Consumer Complaint Detail

VOLVO / 850 / 1996

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
Yes Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 003227861 Incident Date: Jun, 03 2003
Consumer's City: BEL AIR Consumer's State: MD
Vehicle Transmission Type: Manufacturers Name: Volvo Car USA, LLC
Model Name: 850 Model Year: 1996
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Electrical system:wiring:front underhood
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: Yes Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: YV1LS572XT1 Date added to File: May, 25 2021
Date Complaint Received: Aug, 02 2003 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: Nov, 16 1999
Was Original Owner: No Anti-lock Brakes: Yes
Number of Cylinders: 5 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: The entire alternator wiring harness was melted and destroyed before the fuseable link opened the circuit. this clearly is not an acceptable electrical design. in fact, it is my contention that if my wife had not turned the car off when she did, due to the white smoke from the fan, the wiring harness would have caught on fire. most likely the resulting fire would have destroyed the car as the melted wiring harness is directly under and around the engines fuel injection system. personally inspected the electrical damage, and was appalled by how much of the wiring was fused together. if the safety design (fuseable link) of the fan circuit had worked properly the alternator wiring harness would never have been damaged to the extent i saw and more importantly my wife would never have been in personal danger.i have reported this issue to volvo america and they contend that a loose fan mount caused this issue. the repair shop was at a lose to explain this position to me as they could not understand how this was relevent to the extensive damage caused as the wiring harness melted down.*ak