that the dealership and Christine were able to help you with this concern. Please know you can always contact us in the future if you need any assistance.

Best,

Cristina Y
Chevrolet Customer Care