Products Liability Law Daily Wrap Up, NHTSA NEWS—MOTOR VEHICLES: NHTSA investigates certain Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango vehicles following reports of headliner fires, (Jan 14, 2014)

By Joe Bichl

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened an engineering analysis of model year 2011-2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango vehicles to investigate incidents of headliner fires (NHTSA ODI Investigation, No. EA14-001, January 10, 2014).

Problem description. ODI indicated that these headliner fires may ignite near either one of the vehicle's sun visors due to an electrical shorting condition. The investigation could affect as many as 593,299 vehicles.

Consumer complaints. The ODI has received five reports of vehicle headliners catching fire at the front of the vehicle near the sun visors on Jeep Grand Cherokees. Customers reported incidents ranging from minor overheating to an open flame at the headliner and/or sun visor material while driving the vehicle. In some reports, the fire spread to the front seats and/or door panels of the vehicle, according to the ODI.

The ODI stated that the cause of the fires is an electrical short in the vanity lighting wiring circuit that is routed to either one of the sun visors.

According to the ODI Resume, “the data received from Chrysler along with ODI reports indicates there may be a total of 52 unique fire incidents (including 3 injury allegations) on Grand Cherokee and Durango vehicles which ODI will continue to evaluate during the investigation”

Companies: Chrysler Group LLC

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