It's well known cause of vehicle fires as due to unprofessional fiddling with electrical stuff or unauthorised fittings etc. No make no matter how good is immune to such risks, as long as there remain people determined to try out all sorts of modifications on their vehicles because they seem to think the factory original way of doing things not as good as their own ideas !
By the way, that on fire is it a petrol or diesel model ??
To the best of my knowledge, even those M-B's with complete engine & transmission encapsulation (i.e. the diesel models like the taxis) do NOT have any higher risks of catching fires even under such hot & humid conditions in the tropics. They also have additional air inlet to suck in cooler air from outside as seen on the right side of the W 124 taxis e.g. Therefore those petrol models with the sound deaftening material on the bonnet only (instead of full encapsulation underneath as well as with the diesels) cannot be of any significant fire hazard as since the vehicle can 'tahan' a full encapsulated environment without fire, no reasons why those with only the padding on the bonnet would catch fire with any high likelihood !
Therefore any incidence of fire would have to be 'externally' caused, especially for a make of finer repute. Wonder how many people bother to check on the quality of maintenance they give to their vehicles like who they entrust it to for servicing ?
Originally posted by C_boliao:
oo.. Mercs on fire.. mine happened b4.. think that model must be ard yr 1990s... mine was E-class, that batch has lots of problem with the radiator.. always has problem with over heating.. then the best part is directly under the hood, there is one sponge cushion cover(black)... normal jap cars u can see it's just metal, but for mercs there is this cushion cover.. think when the underhood is over heated, the cushion get too heated and thus fire up..