SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20220726-F0010-2147354761. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Polaris- General 4 General 4 (2019 Polaris General 4 (side x side)). Incident: I have a 2019 Polaris General 4. I was on a mountain ride about 5 miles out when it thru a code and went into limp mode. While limping back, a vehicle behind me let me know the machine was on fire. I stopped and was unable to put out with water but the other vehicle had a fire extinguisher. I was able to put it out but upon inspection the heat shield around the muffler was completely melted and the polyethylene tilt cargo bed had caught fire and burned about an 8" hole in the bed. In addition, wiring below the bed and other plastic parts have burned up and there is melted plastic all over the engine. Upon further research on the internet, I discovered there were recalls for 2016 & 2017 Polaris models for similar problems. The internet says that problem with the O2 sensor cause the engine to mis-fire and heat up the exhaust system which can get hot enough to start fire.