A little back history: I’ve seen car fires before. Usually they started on the road–someone’s belt got loose and rubbed against something, or a carburetor came loose, whatever.
But I saw the final episode of ‘The Sopranos’ the other night, and when the son’s SUV catches fire and blew up, his father blamed it on leaves.
Now, I drive an F-150–I’ve got 12" clearance between my engine and the leaves. A majority of the SUVs I’ve seen have at least 6" clearance. Are leaves not against the engines supposed to catch fire?
Tripler
I’m just wondering if this is a clue or not. . .
I just bought a 2005 Chevy Impala, and was looking through the owner’s manual. One of the pages in the manual warned against parking on leaves (or other flammable materials). There was even a diagram of the car on top of some fallen leaves with a slash through it. I have never heard a warning against that before, but it makes sense. The manual said that the leaves could touch hot exhaust parts under the vehicle and ignite. The Impala is a sedan, and I would assume it would be more likely to happen to a sedan than an SUV, but if the leaves or grass were deep/tall enough, I think it would be possible.
It does sound like there needs to be contact with some part of the car, though. If the show just depicted a few leaves scattered on the ground, I would be skeptical, but I guess one could fly up in there and get a spark going.