2001 BUICK REGAL — Problems, Recalls & Safety Data

On [XXX], my son drove the car to Wendy’s to get lunch around 12:30 pm. He returned, parked the car in the driveway. My son entered the house and while we were eating lunch the doorbell rang, it was the police informing us that my car was on fire in the driveway. The fire department was called and they eventually extinguished the fire which started under the hood of the car. The jaws of life were used to cut the hood of the car loose to fully extinguish the fire. The car is destroyed. There is no fixing it. Marion, Virginia Fire Department extinguished the fire and stated that a report could be obtained but they were positive the fire started in the engine. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The 2001 buick regal that we have has very inadequate head lights as far as im concerned it is a wiring problem dims are so dim that it's like you have no head lights at all bright are just bright enough to almost see 50 to 100 feet in front of vehicle also this buick is not the only gm vehicle I have experienced this on the 98 buick century's have same head light problem some what worse though also our 2002 chevy venture van has same extremely dim dims on all three vehicles brights are substituted for dims I have tried to rimity the problem by cleaning oxidation from lenses also replacing head lamp bulbs on one vehicle lenses had condensation inside lenses replaced both lenses but the results were same extremely dim dims and still had to substitute brights for dims to see also thought batterie might be getting weak both van and buick have new batteries and alternator on Both are charging strong and to specification so after all that still have head lamp problem no worse no better

I have a buick.regal go 3.8 was just notified about recall for under hood fire I have not had this happen yet but I have been a mechanic for.8 years and from what I've seen with my 3.8 and others I have worked on it's not just only the front valve cover and gasket I have noticed that on mine I had oil pooling from lower intake manifold onto transmission also same thing on right hand side of engine the intake leaks oil were the factory uses the silicone form a gasket when sealant goes bad the oil pools on top of transmission and on right the oil pools on top of the timing cover /water pump housing so I think just replacing the front valve cover is not an adequate fix when you have two ends of lower intake leaking oil and also rear valve cover leaking the rear may not be as big of fire hazard but those intake leaks were they pool could very well poor that pooled oil onto front exuast manifold and or crossover pipe when a had break is applied to vehicle

My car lit on fire under the hood

My car lit on fire under the hood