Pflugerville Woman Warns Others Of Recalls After Car Catches Fire

AUSTIN, TEXAS — A Pflugerville woman told a news station this week that her car that was part of a recall notice caught fire as she drove recently.

Cynthia Tanner told KXAN she was just two blocks from her destination when her 2012 Hyundai Tuscon began to stall as the engine light turned on. Then, she spotted smoking emanating from under the hood. She told the news station she bought the car in 2015, and hadn't experienced any mechanical issues before.

Tanner complained she never received a recall notice, having only heard about it later. She shudders upon envisioning having been on the highway at the time rather than just a couple of blocks from home: "If this had happened during rush hour traffic on I-35 or something, who knows what would have happened," she told the news station.

She cast herself as a hapless protagonist in a cautionary tale, urging other drivers to check to check if their vehicles are under a manufacturer's recall.

NBC News recently reported Kia and Hyundai are both recalling more than 500,000 vehicles due to malfunctions that could cause engine fires. The latter car maker alone is recalling more than 150,000 Tucson SUVs made between 2011 and 2013 and Sporage SUVs from 2011 to 2012. Those recalls were implemented after engine oil pans were found to have been leaking, posing a potential fire hazard.

Hyundai owners started sending recall notices to car owners on March 29, the station reported.

By far the biggest recent recall among three is one involving 379,000 Kia Soul models made between 2012 and 2016 with 1.6-liter engines. Government regulators point to high exhaust gas temperatures in those vehicles that can damage catalytic converters that can, in turn, lead to abnormal combustion, KXAN reported. That scenario also could lead to engine fires, regulators noted.

The U.S. Department of Transportation provides a link to consumers enabling them to search for recall notices based on the year, make and model of cars. Access those DOT records here.

In a related development, NBC News reported in February that Subaru, Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen, Daimler Vans, Mercedes and Ferrari issued recall notices for some 1.7 million vehicles to replace potentially deadly air bag inflators made by Takata Corp. of Japan. The inflators, federal regulators said, potentially can hurl shrapnel into drivers and passengers. Officials said at least 23 people worldwide have died as a result of the malfunction, with hundreds more injured.

The massive recall notice is part largest series of automotive recalls in U.S. history, NBC News noted. Some 10 million inflators are being recalled in the U.S. this year, NBC reported, with as many as 70 million to be recalled by the time the whole mess ends late next year.

>>> Read the full story at KXAN