[NEWS] Short-circuits may have caused taxi fires: ComfortDel
-
Link:
http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC121027-0000003/Short-circuits-may-have-caused-taxi-fires
SINGAPORE - After extensive investigations by engineers, taxi operator ComfortDelGro has found the likely cause of the recent fires involving its taxis, including two Hyundai Sonatas which caught fire three weeks apart.
In response to TODAY's queries, the land transport giant, which dominates the taxi industry with about 60 per cent of the approximately 28,000 taxis here, said engineers from the vehicle manufacturer were "flown in to carry out thorough investigations".
"They narrowed down the likely cause to electrical short-circuitry," said ComfortDelGro Group Corporate Communications Officer Tammy Tan.
Additional fleet-wide safety checks were carried out upon recommendation and the taxi operator has "continued with stringent maintenance checks" to minimise such incidents, added Ms Tan.
Hyundai has been providing the taxi operator with the 2.0 turbodiesel engine Sonatas - used exclusively here by ComfortDelGro - since 2006.
And in the wake of a spate of taxis catching fire on the roads earlier this year, ComfortDelGro said South Korea's biggest carmaker sent specialists to assist with investigations.
Last week, Member of Parliament (Ang Mo Kio) Ang Hin Kee filed a parliamentary question to get an update on the number of taxi fires and whether the cause had been established.
In his written reply, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew disclosed that 26 cases were reported to the Singapore Civil Defence Force between January last year and Sept 21 this year.
While one case was due to sparks from a road accident, electrical short-circuiting was the likely cause in four cases, and 21 of the cases were probably due to engine overheating.
Mr Ang also asked about the measures put in place to ensure the safety of drivers and passengers.
Mr Lui noted that taxis operators conduct "regular preventive and corrective maintenance" of their fleet "to keep them in roadworthy condition at all times", and the Land Transport Authority subjects all taxis to compulsory inspections every six months.
When contacted, an LTA spokesperson said that during the inspections, "automated equipment tests are carried out on the vehicles' systems and major components for brake efficiency, wheel alignment, headlamps, exhaust gas and noise emissions".
She said: "Visual inspections on the conditions of vehicle body, lightings, steering mechanism, tyres, undercarriage and exhaust system are also conducted."
Brand new taxis are also inspected to ensure compliance with the LTA's technical requirements, before they are registered for road use, she added.
According to the SCDF, there were 87 vehicle fires from January to June, compared to 100 vehicle fires for the same period last year. -
-
-
-
Wow!........you witness hor.........ST bo interview you........
-
Main cause of fire "Blended Diesel" which over heats the engine and wallah fire , i stopped purchasing cdg diesel for last 4 months life now much easy taxi not that much in workshop
-
When 2006 CDG launched wave and wave of Sonatas on the road .... all my senior counterparts all foreseen it's sooner or later this model will give plenty of problems to the drivers and taxi companies , and on the road .
They were damn right !!!!
How they were damn right to comment that Korean automatic cars are not made to be taxis on the road .
They also mentioned the korean made gearbox are not made like those from Toyota , not so robust and can last long haul on the road .
They were experience enough to foreseen it .
-
U know something , most my bukit panjang kakis who drove Sonata , their Sonata most kena overhaul at least once .
Some gear box problems .
Most gear box issues .
I thought overhaul is just a preventive measures ( prevent from overheat and caused fire )
-
I dunno if diesel one of the cause ?
I am not so sure ....
technically , diesel is still diesel ..... ComfortDelgro buses used the same diesel , and we seldom see buses on fire regularly on the road .
-
I guessed those Ah Tiong level mechanics ... could also be one of the cause .
Anyhow do ... can drive can liao .
-
last time when see my friend drove 14 or more hours on the road , i always say "you siow ar ? U think you machine ar ?"
Now if i see him again , i will say : " Machine also will short circuit lah , dun say body ."
-
The problem with electronically generate auto car in this generation of cars is the competency of the know how and know why before repairing, like chief said, poor competency of mechanic can lead to many problem.
If electrical is concern, today cars got too much fuse and control, from side windows to this light, that radio, MDT, air con and so on, so the power drawn is therefore in different direction within the circuit, what mostly happen is while repair, a mechanic may have removed the connection to the battery to perform some welding or excess to certain place, such removal will utimately distorted the circuit, and when connected back, the circuit might go heywired and that lead to short circuit, and then the car is returned back to the workshop
Driver might complain no aircon or front light no more or very dim, or MDT once engine off, will not on back and so on. The first basic sign to the incompetence mechanic is the fuse..13A to 15A, mechanic seeing the fuse broke and decided to change a higher one to prevent the cut off, and when you change to a higher Ampere fuse, the circuit will not cut off, leading to the fuse box burnt and all start to burnt.
Diesel has a very low flash point, unlike petrol, it will not burnt so easily unless overheated or direct extensive contact with the burning source, but once it burnt, it is very hard to put down.
-
Originally posted by Rbs70:
Wow!........you witness hor.........ST bo interview you........
That one not taxis lah, casket van burnt, save the cost of burning at mandai...not all cases are taxis burning.To be fair, as what I said last time in my post, Sonata with a DOHC in line engine is not suitable for turbo, turbo is only good for those with V engine, those private sonata all have no turbo, even i45 and elantra.
Within a car range, like if benchmark against Honda Accord, they produce two segment of it, normal Accord have no turbo, whereas if you get the Accord intergra, that is turbo. Like camry, camry also got 2 types built different, even in shape is different, normal camry is no turbo, and those sporty type like prime is having, is turbo.
Sonata did not make any turbo generated engine on private car, but to built it on taxis, just like magnetis, as I and chief experienced, gives you alot of problem, long ago, when I drive for magnetis, we already face many problem with it, because it should not be built with turbo on a inline that is not designed to chiong.
-
European car makers has been pushing diesel engines in SOHC or DOHC, inline or Vee engines for years and have no problems. Diesel engine blocks are built to be more robust than petrol as higher compression ratio is desired thus giving better thermal efficiency. Adding turbo pushes the performance envelope to be nearer to its petrol cousins without compromising on engine lifespan. In short, turbo diesel engines has proven its reliability over the years but in the engine bay there are also components like wirings, hoses n plastics. Hence, due to margin pressures n profitability issues, car makers may use components that has shorter lifespan to keep cost low n more spare parts sales.
It is commonly known that Korean cars' spare parts are more expensive than their Japanese counter parts. Not surprisingly local Korean car distributors usually flood the mkt at thin margins only to make profits from workshop during warranty period.
The fire problem lies largely with poor built quality n poor maintenance regime IMHO.
-
knn all the car professors come in liao.............. me only 1/2 past 6
ITE graduated mechanic.................
sometimes really impressed with the level of knowledge u guys hav
-
I tell one story ....
Sorry nothing to do with Sonata ...
Something to do with TransCab .
U see this brake thing ?
When u go servicing , mechanic take out the wheel ..... and have to take out a metallic drum ? U guys know , right ?
So after replacing of brake disc .... the mechanic actually forgotten to replace back the wheel drum that cover the whole wheel system .
Mechanic just chop chop , like that ( as image above ) , put in the wheel ...... screw all four screws in , on the road .
Without putting back the wheel drum .
A few hours later , my friend drove half way thru his shift , the wheel actually dropped out !
Heng bo pax ..... before thing happened , sound got louder , he tell pax to get another cab , not safe .
Indeed , half way when he intended to go home , wheel disattached from the vehicle , tow truck came .......
Next day he went to find Jasmine , Jasmine .... it's like Err .......
-
It's shows the negligence of mechanic that can caused a vehicle to break down un-neccessarily .
Only if mechanic more alert , such mishap will never happen .
Dunno what that mechanic doing ? When the vehicle moved out ..... dun no why he never see the wheel drum at all ?
When he saw the wheel drum in the workshop , he must have seen it lying around for sure , he still dun bother to recall the Crown back , for further inspection .
This is one example of inferior workmanship of the workshop .
-
knn, LTA got all kind of regulation for Taxi Driver to service the public
is there any regulation on Taxi Company to provide a safe vehicle for the public?
1) vehicle must design for 24hrs OTR, since the rental is tag on a 24hours basis
2) maintainance of vechicle should be done by qualitfied mechanics, ah tiong no problem, but must be qualified.
3) Replacing of consumable product, esp tires and brake. Some standard should be set. Taxi company are using all those cheap product from china which did not promise safty to user.
Higher price item can be cost effective too, when it is compensate by durarablity and safty.
Apparently, out taxi compnay only goes for the cheapest item, neglect the safty aspect of the public. Esp......TransCab
-
They need to set up a surveying and QC dept to certified the vehicle is safe on the road, but this will create more cost to them, so do you think they do not know what is happening, they knew, but as long as they work within the framework of LTA rules and regulations, they will try to cut down on wage costs with cheap labourers.
And when you get cheap labours, what you expect, poor servicing lor, Taxis servicing is all borne by company, any taxis too long inside is a lost to taxis companies, it is unlike outside private serivce centres, their objectives is to earn from servicing, so they will alway do a better job.
-
Some car buyers who buy cars are more wary of the servicing and parts available than the cars in the shown room, u ask them, show me your service centre, and if they bring you in, you can see their staff, technician and engineers at work, if all are cheap foreigners, you better not buy the car, even if they give you 5 years free services
-
Originally posted by Happybird95:
European car makers has been pushing diesel engines in SOHC or DOHC, inline or Vee engines for years and have no problems. Diesel engine blocks are built to be more robust than petrol as higher compression ratio is desired thus giving better thermal efficiency. Adding turbo pushes the performance envelope to be nearer to its petrol cousins without compromising on engine lifespan. In short, turbo diesel engines has proven its reliability over the years but in the engine bay there are also components like wirings, hoses n plastics. Hence, due to margin pressures n profitability issues, car makers may use components that has shorter lifespan to keep cost low n more spare parts sales.
It is commonly known that Korean cars' spare parts are more expensive than their Japanese counter parts. Not surprisingly local Korean car distributors usually flood the mkt at thin margins only to make profits from workshop during warranty period.
The fire problem lies largely with poor built quality n poor maintenance regime IMHO.
Engine still ok. It's the gearbox. Diesel engine have higher torque so gearbox easily have higher stress and fatique so lifespan also shorten. They shold use better gear box instead of using one that is the same as the petrol counterpart.
-
if only using high speed diesel and nothing else
-
Originally posted by bowah:
Some car buyers who buy cars are more wary of the servicing and parts available than the cars in the shown room, u ask them, show me your service centre, and if they bring you in, you can see their staff, technician and engineers at work, if all are cheap foreigners, you better not buy the car, even if they give you 5 years free services
Aiya normal bread and butter car they dun care one lah...Where got people go AD for servicing? Unless is those high end marque maybe they will send to AD for servicing. Cut throat price. You know to service a normal 5 series cost about $400++ just for old and filter change and some dunno what 30 pts check. If found parts need to replace then have to pay couple of hundreds more...
-
Originally posted by bowah:
That one not taxis lah, casket van burnt, save the cost of burning at mandai...not all cases are taxis burning.To be fair, as what I said last time in my post, Sonata with a DOHC in line engine is not suitable for turbo, turbo is only good for those with V engine, those private sonata all have no turbo, even i45 and elantra.
Within a car range, like if benchmark against Honda Accord, they produce two segment of it, normal Accord have no turbo, whereas if you get the Accord intergra, that is turbo. Like camry, camry also got 2 types built different, even in shape is different, normal camry is no turbo, and those sporty type like prime is having, is turbo.
Sonata did not make any turbo generated engine on private car, but to built it on taxis, just like magnetis, as I and chief experienced, gives you alot of problem, long ago, when I drive for magnetis, we already face many problem with it, because it should not be built with turbo on a inline that is not designed to chiong.
Not only taxi leh.........nowadays those new Euro4 lorry, van, buses all also got Turbo leh.............
Knn........that night saw this China make Tourbus, chionging at PIE towards Airport at extreme right lane, problem is, he is not hogging the road.........the speed he is traveling, chao chao 100km/hr.............no black smoke somemore............
-
Other company no comment..........
But CDG workshop suppose to be ISO certify...........
To be fair also, mechanic life also not that fanastic la..........so far in CDG workshop haven't see any 骗� mechanic, minimum knowledge all have la............
Negligent and careless, I believe la.........imagine yesterday casino lost all his pay, where got mood to serve your taxi.........lol