On July 31, the Canadian media TVA Nouvelles published an article with the following headline: “Your car is more likely to catch fire because of the heat”.
But according to an expert, the title is misleading.
It is not the heat that creates the fires, but other phenomena, in particular the poor maintenance of the car.
The seasons would not affect the phenomenon.
On the road to vacation, it is not uncommon to come across several car accidents: engine breakdown, flat tire or pile-up.
Even worse.
According to the Canadian media TVA Nouvelles, it is more common to see cars ignite in the summer with the heat.
A news whose title has been widely taken up on social networks… even crossing the Atlantic.
Something to scare French motorists as they approach their vacation departures.
In the article, the Canadian media cites figures relayed by Transport Canada - the Department of Transport of the Canadian federal government - to Global News.
According to an expert quoted by the media, there are several causes of vehicle fires: road accidents, manufacturing defects, and finally bad repairs.
"In the summer, many of them [fires] are caused by overloading the vehicle, which causes the transmission to overheat," he told Global News.
Only problem, the article does not specify that it depends on your car, explains an expert at Norauto with
20 Minutes
.
If the point of the article is not fundamentally wrong, the title “Your car is more likely to catch fire from the heat” is a shortcut.
FAKE OFF
Samuel Millecamps is a workshop trainer at Norauto and for him "it is impossible to have precise information about the causes of fires on cars".
On the subject, he remains cautious.
What the TVA Nouvelles article does not say is that vehicle faults depend on the engine, but also on the vehicle's transmission.
“The vehicle fleet is not the same depending on the country,” explains Samuel Millecamps.
According to him, on an automatic transmission – more common in Canada than in France – “the oil will heat up faster naturally”.
Unlike manual transmissions, there could indeed be an overheating of the transmission fluids.
"If the vehicle is a little overloaded and it's a little too hot, we will go up to an excessive temperature and could cause the phenomenon", underlines the Norauto expert.
But he wants to be reassuring: "In France, we don't really have this kind of problem".
The temperature rises, and then what?
But can we really consider that the risk of fire from a car is nil in France?
Samuel Millecamps still sees some conditions to watch out for.
“For a vehicle to catch fire, you really have to have a fuel-related problem.
In this case, it would rather be a problem with the overall condition of the vehicle, which would not be good”.
Second possibility, according to the expert, the problem could be in the braking system.
"During the summer, if you drive in the mountains or are heavily loaded, you use the brakes more and this can generate a temperature rise in the braking system", explains Samuel Millecamps.
On the other hand, the employee of Norauto sees no case of causality between the fires and the change of season.
“All we see is that the majority of breakdowns are caused by the cooling system because it is not necessarily well maintained”.
Where heat can play a role is when the system needs to be cooled but the 40 degrees outside prevent it.
Before the big departure, our expert still advises to do a small overhaul of his vehicle: “Sometimes not much is enough”.
Tire pressure, engine, braking system… is everything good on your side?
You can take the road serenely.
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