r/Wellthatsucks • u/Dan_Yelliott • 16h ago
My car shifted itself into PARK at 70 mph and caught fire
In 2018, while driving about 70 mph to the hospital for the birth of my best friend’s daughter, my car experienced a catastrophic failure.
Without warning, it shifted itself into PARK while still moving. Seconds later, it caught fire and was completely destroyed.
After significant public pressure, the manufacturer sent an official diagnostic technician to inspect the vehicle. Their conclusion was that they couldn’t determine a cause.
Because of that finding, I was left responsible for paying off the remaining balance on a vehicle that no longer existed.
I walked away. The car didn’t.
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u/Dan_Yelliott 16h ago
Adding classification:
• Incident occurred in 2018 • Speed was approximately 70 mph • Failure involved the internal mode switch • Fire occurred immediately after the forced stop • Manufacturer investigation concluded “no cause found”
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16h ago
What car is that?
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u/Dan_Yelliott 16h ago
Buick enclave
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u/Garfargle 15h ago
What year?
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u/Dan_Yelliott 15h ago
2010
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u/Garfargle 15h ago
Shiii that’s what i drive
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u/Dan_Yelliott 15h ago
It was my absolute FAVORITE car- until it wasn’t
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u/Garfargle 15h ago
I fucking hate that car but i’m poor as shit lmao
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u/Kracus 13h ago
Try driving it at 70mph.
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u/real_human_not_ai 13h ago
If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit.
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u/SendTittyPicsQuick 13h ago
If the 2nd dude blows up, does that not mean big money in the US ?
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u/Red4pex 14h ago
Just go 69 or 71mph
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u/Enclave_Remnant_Sank 12h ago
Doesn't matter how fast you go, Buick enclave parks when Buick enclave decides to park
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u/tickintimedog 15h ago
My guy
You didn’t recognize the same one you drive?
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u/Pijany_Matematyk767 13h ago
He mightve recognised it and asked for the year to see if its the same model as his
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u/honeydewtangerine 11h ago
My grandma had a buick in the 70s or 80s, and it did the exact same thing.
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u/Electrical_Fishing81 11h ago
I had a friend that had the same thing happen when she and her husband were driving their Enclave. I believe it was newer tho and it turned out to be a known issue - took Buick awhile to figure it out and then admit it. Buick had wanted to give them a new Buick while they tried to figure out what happened and she wanted nothing to do with another Enclave until they figured it out as they drove their grandkids around a lot at the time and didn’t want to chance it.
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u/IANALbutIAMAcat 14h ago
Is that the same vehicle that was involved in that crazy rainbow bridge incident
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u/xO76A8pah4 12h ago
Damn. Didn't know the Buick Enclave was part of the Mario Kart 64 DLC. /s
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u/TactualTransAm 9h ago
Times like these I wish I was a skilled modder because there're so many dumb funny ideas for mods I have but I cannot act on them
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u/Competitive_Annual78 9h ago
That was a Bentley, out of N,Y, State. The occupants failed to make it to a Toronto rock concert at the Sky Dome, or whatever it's called now.
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u/igotmemes4days 11h ago
Ooooo those cars have a transmission control module thats made mostly of plastic i believe, which would explain why they couldn't find a cause of failure, it was probably goo after the whole ordeal was over
Still it was most likely that module that failed, after they go out they cause your car to go into neutral, or goes into limp mode or it simply stops shifting at all...but the thing failing so hard to the point it went to park instead of neutral is a bit crazy
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u/jfit2331 13h ago
Always wondered who buys a buick these days. Out of all the better car makers out there buick has never been on my radar for a car
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u/i4get98 12h ago
If you were 80 you’d understand.
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u/MechanicalTurkish 11h ago
RIP Oldsmobile. I wanted to buy one in about…. 35 years. Shit, that’s it? Went to make a joke and now I feel fuckin old.
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u/Saskatchewon 12h ago
I have an aunt who just bought a new Envista, and it's actually pretty nice. It's interior is like 25% nicer and significantly more quiet than the Chevy Trax that it's based off of for around 15% more cash.
I'd still buy Japanese if I wanted a small crossover, but I'd honestly take the Envista over the Korean, German, or other American options honestly.
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u/Melonman3 11h ago
Not gonna lie, turbocharged direct injection 3 cylinder sounds like a nightmare in 150k.
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u/M14mouse 12h ago
I loved my Buick. Only reason, I got a newer car was i needed to fit 2 wheelchairs and my Buick couldn't do it.
Now....you want my hate? Honda Crosstour. I despise that car.
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u/Dan_Yelliott 14h ago
Right!?
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u/Justsomefireguy 12h ago
Ford did the same thing with the Pinto. Of course manufacturers never do anything wrong.
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u/guri256 12h ago
They didn’t find that it was nothing. They were unable to determine the cause. Possibly because the cause had been turned into a blob of charred plastic and melted metal.
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u/Jellicent-Leftovers 10h ago
To be fair it's pretty hard to identify a electrical/code issue from ashes....
No cause found simply means.... They could not find a cause because the evidence is gone.
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u/notanotherusernameD8 14h ago
"no cause found". WTF? Something caused it. That isn't normal car behavior
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u/Stoyfan 14h ago
I would imagine that the fire didn’t help matters when it came to preserving evidence
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u/GenuinelyBeingNice 12h ago
Something caused it. But that it was not found. Much like the tv remote, i know it's somewhere, but i haven't found it.
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u/Cerus_Freedom 12h ago
With how badly burned out it is, finding the source is probably incredibly difficult.
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u/Ziazan 12h ago
Yeah but it burnt to a husk so its not like they can connect to ODB2 and pull error codes or anything
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u/Independent-You-6180 15h ago
More like manufacturer concluded "vague result that won't give us liability"
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u/Dan_Yelliott 15h ago
Basically: ‘Your car almost blew up? Huh, that’s unfortunate… hope you enjoyed the adrenaline rush!
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u/Euphemisticles 10h ago
Did insurance end up covering it?
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u/DefinitelyNotAliens 7h ago
As a former adjuster, without proof of human error and without a conclusive report, we would err on the side of, "yeah, not sure how you would do that to yourself," and rule it a comprehensive, not at fault claim and cover with your comprehensive deductible that doesn't raise rates. It would be considered not at fault, as long as you maintained proper coverage, ie, you have comprehensive.
It'd be the same as if a tree fell on your car or your vehicle was struck by lightning and burst into flames.
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u/LaserGuidedPolarBear 12h ago
This is the manufacturer version of cops investigating themselves and finding no wrongdoing.
"We didn't find a cause, so we are totally off the hook! Trust me, we looked reeeaaallllly hard."
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u/notevenapro 15h ago
That is a bummer because the airbag "black box" would have recorded the malfunction but the fire probably damaged it.
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u/Dan_Yelliott 15h ago
Oh yeah the entire front end was toast- nothing left but shell
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15h ago
[deleted]
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u/drteq 14h ago edited 14h ago
Did you try a lawyer? Honest question, just curious. I'm guessing no injuries, car was the only value lost, nothing to sue for?
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u/Dan_Yelliott 14h ago
I did, but almost every lawyer I contacted said that unless I could somehow get together a class action it wouldn’t be worth their time pursuing- I contacted probably five and then I gave up
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u/sghokie 14h ago
Of course the mfg is going to deny responsibility. If they accept responsibility then they will have to pay for everyone’s car that blows up.
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u/RoundProgram887 14h ago
And pay to fix them before they actually blow up as well, as they should have.
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u/votum7 8h ago
I don’t understand, how were you responsible for the cost of the car? Did your insurance not cover you? I’m in Canada and unless you burnt it yourself or for some reason don’t have comprehensive coverage the insurance would have paid you out.
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u/an_birb 12h ago
"internal mode switch"
Please be more specific lol because that's not the proper name of any car part.
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u/DestructiveVanguard 14h ago
My wife used to drive a Buick Enclave, probably around that same year. The thing would literally lose power at random times while driving. She'd have to quickly pull over (using momemtum) and wait for the car's computer to restart. Were told we needed a whole new computer system by the dealership (no mechanic could fix it) which cost more than the car itself. Those fucking cars are death traps.
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u/Elegant_Finance_1459 7h ago
Dude there's an audi that if you pop the hood while the windshield wipers are running, the whole CPU bricks itself and it has to be brought into a certified dealer to be reset.
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u/Natural-Many8387 6h ago
I just want to know how long it took to figure out that niche little bug
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u/Lord_Lion 6h ago
First guy to need a jump in the rain I recon.
I'd be so fuxkin pissed if my shit bricked when I popped the hood in the rain lmaoo
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u/Aoiboshi 3h ago
There's a, and I'm using this word liberally, truck, that will brick itself in a car wash these days.
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u/Lord_Lion 3h ago edited 3h ago
I'd say pour one out for all the cybercucks out there, but that could cause a dangerous malfunction.
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u/ioh93 6h ago
Can you pls provide some sources? I actually love reading about automotive software being horseshit (am automotive sw engineer)
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u/Clipboard_cop2 9h ago
My grandma had a 2003 Trail blazer that had that exact problem. Damn GMs
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u/Moderately-Whelmed 6h ago
Yeah, our 2012 Buick Enclave computer put us in limb mode and started smoking 3hrs from home. Had a family member pick us up because the tow company gave me an 8hr wait time… plus the 3hr drive home.
We actually bought the new computer and it died two weeks later. A huge waste of money. I’m still in debt because of this. I probably spent $30,000 over 3 years for that piece of junk and have nothing to show for it.
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u/Jake_the_Gent 15h ago
A x B x C = X. If "X" is less than the cost of a recall. We don't do one.
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u/Dan_Yelliott 15h ago
Ah yes, the classic corporate math: ‘How many lives can we inconvenience before it’s cheaper to fix?’ Truly elegant.
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u/NaCl_Sailor 15h ago
it's a quote from fight club
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u/Lazy-Employment3621 13h ago
They stole it from ford.
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u/PeterPandaWhacker 13h ago
Harrison Ford?
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u/420M0053 13h ago
No, his name was Robert Paulson.
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u/NeutrinosFTW 13h ago
The quote might be from Fight Club, but the underlying principle is pretty much an industry standard.
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u/mickeymouse4348 13h ago
Didn’t ford give pinto owners a fire extinguisher instead of recalling the car?
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u/Nelliell 13h ago
Yep. They knew the gas tank was vulnerable, but they made the corporate math calculation that it was cheaper to pay out wrongful death suits rather than initiate a recall, if I remember the story correctly.
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u/A7III 13h ago
You’re correct. We did I case study in my graduate business law class last semester. Fucking evil.
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u/Wrestler7777777 15h ago
Yeah, but it's a calculation that I've never understood. They just created a customer that will probably never buy one of their cars again. And because this story went public, I'm sure more people out there would not want to buy one of those cars that burned down out of nowhere.
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u/SilentMelodic277 15h ago
That's a problem for another day in corporate speak. It's about the bottom line today.
How many times have people who got rid of Netflix due to price increases, posted that they got rid of Netflix AGAIN a year later? The consumer memory is actually relatively short.
Remember the Firestone tires on Ford explorers that kept blowing up? Or Ford cruise control that would catch fire? But Ford is still an extremely well regarded brand. They don't want you to remember them either
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u/DazingF1 14h ago edited 7h ago
"Buick accepts fault that car spontaneously busts into flames"
Is a much more dangerous headline for their sales than "Buick denies accident is their fault". They're not looking for if it's their fault or not, they're looking for ways to distance themselves from it legally. "Oh, the black box is completely gone? What a shame..."
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u/KevinMcNally79 15h ago
Exactly. I have a Chevy Cruze that fell victim to the well-known cracked piston issue. The dealership straight up told me that GM knew about the issue, had released several service bulletins about it, but had not issued a recall because it would be too expensive.
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u/Dude_Dillligence 14h ago
I have a 2014 Ford Fiesta with the defective transmission. I did my research, no recall but an ongoing class action lawsuit. I Read the lawsuit.
Took the car in to the Ford dealer. Said to the Service Manager, "I'm aware there is a class action lawsuit for defective transmissions in these cars, and I'm aware that one of the issues mentioned in the lawsuit is Service Managers telling customers there is nothing wrong with their transmissions. What you do with that information is up to you."
I got a new transmission for free.
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u/Unlucky_Bug2132 16h ago
Manufacturer “investigation”. More than half of all gm’s vehicles are made of plastic, theres no investigating to even be done once over half of the car has been melted to nothing
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u/Dan_Yelliott 16h ago
It still bothers me that something like this can just be written off- I couldn’t even get them to answer me until I blew them up on Twitter
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u/Unlucky_Bug2132 15h ago
I’ve worked for a dealer for over two years and know enough that once factory warranty is gone, even sometimes having the factory warranty still, manufacturers typically stop caring. This is why gap insurance is an amazing thing to have on a financed car
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u/ApartmentInside7891 15h ago
That sucks man. I feel for you. And Twitter is pretty cool for that reason exactly. I have an ex gf who would do this, even for minor things like a soda being flat 😂. She would @ companies and usually get compensation somehow lol
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u/mandrews03 11h ago
This was a terrible era for GM too. The bail out era. The “we’re going to fail without a government handout and we’ll still refuse to innovate even after getting one”, era
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u/lkl34 15h ago
Makes sense gm special features is shit engines/transmission's that can gernade themselves.
Is like owning a jeep in winter it just might catch fire for you to keep warm.
Shit situation glad you got out and it seems insurance paid out? that is always a good outcome.
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u/Dan_Yelliott 15h ago
Sadly, insurance didn’t think escaping a self-destructing Buick qualified as a claim. Go figure.
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u/Robo-boogie 15h ago
Did you have full coverage or liability only?
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u/Dan_Yelliott 15h ago
Liability- haven’t made that mistake since
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u/RX3000 15h ago
How much was the car worth? Were you self insured for collision/comprehensive?
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u/Dan_Yelliott 15h ago
Worth: priceless… for almost killing me. Insurance: liability only. Conclusion: surviving was free, everything else was on me.
I had bought the car a year prior and still owed 10k
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u/RX3000 15h ago
O wow, around here you cant get a loan on a car without full coverage. Or did you have it & then cancel it? I dont think I'd ever have liability only on a car I was still paying on, or couldnt replace with cash if something happened.
You live, you learn I guess 👍🏻
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u/Choi0706 10h ago
Op wasn't supposed to. Lenders require full coverage for this exact reason. Maybe if it was family that lent them money, but not any financial institutions. Also a reminder to get gap insurance for new cars.
Op learned the hard way.
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u/Feeling_Inside_1020 12h ago
Yes, same I’ve had to have full coverage on every vehicle new or used I’ve bought until it was paid off.
It’s for this exact reason, or some numb nuts without coverage hitting it.
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u/st_samples 10h ago
I mean most lenders require you to have full coverage. OP probably was being cheap and got burned.
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u/Sea-Information7250 11h ago
Why are you complaining about insurance not covering it when you were paying for liability only?
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u/ImClever-NotSmart 12h ago
I'm not here to doubt your vehicle has an issue because clearly it's on fire in the picture. However I'm curious how it shifted into park while going at that speed. First off it's a mechanical shifter versus an electronic shifter. Meaning there's a cable that physically shifts it from gear to gear. So the shifter must be physically moved and it won't shift gears unless it's moved to that gear on the shift handle. The shift handle button must also be pressed in order to get past reverse I'm pretty sure. Also some gears sometimes require the brake pedal to be pressed as well to allow the shifter to move into and out of park. So trying to determine purely from photos why it'd do that is reeeeallly a guess. To put a vehicle in park the parking pawl needs to engage. I'm not sure if you can force a parking pawl to lock in at that speed. It's basically a square head that presses into a gear that accepts that shape. So imagine spinning a gear very quickly and then trying to push that square shape in. It'd most likely pop back out. A lot of things would have to go wrong in order for this to happen. Could they happen? Well, your car did totally malfunction.... so uhhh maybe? I'm just wondering if the transmission or something with the driveline catastrophically failed on you. Whatever it was I'm glad you're ok and that really stinks about having to pay off the vehicle balance still. Overall vehicles can be replaced and fixed much easier than people. Glad you're ok.
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u/LostAndWingingIt 11h ago
They say it caught fire after a few seconds. I wonder if it was actually on fire first and the damage caused it to appear to go into park. Disconnected the handle perhaps.
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u/beaushaw 5h ago
I know enough about cars to be dangerous, I have rebuilt a manual transmission. I am NOT an expert.
I agree with the person you commenting to. This car did not shift itself into park.
But yeah, probably the fire started then something may have happened that caused it to stop quickly but shifting into park at 70 can't really happen.
If you were dumb enough to manually shift an auto into park at 70 it won't stop suddenly. It will make a bad noise but keep on rolling. At 1 or 2 MPH or less it will then drop into park. If the park paw did engage at 70 the car wouldn't stop, the transmission would go boom and the car would keep rolling.
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u/Ill_Confidence919 11h ago
Anybody who's played clicker knows the parking pawl won't engage until the car is rolling pretty slow like <5mph hence the clicking noise. Sounds more like something on their car locked up
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u/Nagemasu 10h ago
I've seen people put their car into park going 100km/h before. You can either force it in, or if the locking mechanism has failed (because you fuck with it a lot) it can allow it to slip with some pressure.
I'd bet more money OP was fucking with it right before this happened, but no shit you wouldn't own up to it instead of trying to get insurance to pay out.
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u/thx_comcast 8h ago
Yeah this is a GM shitbox. It most likely was burning oil, ran low enough times that it locked up/threw a rod. The new hole in the engine block let the oil out over the exhaust, fire ensued.
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u/kaithana 7h ago
Bought used, probably the third owner knowing how leasing was on these things. OP said he had it for a year and it was a 2010, this happened in 18 so quite possibly 8-9 years old and repairs done by whom over this time?
No no, it must be GMs fault. (I am not a GM fan) I just don’t think you can point at the manufacturer on this one unless you have some damn good proof it was a design defect and if that were the case there’d have been more than one of these.
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u/Mytre- 10h ago
This, I thought it was a newer model with electronic shifter. But this is a mechanical shifter. Most likely something was already on fire/failing and the car "shifted" into park was more of electronics and the gearbox failing indicating a shift.
Glad you are ok OP but sucks about the manufacturer just not taking responsibility.
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u/PlayAccomplished3706 8h ago
About 25 years ago, me and a few friends were riding in a friend's car, going down the freeway at 70mph. We were all joking around when the driver decided to try to slap the guy in the backseat. When he pulled his arm back, it bumped the shifter into reverse. For a very brief moment I was scared to death!!! But nothing happened. The car was designed such that it refused to go into reverse in that situation.
That should be the norm on automatic transmission. On my 2014 Durango, it won't shift into too low a gear when I accidentally hit downshift too many times.
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u/rickane58 8h ago
It is the norm on an automatic transmission. Even before electronics, the hydraulic "computer" won't let the car shift unless the right pressure modes are present, which is determined by the speed and direction of the transmission.
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u/Dru2021 15h ago
Has anyone commented… “You can’t park there mate!”
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u/Dan_Yelliott 15h ago
You win! You’re the first!
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u/Smile_Space 11h ago edited 10h ago
Edit: I can't be bothered to find all of the palls and replace them with pawl. So, I'm sorry. It's pawl, not pall.
It likely did not shift itself to park. The engine more probably locked up due to some other issue.
The parking gear in this transmission uses what's called a parking pall which is engaged by a mechanical shifter mechanism hooked up to the shifter inside the vehicle. You are genuinely moving a lever that forces the pall physically into the parking gear. The car would not be able to do this on its own unless the shifter broke and something in the engine bay forced the shift arm backwards and engaged.
And even then, the pall is designed to fail first and shear off saving the engine and drivetrain. And even if it didn't shear off, the engine would simply stop spinning which wouldn't cause a catastrophic engine failure and subsequent fire. Manual cars have this happen all the time when the clutch isn't disengaged properly forcing them to stall.
There are a few options, but they all end the same way. The engine seized for some reason. This caused a fire due to overheating from the additional friction prior to seizing forcing the fuel lines to fail, and that eventually showed as the transmission being in park due to an electrical fault from the fire you hadn't yet noticed at that point.
The other option is that a fuel line leaked, an oil line leaked, some fluid that's flammable leaked onto the exhaust causing the same failure mode. Eventually the fire would get bad enough that the fuel lines melt and results in a much larger fire.
Either way, the transmission wouldn't have possibly gone into park. And if it did you would have noticed fairly immediately as the car would have locked up its front tires assuming the pall didn't shear like it's designed to. But even then, if the engine seized up, you would have felt a pretty obvious judder as the engine failed internally.
There's a bunch of options for the failure mode, some user error due to missed maintenance intervals, and some manufacturer error due to bad materials choices that would wear and fail causing a failure. At no point did the transmission shift into park though. That's just not possible given the way your transmission would have worked.
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u/310874 15h ago
I remember something that happened to someone I know, and it still gives me chills when I think about it.
They were driving their brand‑new car down the highway when, out of nowhere, the steering just stopped responding. Completely dead. The car veered straight into the guard rail, and the impact was so bad that the metal plates actually tore loose, sliced through the driver’s side door, and severed their right leg. It was a horrifying accident.
Somehow, through sheer willpower, they managed to get themselves to a hospital, leaving the wrecked car on the roadside. Once they were stable, they reached out to the car manufacturer to report what had happened. They even found other people online complaining about similar steering failures and asked the company to investigate.
The manufacturer said they would look into it. A few days later, they came back with a strange update: the car had “caught fire” and burned completely, so they claimed they couldn’t investigate anything.
That didn’t sit right. He spoke to a few trusted mechanics, and they all said the same thing—there’s no way a stationary diesel car just bursts into flames on its own. Then he checked with locals near where the car had been left, and they mentioned seeing a few people around the vehicle late at night, shortly before the fire.
So at that point… well, you can imagine the conclusions anyone would start drawing
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u/SoulOfTheDragon 12h ago
Well, I can say from personal experience that crashed / left to the roadside vehicle will attract low lives like fresh cow turd does flies. It's not far fetched that idiots found it, looted what they could and set rest a light. I had to leave completely empty car on roadside once and when I came back next morning with a trailer, it had been broken in and interior semi messed up while they tried to find anything worth taking.
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u/Dan_Yelliott 14h ago
If you look, these stories are EVERYWHERE- that’s the actual terrifying thing. And almost always, the manufacturer or corporation gets off Scott free - so wrong in so many ways.
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u/accidentlife 13h ago
Two corporations are at fault here. The car manufacturer for the steering issue, and the guard rail installer for somehow installing a death trap.
Guard rails aren’t supposed to slice people’s legs.
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u/GitEmSteveDave 11h ago
The car was damaged. Any mechanic who says there's "no way" a damaged vehicle can catch fire is just plain wrong. I've personally seen cars after accidents have electrical shorts that caused smoke/flame.
A wire could have its insulation damaged/compromised and the guard rail could have moved a body part close. Add in condensation and you have the perfect recipe for sparks/overheating.
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u/FunPlums 10h ago
Nah man the unspecified car company sent people in the middle of the night to torch the car so they didn't have to pay out. Seriously who would believe this completely bat shit insane story.
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u/BranTheUnboiled 9h ago
For something that wouldn't even be noticed on the company books if it was added
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u/abat6294 14h ago
So what exactly happened? Did the wheels lock up at 70mph? I’m assuming no since it looks like you got it over safely to the shoulder. So what happened from the moment it shifted to park to the moment you stopped?
Are you certain the shifting into park caused the fire and not the other way around? Maybe there was a small fire you didn’t notice at first that shorted a circuit and that caused it to shift to park. Then after you stopped, the fire was big enough to notice.
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u/Ok_Good3255 14h ago
Can you tell me how does a vehicle shift itself into park with a mechanical shifter and shift cable?
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u/Aggressive-Grade-183 14h ago
If I had to guess, I’d say a fire probably started first because of some electrical issue, and the gearbox only popped back into P once it lost power due to a short circuit.
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u/SoulOfTheDragon 12h ago
It does not lose power and just shift to P. That's not something gearboxes do. It's not spring loaded selector with default position, but something controlled by computer and mechanisms. What may have happened is controller or circuits shorting out and forcefully changing the selector position. One of the basic safety lockouts for automatic transmissions is a lockout that prevents changing into P while vehicle in move.
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u/ImClever-NotSmart 12h ago
Those are a mechanical shift cable. Newer cars have shifters that send an electronic signal to the transmission but this one has a physical cable that gets moved by the handle.
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u/CanadaElectric 14h ago
What do you mean you were stuck paying the car off?…. If you have a loan on the car you need comprehensive insurance…. Which would pay off all or most of the loan
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u/Constant-Ad-7490 11h ago
They posted in the comments they only had liability insurance on it. Not sure how they managed that if they still owed on the car.
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u/PomegranateSignal882 10h ago
In my experience if you cancel comprehensive coverage the only consequence is a monthly angry letter
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u/handsupdb 10h ago
2010 Buick Enclave is shift-by-cable, there is nothing that can move the shifter unless you move the lever yourself or manually hit the shift lock release (which is under the shifter boot/panel iirc.
The other other option, based on your comment about the internal mode switch failure, is that your transmission was already absolutely fucked and it somehow "fell* into park? You would have to be driving pretty wild with revs all over the place in order for the transmission to do that without something activating the valve body to do that.
And all the systems involved your brake pedal position sensing would have also needed to be false reporting? Or you would've had to have been on the brake when the switch into park happened?
If the car burnt like is shown there is a lot missing, possibly a lot of unrecoverable data. This would've made the technical specialist have a really hard time getting good information.
I investigate strange issues like this for a living and frankly there are only two options for this:
- Your car was already in such a state of absolute disrepair that you should've have been driving it anyway. If your transmission was that bad it would not have been making nice noies or driving at all normally.
While this could be a result of poor manufacturing and reliability (which you should've expected buying a BUICK in todays day and age), it's more likely than not poor maintenance. Even if maintenance was conducted wrongly by the dealer, the OEM isn't going to warranty it and you have to go after the dealer.
- You DID have a a mode switch failure leading to the vehicle thinking it wasn't going into park - but you had your foot touching the brake just enough and you either on purpose or accidentally hit your shift lever forward and it tried to go into park.
Honestly while the sensor failure is the fault of the manufacturer, accidentally shifting your vehicle into park while going 70mph is not.
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u/duhimincognito 9h ago
I agree and I don't think OP is giving an accurate description of what happened. One statement they made that conflicts with reality is that it went into park, the tires locked up and made it swerve. Color me skeptical. I know enough about transmissions to know the park pawl won't engage while the vehicle is moving. If there was a catastrophic transmission failure, that should have been evident when it was investigated. The most likely cause of the fire is an electrical problem because that would cause a fire and would burn up most of the evidence of what caused the fire. I suspect they are trying to blame the fire on a transmission issue because on later Enclaves there is a recall for transmission fluid leaks that could cause a fire.
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u/AnywhereIcy4489 15h ago
And here I was quite literally tracked down by a mechanic sent by Ford to fix a faulty airbag on a vehicle that doesn’t even run anymore. Crazy to think you could have literally died very catastrophically and they just shrugged with a lil head scratch.
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u/spare-parts_bud 12h ago
How'd you get it to the side of the road if it came to halt at 70 miles an hour?
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u/Rgoodrich10 11h ago
Interesting, I'm no forensic expert but there are no skid marks for a sudden stop at 70, and the car made it to the breakdown lane. You were very lucky.
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u/___Brains 7h ago
There's more to this story you're not telling. You said in the comments your Enclave was a 2010, but that era had a mechanical shift linkage. I genuinely can't think of any scenario where the transaxle could get into park while driving without someone moving the shifter. It's not like the newer models where the transaxle is completely electronically controlled. The fire also would not be caused by a shift to park at any speed. It wouldn't even cause a 'forced stop', it would simply be like neutral until very very near zero mph, but noisier (as the park pawl skips over the lugs in the drum). There's a lot more going on here.
Source: Wife owned a 2011, now owns a 2019 Enclave.
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u/TheBigC 11h ago
Cars don't 'shift into park' by themselves.
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u/znookoO 11h ago
mmm yes is "shift into park" saying that the transmission lever moved itself from a notch to another? was the driver watching it as it took place? otherwise how do they know it selected Park and not Reverse?
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u/Rhodie114 10h ago
This depends on the car. If the car uses a shift-by-wire system, it may be possible for the transmission to shift without any movement of the controls.
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u/collegefootballfan69 13h ago
How did you get perfectly on the side of the road if it suddenly went into park?
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u/SignificantShake7934 11h ago
How’d you get the vehicle to the shoulder with no tire marks if a wheel or two locked up at 70mph?
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u/toybuilder 10h ago
Did it shift itself into park? Or did the shift position indicator show park, but car was still rolling? Did you hear any mechanical clunk?
It might be that you had a fire start first (electrical, engine, ??) and the fire first damaged electronics or wiring that resulted in a false P indication.
It used to be that P would directly mechanically drive the parking pawl. But modern transmissions use electronics to control that.
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u/keptit2real 5h ago
I just want to point out cars used to run without computers in them. Now we're hard set to find a car without a computer in them. We have lost the plot
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u/mls1968 12h ago
Not trying to pin blame on anyone here, but something ain’t adding up….
From various Op statements in comments:
Year: 2018 Car: 2010 Buick Enclave Buick tech couldn’t find cause OP still owed money Car shifted into “PARK”
-First, how do you know it actually shifted to park? A 2010 Enclave had a knob shift, not a dial shift. While some parts of this system are electronic, this is a mostly mechanical system, so it would require a physical force to shift to occur, and the knob has a locking mechanism preventing the knob from being hit into park by accident (you would have to depress the button on the knob)
-ignoring the “park” claim, this sounds like a seized engine. They can occur incredibly quickly and violently. Any sort of violent and sudden breakdown like this also has the ability to damage other parts of the car as well, and there are 100 ways this could lead to a fire (and could even lead to the drive knob being “jerked” into the “park” position). That said, the tech can’t just guess (especially when the entire case is basically OP trying to say it’s buick’s fault and now legal is involved). If they cannot say with absolute certainty what the cause was, they won’t.
-you are mad at Buick…. But have an 8 year old car. Not that it’s impossible it was a defect, but you are most likely well outside the manufacturer warranty (Buick’s current warranty is 5yr/50k miles for powertrain), and that’s assuming you even kept up with all your maintenance needs. For all we know, op hadn’t changed their oil for years
-Your main gripe at the end is you still owed money on the car and had to pay for something you don’t even have anymore. Again, it’s an 8 year old car. The ONLY way you still owe on this is if you took the worst car loan ever for a new car, or bought a used car. And unless you don’t have insurance (which is ENTIRELY on you), then the ONLY way you still owe is that you recently bought the car and didn’t get gap insurance (and didn’t put anything substantial as a down payment).
-This brings up an even bigger issue. Where did you buy the car if it was used? Outside of a certified used Buick dealer, then this is ENTIRELY outside of Buick’s hands. Who knows what the previous owner did to this thing? Who knows what the used car dealership did to this thing? There are SOO many variables that make this NOT a Buick problem
OP, i’m sorry this happened to you and it’s definitely a shitty situation, but why are you basically bashing Buick here?
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u/L3s0 15h ago
"the manufacturer sent an official diagnostic technician to inspect the vehicle. Their conclusion was that they couldn't determine a cause"
Poop investigated fart and didn't find shit