| Issue ID | 1138265 |
| Internal NHTSA # | 10662961 |
| Manufacurer | Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. |
| Brand | MERCEDES BENZ |
| Model | GL450 |
| Model Year | 2007 |
| File date | 05/12/14 |
| Component | SEATS |
| Product type code | VEHICLE |
| Description of the problem | I was driving my family to an afternoon lunch on the 5th of december, 2014, the day was chilly and it was a good time to have the heated seats on... After about 10 minutes of driving i noticed a burning smell and thought it was something in the area (it was actually my seat lighting me on fire), needless to say the smell continued to get worse and i knew something was wrong. I looked for a safe area to pull over and identify the source of the smell, before i was able to get off the road my side started smoking and lit on fire. I frantically pulled off the road and jumped out. I then proceeded to rip of my jacket and put out the smoldering section of it. After that i noticed the car was still smoking on the left side of the drivers seat about to go up in flames, at this time my wife was pulling our 2 year old twins out of the vehicle i got back to the car to turn it off and extinguish the fire. Once i was able to diagnose the scene i found the heated seat had malfunctioned in some manner and burned a nice hole in the seat which in return lit my jacket on fire. I will get it into the shop to have the fuse taken out and make the heated seats inoperable not taking any chances. |
| Vehicle Mileage at Failure | 106000 |
| Number of Occurences | 1 |
| Source of the issue | NHTSA WEB SITE |
| City and State | DENVER, CO |
| VIN pattern | 4JGBF71E67AXXXXXX |
| Was vehicle invloved in a crash? | N |
| Was vehicle involved in a fire? | Y |
| Was incedent reported to police? | N |
| Was medical attention required? | N |
| Was part original equipment? | |
| No. of injured persons | 1 |
| No. of fatalities | 0 |
| Date of purchase | 07/08/26 |
| Was original owner? | N |
| Anti-lock brakes | N |
| Cruise control | N |
| Number of cylinders | 8 |
| Drive train type | AWD |
| Transmission type | |
| Vehicle speed | 40 |
| DoT tire identifier | |
| Tire size | |
| Location of tire code | |
| Type of tire failure code | |
| Was defective tire repaired? | |
| Date of manufacture | |
| Type of child seat code | |
| Type of restraint | |
| Dealer's name | |
| Dealer's telephone number | |
| Dealer's city | |
| Dealer's state code | |
| Dealer's ZIP code |