Petrol-sniffing spiders invade Mazda engines and cause fires

Picture the following scenario: a strange engine drag causes you to pull over to highway’s shoulder. As soon as you pop the hood, “SURPRISE”, a torrent of spiders comes spilling out, as if car problems were not enough in of themselves. No, this is not a scene from a remake of the 1990 film Arachnophobia , but a real issue plaguing certain Mazda vehicles.

The yellow sac spider is a type of arachnid drawn to the smell of petrol that buries itself in the fuel line of the 2010-2012 Mazda 6s, where it will weave its web and causing blockage, negative pressure build-up, fuel leakage, and possibly an explosion.

 
Although no actual fires have been reportedly caused by this issue ─ claims Mazda ─ the threat remains very real; so much so, that the company has issued a voluntary recall to install a software update capable of monitoring pressure levels and warning drivers of any imminent danger.

According to the National Highway Safety Administration, approximately 42,000 vehicles are subject to the recall. The service bulletin on the NHSA’s website further stipulates that the yellow sacs are specifically blocking the evaporative canister in the vent hose, causing a restrictive fuel flow and backward pressure. “If this occurs, the fuel tank pressure may become excessively negative when the emission control system works to purge the vapors from the canister.”

The repeated purging of the fuel tank during normal vehicle operation places enough stress on the fuel tank to potentially cause it to crack and leak highly flammable petrol. The risk of fire is obvious, but a fire burning under a fuel tank is exponentially more dangerous to one’s life.

This present issue is a continuation of an incident first observed in 2011, when Mazda recalled 52,000 of its 2009-2010 Mazda 6s line due to an arachnid infestation. The automaker installed a spring “to inhibit spider intrusion,” as a means of countering the problem, but concluded this past February that some spiders are still able to enter the fuel hose regardless. When the Mazda spokesman Jeremy Barnes was asked by the New York Times why the company is having so many issues with spiders, he replied “Don’t ask me, I’m terrified of the damn things.”

Vehicle owners will receive the service free of charge at any Mazda dealership. Good luck to any suffering from arachnophobia.

Via NHTSA