TXS3

Product liability

LXGXSAM1

I agree, there might have been some fluid/liquid, possibly combustible... that soaked the seat, causing short circuit and fire when the heater was turned-on. It might have been a slow and gradual burn.

Bluto

I don't think the rust = water. Heat damaged can accelerate metal oxidation. The seat frame is not stainless steel, probably a cheap alloy with a very good plating. Burn off the plating, add a few months of Florida humidity, lots of rust.

jjscsix

i agree, that's why I said in my post above that there was obviously a fire. So who put the fire out? With that much damage the fire would not have gone out by itself.

sblouch42

I see that Bluto gave you the information I was planning to give you. I can not see why Lexus would not fix it especially since the car was turned off and sitting in your driveway. One would think Lexus would want to find out why this fire was spontaneously started and what caused it. Did the inspector sent to inspect the damage tell you why Lexus would not fix it? I also would write a letter to the Lexus Corporation in the US and explain the problem to them, send photos, what the inspector said, whit your Lexus dealer would not fix it, if there should be a recall, and other facts. When one writes to the corporation of any company, one gets a reply.

Craigyyy

Wow! Such a strange story. $16k!

Even if there was something spilled, it seems like a car should be able to handle that. Kids spill things all the time.

It's still so bizarre, and I still don't really understand how any wiring or the seat heater element would spontaneously combust like that, so I can understand Lexus not wanting to cover the claim. Had to have been some lithium battery device left on the seat. But what do I know. If a defective seat heater could do that, then that's pretty frightening.

Bluto

I don't think there was combustion, just extreme heat. If there were combustion, it could have extinguished due to the limited oxygen in a closed vehicle. I'm surprised the smell from the damage pictured was not enough to permeate everything and total the vehicle.

Craigyyy

It would take a very large fire to flame out all the oxygen in a car's cabin which is not sealed.

Most things are flame retardant inside cars, especially fabrics and foams.

Matsuki

As someone who works with "heat panels" like this, I'll give my 2 cents.

The only time I've seen burns/fires is when:

1.) The panel is sewn wrong and you have two of the metal or carbon heating wires touching (effectively doubles the heat where they touch a that is often enough to cause a fire) The panels have a wire sewn into them and it's spaced and separated with stitched paths but every once and awhile you see panels where the heating wire is literally sewn on top of another. With the really cheap Chinese carbon-based heating wire, I have seen them solder/tie two smaller wires together and end up with much the same result. No idea what the heating element is in these seats though so pics of that would help.

2.) With blankets and garments, if the heat is powerful enough, you sometimes see people disregard the warnings and scrunch the heated gear up and leave the power on.....which often results with it on fire with the higher powered stuff. Can't see that happening here.

3.) The panel is up against something metal, which concentrates the heat (rivets on clothing or jewelry are pretty common issues) tends to burn people. If a hat and dog food is all you had back there, I don't see that happening,

So yes, there is the potential for the heat panel to have been defective from the start, how often and long did you use the seat heaters before this happened? What's confusing to me is the seat heaters shouldn't be powered when the vehicle is off, but if the wiring harness underneath melted together when in use, I guess that's possible? Really weird Lexus isn't giving you an explanation as to why the claim is being denied. Did they even disconnect the seat heaters for you?