Ok, so anyone who saw last night’s Sopranos wants to kill David Chase…I mean, saw the same thing I did…AJ parks his Nissan XTerra on a pile of leaves. After a while, the leaves catch fire and take the car with them. Then, Tony finds out and gives AJ the third degree, “That’s an SUV, it has a super hot cat converter, etc.”
Well, ok, I buy that it is theoretically possible for such a thing to happen. But is it realistic? Also, is the threat of fire bigger with an SUV, which sits higher off the ground, than say a toyota corolla which is lower? I’m trying to assume both vehicles are using the same rather modern technology.
It is definitely a danger. I have just been dealing with issues with my own cat, and while I am no expert I have learned a few things. Firstly, your owners manual probably warns against parking on dry grass/leaves for just this reason, and secondly there is a heat shield on the bottom (and the top) of the cat that make it harder to have this happen. It is also easy for this shield to get knocked off if, say, your GF runs over a curb.
As to what kind of vehicle has the cat run hotter I cannot say, but I would guess that lower vehicles are more at risk for obvious reasons.
I assumed that AJ was more likely to park an SUV off-road than a sedan, so it was more likely to happen. But I’ve definitely heard the advice (about not parking over leaves) even for sedans.
I knew a guy whose catalytic set some vegetation on fire in a field a few years ago and did some real damage to the truck (he was out of it and working elsewhere, but had left the motor running). I don’t remember offhand the specifics on the vehicle (make/model/year) though.
Well, an SUV will be generating more horsepower powering itself along than, say, a Honda CRX HF, so we’ll assume it is putting more heat into its cat than most vehicles.
Do cats vary in size between different vehicles? If not, certainly an SUV will have a hotter cat.
The issue of ground clearance is probably a valid one. I suppose a pile of dry leaves could render the issue of ground clearance null and void.
FTR, I had no idea what was happening in that scene. First I feared that since AJ left it running he was going to accidentally kill them both with Carbon Monoxide poisoning, not noticing the fumes in the air vents while getting it on.
Then I realized that they were outside. :smack:
A lit cigarette / joint would have been more believable IMO.
In The Jeep Owner’s Bible by Moses Ludel, he talks about when cats first appeared on Jeeps there was a severe dry spell in the West and folks going off roading would cause grass fires because of the heat from the cats would ignite the dead grass.
Cats don’t even start working until they reach about 450F. :eek: a cat can get cherry red (1300-1400F) that is way more than warm enough to set grass on fire.
In Susan Orlean’s nonfiction book The Orchid Thief a fire was caused by parking a Jeep in a stand of high, dry grass. Weirdly, she attributted the cause of the fire to hot tires (friction).
My mother’s old garage had been a horse barn with a wood plank floor; the cat in her Caprice Classic started a fire that burned it to the ground, nearly taking the house with it.
Two friends burned up a brand new car after parking in a grass field so they could swim in a river. It belonged to one’s girlfriend, so he had to explain to her Dad how he destroyed her car the week before he was going to ask if he could marry her. Swimming in their underwear, all they were able to save from the burning car was their cowboy boots. That’s what they were wearing when the firetrucks arrived… underwear and cowboy boots.