There's nothing like being next to a nice crackling fire...

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victor_2019

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Except when you're driving the ****ing car and the fire is coming from under you.

I was driving my 2019 Kona today on the highway and I started hearing this funny crackling noise. I was eating some toblerone at the time and I thought it was the aluminum foil vibrating on the seat.

Then I started smelling something funny and since I was next to the train tracks where a train was moving, I thought it's coming from the train.

Until 20 seconds later when I saw smoke coming from the passenger side of the floor board.

So I turned the car off an got the **** out and now I'm stuck on the highway exit ramp waiting to be towed. And I'm freezing my *** off since it's winter in Montreal and I don't want to wait inside the car.

The car didn't burn down but I don't know what was burning and why.
 
victor_2019 said:
Except when you're driving the ****ing car and the fire is coming from under you.

I was driving my 2019 Kona today on the highway and I started hearing this funny crackling noise. I was eating some toblerone at the time and I thought it was the aluminum foil vibrating on the seat.

Then I started smelling something funny and since I was next to the train tracks where a train was moving, I thought it's coming from the train.

Until 20 seconds later when I saw smoke coming from the passenger side of the floor board.

So I turned the car off an got the **** out and now I'm stuck on the highway exit ramp waiting to be towed. And I'm freezing my *** off since it's winter in Montreal and I don't want to wait inside the car.

The car didn't burn down but I don't know what was burning and why.
Click to expand...

Whoa! Good to hear you're all right (better cold than crispy, at least). Please keep us up to speed on what you find out. Any extra info you can provide might be helpful too. For instance, had it been raining or was the temperature below freezing, etc.

Any pictures you can share might be helpful as well.
 
It was raining slightly and it was around 2 degrees Celsius

At the dealer, to get it off the tow truck I put it in ON position, not starting the motor, and put it in neutral to push it. Even only in ON there was smoke coming from the console area.
 
so I'm an electrical engineer and thinking of this...

I figure if it was something inside the high voltage battery, it would continue and burn the car down, not stop when the car is off.

so then I'm thinking it must be a short somewhere in the wiring harness. but if it's a short, shouldn't a fuse blow and stop the short? the fuses are supposed to protect the wire and not make it get hot enough to burn the insulation.

Does anyone know what is located under the floorboard in the front passenger side and under the front console? first time it was coming from passenger side, then passenger side + console.

I opened the hood while waiting for the truck and there was nothing out of the ordinary there. no smell or smoke.

the smoke stops as soon as the car is turned to off.

there were no warning lights and everything worked fine as far as I could tell. and the car was driving fine.

I also looked under the car, the battery box was covered with some frozen snow that was slowly melting, but there was no sign of any damage as far as I could tell.
 
will be interesting to know the cause.. Hopefully they will determine the cause but I wouldn't bet on it. Still haven't heard back with the investigation results from the exploding Kona in Montreal a few months ago..
 
victor_2019 said:
Except when you're driving the ****ing car and the fire is coming from under you.

I was driving my 2019 Kona today on the highway and I started hearing this funny crackling noise. I was eating some toblerone at the time and I thought it was the aluminum foil vibrating on the seat.

Then I started smelling something funny and since I was next to the train tracks where a train was moving, I thought it's coming from the train.

Until 20 seconds later when I saw smoke coming from the passenger side of the floor board.

So I turned the car off an got the **** out and now I'm stuck on the highway exit ramp waiting to be towed. And I'm freezing my *** off since it's winter in Montreal and I don't want to wait inside the car.

The car didn't burn down but I don't know what was burning and why.
Click to expand...
Glad you made it out without injury.
Hopefully a burnt connector to the front of the pack (HVAC or Power) - loose connection.
https://insideevsforum.com/communit...ternal-pics-from-a-tradeshow.6019/#post-67502
 
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victor_2019 said:
so I'm an electrical engineer and thinking of this...

I figure if it was something inside the high voltage battery, it would continue and burn the car down, not stop when the car is off.

so then I'm thinking it must be a short somewhere in the wiring harness. but if it's a short, shouldn't a fuse blow and stop the short? the fuses are supposed to protect the wire and not make it get hot enough to burn the insulation.

Does anyone know what is located under the floorboard in the front passenger side and under the front console? first time it was coming from passenger side, then passenger side + console.

I opened the hood while waiting for the truck and there was nothing out of the ordinary there. no smell or smoke.

the smoke stops as soon as the car is turned to off.

there were no warning lights and everything worked fine as far as I could tell. and the car was driving fine.

I also looked under the car, the battery box was covered with some frozen snow that was slowly melting, but there was no sign of any damage as far as I could tell.
Click to expand...
Took some digging in old threads, but I found this video (Korean) showing the belly of the beast without the covers @ 15:40
https://insideevsforum.com/communit...-my-first-impressions.4387/page-15#post-51377
Another thought- maybe critters got at the wiring harness?
 
Seat warmer or (if applicable) power seat electrics? Maybe the cabin PTC started up because it was too cold for the HP, and had some debris on it?
 
victor_2019 said:
Except when you're driving the ****ing car and the fire is coming from under you.

I was driving my 2019 Kona today on the highway and I started hearing this funny crackling noise. I was eating some toblerone at the time and I thought it was the aluminum foil vibrating on the seat.

Then I started smelling something funny and since I was next to the train tracks where a train was moving, I thought it's coming from the train.

Until 20 seconds later when I saw smoke coming from the passenger side of the floor board.

So I turned the car off an got the **** out and now I'm stuck on the highway exit ramp waiting to be towed. And I'm freezing my *** off since it's winter in Montreal and I don't want to wait inside the car.

The car didn't burn down but I don't know what was burning and why.
Click to expand...
Good to hear you are ok. Is that your kona I see charging sometimes in verdun (wellington st.)?
 
victor_2019 said:
Except when you're driving the ****ing car and the fire is coming from under you.

I was driving my 2019 Kona today on the highway and I started hearing this funny crackling noise. I was eating some toblerone at the time and I thought it was the aluminum foil vibrating on the seat.

Then I started smelling something funny and since I was next to the train tracks where a train was moving, I thought it's coming from the train.

Until 20 seconds later when I saw smoke coming from the passenger side of the floor board.

So I turned the car off an got the **** out and now I'm stuck on the highway exit ramp waiting to be towed. And I'm freezing my *** off since it's winter in Montreal and I don't want to wait inside the car.

The car didn't burn down but I don't know what was burning and why.
Click to expand...

Yikes. Glad you are OK, and keep us posted as to what the cause of all of this was.
 
Given that you said it was basically coming out of the center console, my
first suspicion would be something in the climate system, maybe a loose
PTC connection or a flap motor jammed and still trying to move. Were
you using the climate stuff at the time? I'd assume yes given your
complaint of freezing. What settings?

If it was a battery fire it would have been a lot more well-developed before
you would have been aware of it, and the car probably *would* be toast.

_H*
 
I'm also from Montreal. Hope it's nothing too serious but if not this will be the second incident we get here. A little scary
 
To answer some questions, no I don't live in Verdun, I'm in lachine.

And I don't remember if I was using the climate or not, I probably was but it would be set to blow on the windshield to eliminate the condensation that builds up in cold weather.

First time I saw it it seemed to literally come up though the floor carpet.

I was taking some painkillers for lower back pain and honestly wondered if I was hallucinating, it was so surreal.

But I can tell you that adrenaline is a great pain killer, I completely forgot about my back pain and sprinted out of the car like I was 20 again.

They're working on the car now at the dealer, I'm really curious to see what they find.
 
victor_2019 said:
To answer some questions, no I don't live in Verdun, I'm in lachine.

And I don't remember if I was using the climate or not, I probably was but it would be set to blow on the windshield to eliminate the condensation that builds up in cold weather.

First time I saw it it seemed to literally come up though the floor carpet.

I was taking some painkillers for lower back pain and honestly wondered if I was hallucinating, it was so surreal.

But I can tell you that adrenaline is a great pain killer, I completely forgot about my back pain and sprinted out of the car like I was 20 again.

They're working on the car now at the dealer, I'm really curious to see what they find.
Click to expand...
I can imagine how scary this must have been.. Glad that the car didn't catch fire.. Hope that you'll get details on the root cause.
It will be interesting for all other Kona EV owners..
 
I haven't heard anything yet but I'm stalking the techs through BlueLink by looking at the car status...

First they looked under the hood, then they charged the battery from 15 to 18%, then they looked in the trunk, charged it some more to 19%, looked in the trunk again, and now they're again charging...
 
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