Toxic gas in the car

[DanielWei]

Recently saw the news about BMW and Audi in china having this toxic gas in the car from the plastic interior. Copy this from a Malaysia forum ;-

Hi! I'm from Malaysia and I own a Hyundai Getz 1.3 from 2004 Dec, first hand owner. It was a fully imported one from Korea.

 

I have been having the said problem since few years back. The door handles (all 4) started to melt away around 4 years ago. Initially I thought it was due to oil from the mechanics who serviced my car but I later realized that they are actually the plastic melting away. I replaced all 4 handles around 2 years ago. But soon after that I realized all other plastic/vinyl interiors of my cars have also started to melt. The current status is such that the entire dashboard and the sideboards are sticky, with the middle portion that houses the radio player and aircon outlet melting away quite badly such that my nails get stained very easily (almost every day when I fiddle with the controls).

 

After the recent brouhaha about plasticizer contamination in air and dioxin (a carcinogen / cancer causing agent) released by plastics etc... I started to get very worried about the amount of toxic chemicals that could have been released into my car and hence being breathed in by me and my baby so I made a complaint to Hyundai customer service. They reluctantly sent 2 personnel over to take some photos of the affected parts and asked me some questions. The customer service officer then told me that she is agreeable that it's the quality and it cannot be due to any mishandling by me. But after taking more than a month to "investigate", they came back today saying that my claim is rejected and that the plastic melting was "probably" caused by the application of chemicals such as polisher on the vinyl surface without any scientific proof.

 

I am totally not satisfied with such a claim because I am a lady driver who knows nothing about car maintenance, much less to polish my car. I also own other cars before this and I have been handling my Getz the same way I did with the other cars, same goes with my husband cars but this never happened before. Even my 8 year old kancil prior to this car and my hubby's ex proton wira which was >10 yr old then and his current Honda Civic which is 5 year old do not have this problem!

 

To be honest, I do not wish to own this car any longer and am now looking at changing to another car because I am gravely concerned about my health and also the health of those around me. Who knows how much plasticizer or dioxin or whatever chemicals have I been breathing in in the last 6 over years!? But I cannot satisfactorily stop at just this because it has grave health implications and I really want to find out whether it is a quality problem or simply mishandling as claimed. Anyone having this problem I would highly appreciate that you share and also perhaps enlighten me what could have gone wrong.

 

[Kangadrool]

Basic B&B Japanese car is still the best. Interior is hard plastics; will not melt. Maybe will break/crack towards COE ending period.

[13177]

First time hearing the plastic in the car will melt?! And wondering does it only affect that getz only or all getz? The author even said her kancil and proton no such problem at all?!

[KaKiLang]

I always leave all four doors wide open to let all the hot air out and I drove off leaving the window winded down to cool down for a stretch den I on aircon, especially the weather so hot recently, 37

[Ghostrider]

Conti car have a coating over the plastic stuff...to give it a soft feel...I think he meant those rubber melt...cos of high interior temp heat.

 

Jap cars all hard plastic...nothing to melt.

[Nzy]

Safest is to get those conti cars with interior that is all covered with leather?

[13177]

Conti car have a coating over the plastic stuff...to give it a soft feel...I think he meant those rubber melt...cos of high interior temp heat.

 

Jap cars all hard plastic...nothing to melt.

I think the plastic which got melt is a korean car le?

[Ghostrider]

I think the plastic which got melt is a korean car le?

 

Quite rare lah...I got a friend who damn suay...her Mazda 322 hatchback Austina interior melted...really melt like gooey gooey like dat.

 

 

[DanielWei]

Conti car have a coating over the plastic stuff...to give it a soft feel...I think he meant those rubber melt...cos of high interior temp heat.

 

Jap cars all hard plastic...nothing to melt.

Not true that hard plastic nothing to melt... In the US jap cars got the worst and most melting problem. just last year toyota got about 235000 recall just for sticky problem, it waas in the news.

The 07 and 08 jap cars got alot of melting problems.

[Scandy]

Safest is to get those conti cars with interior that is all covered with leather?

 

There will always be some exposed plastic parts, I guess.

 

If you read the local Mercedes forum, you will also find some owners complaining of their in-cabin plastics melting (eg. buttons on the steering wheels, etc).

 

 

[Kiadaw]

So hot until melt. I know car interior can get rediculously hot under the sun in Sunny Sinagpore, but plastic melting is still a first for me.

 

Anway, some plastic have coating for a glossy look, so it could actually be this coating that are melting. Maybe.

Edited March 23, 2013 by Kiadaw

[Chucky2007]

Quite rare lah...I got a friend who damn suay...her Mazda 322 hatchback Austina interior melted...really melt like gooey gooey like dat.

Mazda 322?? That's like 15-20year old car already.

[DanielWei]

Safest is to get those conti cars with interior that is all covered with leather?

No matter how much leather you have there will still be plastic in the car. show you this Ferrari photo, I was shock when the owner show me the interior, all the plastic inside melted, wah outside looks good inside worst than any other car on the street, maybe too powerful giving out too much heat? but it seem that alot of ferrari got this problem,,,,,,,,,,same model as the one crashed at Bugis