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Jeep wrangler News, Videos, Reviews and Gossip - Jalopnik
Sean Heiney of Ann Arbor, Michigan was driving his 2010 Jeep Wrangler home when all of a sudden the brakes failed. Then his power steering went. Then he noticed smoke. Within a minute his car was surrounded by flames.
His was not the first late-model Jeep to catch fire, as a number of incidents of Wranglers experiencing massive system failures with no warning before bursting into flames have been reported to the Department of Transportation. Owners have also mentioned this issue on forums.
Heiney even claims he was offered more money than the value of his car — an amount Chrysler termed "generous" — in return for never discussing the matter publicly. So what's going on here?
"I was driving for about five minutes from a cold start near downtown — and it's unusually warm in Michigan so I wasn't running the A/C or anything — I was driving around 25-35 mph on a busy city street and the brakes failed — I noticed the light was turning yellow — I ran the red light because my brakes weren't stopping," Heiney explains.
"I thought my car stalled and I noticed the dash was still lit up," he says. "I see smoke coming up the dash and I see flames coming up the window."
Heiney was able to get the car off the road and bail before it was completed engulfed in flamed. It took just a minute for the fire department to arrive but at that point it was too late.
Heiney's situation isn't unique.