Thread: Investigation of 458 Italia Fires By Ferrari

Originally Posted by anon

Ferrari's have been known to burn down since the 360, whats so new?

I know right?

I saw two F430s personally catch fire.

Originally Posted by crgray

i knew that the 458 was on fire...

Looks like Ferrari found the culprit..
Improperly mixed adhesive used for attaching heat shields near the rear wheel wells. Supposedly there will be a global recall announced later today to remove the adhesive and reattach the heat shields with rivets.

Taken from Pistonheads.com

Official recall underway as Ferrari reacts to 'thermal incidents'

Pesky inflammable heat shield glue...An official recall has been instigated for all Ferrari 458 Italias, so dealers can replace a rear wheelarch liner and its associated heat shield.

The move is Ferrari's response to the five flambéed 458 Italias (charmingly referred to by the factory as 'thermal incidents') that have been plastered all over the web in recent days, apparently following analysis of the victims' mortal remains.

According to the company, the problem is caused by high ambient temperatures combined with very hot engines, when the wheelarch assembly can be deformed by heat.

This deformation pushes the wheelarch liner heat shield closer to the exhaust, causing the glue used to fix the heat shield to melt, smoke, or in a few cases catch fire.

The fix is a replacement heat shield for the wheelarch liner that's attached mechanically, and not using inflammable glue. (Would this an appropriate moment for a Homer Simpson-style "D'oh!"?)

All 1,248 cars built to the end of July are affected by the recall (that's when the factory shut down for the summer hols), and all future cars will have the fix built in.

Ferrari says it will replace any burnt-out 458 with a shiny new one 'as soon as possible', as long as it can be proved the er, 'thermal incident' was the result of the problem addressed by the recall.

Originally Posted by LS3-Steve

Taken from Pistonheads.com

Official recall underway as Ferrari reacts to 'thermal incidents'

Pesky inflammable heat shield glue...An official recall has been instigated for all Ferrari 458 Italias, so dealers can replace a rear wheelarch liner and its associated heat shield.

The move is Ferrari's response to the five flambéed 458 Italias (charmingly referred to by the factory as 'thermal incidents') that have been plastered all over the web in recent days, apparently following analysis of the victims' mortal remains.

According to the company, the problem is caused by high ambient temperatures combined with very hot engines, when the wheelarch assembly can be deformed by heat.

This deformation pushes the wheelarch liner heat shield closer to the exhaust, causing the glue used to fix the heat shield to melt, smoke, or in a few cases catch fire.

The fix is a replacement heat shield for the wheelarch liner that's attached mechanically, and not using inflammable glue. (Would this an appropriate moment for a Homer Simpson-style "D'oh!"?)

All 1,248 cars built to the end of July are affected by the recall (that's when the factory shut down for the summer hols), and all future cars will have the fix built in.

Ferrari says it will replace any burnt-out 458 with a shiny new one 'as soon as possible', as long as it can be proved the er, 'thermal incident' was the result of the problem addressed by the recall.

Just saw that posted on another site also. Good thing they're trying to fix the problem. Hope it gets fixed before someone gets hurt bad.

any other thoughts on why they wouldnt have caught the problem while they were still testing the car(especially if its a heat problem knowing they had them out on the track during testing for a while?) ChallengeIt where you at ?

Good to see them stepping up.

Those with barbecued 458's should get preferential treatment and be bumped ahead of others.

Imagine paying a premium for one, and then having it up in smoke only to wait and get it ater the guy who didnt pay one........

Originally Posted by crgray

i knew that the 458 was on fire...

nice pun.

They better provide the owners of the cars that were burned with a special edition Ferrari luggage set stuffed with $3M cash in the replacement cars.

It was just a matter of time. Hopefully there aren't any other issues with it.