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I read something most interesting today,
The German firefighters association is
encountering an increasing problem from
the increasing use of Magnesium in brand
new VWs and BMWs as well as some Mercedes cars.
VW uses Magnesium for steering wheels etc, BMW in
its new generation of inline 6 engines and Mercedes
in some seat construction. While as such Magnesium offers
the advantage of significant weight savings, it has
one major drawback.... IT BURNS, and once it BURNS
it is near impossible to estinguish is.
While the use of Magnesium wheels is nothing new...
when used inside the car it's a major problem.
Cause in cases where people are stuck inside their
cars, should the Magensium get ignited... well that
was it for the people inside the car, cause even with
special powders (water causes Magnesium fires to
react with explosions) there is little hope that the firefighters
can save you. In fact no one in Germany has survived
a fire where Magnesium inside the cockpit or engine
bay ignited, while these people were "stuck" inside their cars.
Engine fires that involved Magnesium all generated such
amounts of heat that the passenger compartment was quickly
ablaze as well. In the cases of wheel fires the procedure
is to rip off the rims of the car as to set them asside.
Because of this the firefighters suggest a ban on the
use of Magnesium for anything else but wheels, however
the German car manufacturers opose this. Some suggest that
all cars that contain interior Magnesium get a special
marking so that firefighters can identify them quickly...
I guess a couple of such burn to death cases in the USA
will quickly put an end to the use of Magnesium for anything
else then wheels, cause of the liability implications.
Well drivers of brand new 530s and 330s and X5-3.0s... your engine
contains large amounts of Magnesium and the BMWs are now
the primary problem as engine fires are a frequent thing.
As to us SAAB drivers, nothing to worry about, there is hardly
any Magnesium in SAABs.
Regards,
Coolknight
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