CRV's catching fire after oil change...

Thought I would post this here..
My sister has the new CRV and after an oil change at the Honda dealer
the oil filter sprang a leak and sprayed oil all over the place. She lost a
couple quarts before noticing.. Now this:

Report: SUVs Catch Fire Following Oil Changes

POSTED: 8:58 am EDT July 9, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The Washington Post reported more than two dozen cases of
late-model Honda CR-V sport utility vehicles bursting into flames shortly after
their first oil changes.

The newspaper cites records provided to the federal government by Honda.

No injuries have been reported, and many of the vehicles -- from the 2003 and
2004 model years -- were destroyed.

The Post said The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration
concluded this month the incidents are the fault of dealerships and mechanics.
The agency says the problem stems from improperly installed oil filters that
most likely leaked oil onto the vehicles' hot exhaust systems.

Honda said a design flaw is not to blame, but it's still studying the cause of
the fires. The company said it's not planning a recall.

Auto safety advocates are bothered that the NHTSA did not take a stronger stand
on this, The Post reported.

"Relatively new cars catching on fire? Running the risk of injuring their
occupants? It's a very unusual and a very dangerous situation," Sally Greenberg
of Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports told The Post. "The fact that
a routine oil change could have such catastrophic results 'suggests a dire and
a dangerous situation that both the automaker and the auto safety agency should
have looked much more closely at.'"

The Post told the story of a driver in Virginia last January whose 2003 CR-V
caught fire. She reportedly swerved onto the shoulder of the highway and then
her electrical system shorted out and all the doors locked. That woman escaped
without injury.

About 140,000 CR-Vs were sold in the United States in 2003, according to The
Post.

 

I don't see the significant of an electrical short that locks all the door. Wtf are
those manual lock knob for?