The BBC reports that the yellow sac spider is attracted to the smell of petrol, and will weave its web in the evaporative canister vent line, causing a blockage and build-up of pressure increasing the risk of fire. Mazda is recalling some 42,000 vehicles (namely the 2010-12 Mazda 6s) for a software update to monitor the pressure level and warn drivers of any danger. Don't count on Mazda to actually remove any spider though. When asked by the New York Times why the spiders were causing so much trouble, a Mazda spokesman said: "Don't ask me, I'm terrified of the damn things."
Mazda recalled about 52,000 of its 2009-10 Mazda 6s because of the same problem in 2011. Spiders causing car issues in not only a Mazda thing. In 2013 Toyota recalled around 803,000 vehicles in the U.S. because of the possibility that spider webs might clog a drain hole causing water to backup and potentially damage electronic components and cause the air bags to deploy.
(Score: 2) by bucc5062 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @12:33PM
To look at it another way, at least it can't kill you with its bite
Yellow Sac Spider [wikipedia.org]
Thinking out side the box here, I wonder if oil companies have tested to see if they are attracted to oil. A new army of surveyors looking for that elusive black gold, Texas Tea.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 4, Informative) by Taibhsear on Wednesday April 09 2014, @01:29PM
These spiders are very common in houses here in Chicago. They tend to be similar in size and shape of brown recluses as well as various wolf spiders in the area so people that don't know better tend to mix them up. Although the descriptions of the yellow sac spiders' venom sounds scary on paper they are basically harmless aside from risk of infection from scratching the bite. They aren't aggressive. They tend to dangle from the ceiling and fall on you when sleeping. You roll over onto them and they bite in defense. It's like getting a mild mosquito bite. Some people are allergic to the venom though and the bite spot can swell up pretty bad but it's still not something you need to go to the hospital for. So over all I think this is more a worry of damage to the vehicles and heebiejeebies rather than the risk of people dying from necrotic infections.
(Score: 4, Funny) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:28PM
Well I wasn't worried until I read your post.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by Taibhsear on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:17PM
They also dangle similarly from the rear view mirror while driving. One of my friends got pulled over while freaking out and trying to kill it with a book. Officer let him go after being shown the freshly squished spider in the book.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:13PM
Let HIM go? Freaking out? Seriously?
Even my wife would look at it casually (with interest), the biggest risk would be that it would be a driving distraction.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Wierd0n3 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @07:23PM
I may not freak, but i have a saying "anything (by design) with more than 4 legs and less than 2 is WRONG"
they creep me out and they have to die, not anything i can help.
strangely enough, caterpillars and centipedes don't bother me as much.
(Score: 1) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday April 09 2014, @12:39PM
The software should be set to spontaneously ignite all fuel upon detection of spiders.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday April 09 2014, @12:48PM
On second reading of the summary:
"and will weave its web in the evaporative canister vent line, causing a blockage and build-up of pressure increasing the risk of fire"
This really is a problem that fixes itself, no?
(Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:32PM
I have known people that were so terrified of spiders that they would respond with tactical nuclear weapons if they had them at their disposal.
Though I suppose I did use gasoline to light a hornet's nest on fire after I had been stung several times. (Note: hornets really really hate lawn mowers.)
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:06PM
Why limit yourself to tactical nukes?
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday April 09 2014, @09:04PM
Using chemical weapons on spiders is just too pedestrian.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @12:48PM
Don't count on Maza
(Score: 1) by paulej72 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @01:55PM
Fixed.
Team Leader for SN Development
(Score: 2, Funny) by Woods on Wednesday April 09 2014, @01:20PM
Spiders In A Car
(Score: 2) by Bartman12345 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @01:22PM
This story is setting off my bullshit detector. They want to recall 42,000 cars, not to stop the spiders getting in and wreaking havoc but to do a SOFTWARE update to warn that they MAY have a spider related problem.
That makes no sense. Could it be that someone found a critical bug in the software, and the spiders are just an excuse to get the cars in for a patch?
(Score: 3, Informative) by fliptop on Wednesday April 09 2014, @01:54PM
Probably not, if the spiders are attracted to the smell of gasoline and do weave webs in the evaporative fuel canister, that will cause a problem. If my memory serves me correctly, the canister is full of activated carbon and any fuel vapor is vented to it to prevent the vapor from just being released under the hood of the car, which could cause a fire hazard. The canister (at least, the ones I've seen in my experience) have a hole in the bottom such that any vapor that makes it through all the activated carbon will be expelled outside the engine compartment. If a spider makes a web in that hole and clogs it up, vapor may very well back up and put the system under pressure, which could be a Bad Thing(tm).
Of course, it's been quite a while since I've removed one of the canisters so I could be wrong here but I do distinctly remember taking one apart one time and it was full of activated carbon.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bartman12345 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:38PM
Thanks for the explanation.
OK, so my conspiracy theory is probably not right... so the only explanation left is incompetence. Somehow, millions of cars are managing to operate just fine without catching fire due to a bug crawling into a tube. It might be excusable if it was a freak problem, but reading TFA shows that this exact same issue has come up before!
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:48PM
Yeah, I'm scratching my head on that one, these canisters have been on cars since the 70's AFAIK. Perhaps the Mazda in particular has the canister opening designed in such a way that the hole gets clogged easily? I really don't know, like I said it's been a long time since I removed one of the canisters. One would think any of them are susceptible to this problem. I'd have to get my hands on a Mazda one and see what's different when compared to others.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Woods on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:35PM
I remember hearing about this same problem a while ago with the Mazda specific engines, perhaps it was a rumor, but I remember someone mentioning that the factory where the part in question was built had become infested with spiders, hence only Mazda and only this part are affected.
Again, I am not sure if that is true or not, so take it with a grain of salt.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:41PM
There wouldn't be any gasoline fumes in a newly manufactured evap canister to attract spiders.
There is something else at play here, probably another diagnostic system that is sensitive to the tube being plugged, which triggers undesirable engine performance. The oxygen sensors are notorious for causing computer generated performance problems when they go bad, and maybe this is just similar instance.
The fact that a software fix is all that is required suggests it is strictly a software problem.
NOTE: These vent lines lead vapors BACK to the Gas tank, so that excess fuel fumes are vented back into the tank. If it becomes plugged, the fuel pump will leave negative pressure in the tank, eventually con-caving the tank, causing tank flex, but that only happens in extreme cases, when driving near empty.
Problem doesn't exist unless you habitually drive till your tank is nearly empty.
Problem can be solved by merely opening the gas cap occasionally.
These filters can be easily damaged by "topping off" with that last squirt of gas when you are filling your tank, which is why every manufacturer recommends NEVER doing that. (A recommendation ignored by people who think that extra squirt will make the difference between getting stranded somewhere).
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Woods on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:59PM
You never mentioned exploding cars. Son, I am disappoint.
I never understood people who top off, those extra few drops of gas will not really do much. Instead, when pulling out of the parking lot, go easy on the gas pedal, that should just about even up any gain you would have gotten from topping up.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:21PM
So, a shot of raid at the vent hole at each oil change and problem solved.
Why a recall?
Also the evap canisters can be totally plugged and there will be no significant back pressure built up anywhere. It is after all, JUST an evaporation canister, and as such does not work on that much pressure. If it can be plugged by a spider, there really isn't any pressure in the system.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by urza9814 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:36PM
Software updates are cheap. Actually fixing the problem isn't. And the goal of a recall is not to fix the problem but to prevent a lawsuit.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:45PM
Or to detect the very rare cases where this occurs, and turn on the check engine light and throw a diagnostic code to the mechanic to replace the filter.
The mechanic might replace the filter, or simply drill a small vent hole in the gas cap to let the tank vent and prevent it from building up negative pressure.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Funny) by zim on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:43PM
(Score: 1) by paulej72 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:50PM
lol
Team Leader for SN Development
(Score: 2) by TK on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:07PM
Nope, they're still running on their spider hamster wheel. Must be a faulty sensor. I'll top off my spiders in the morning.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 2, Funny) by NezSez on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:59PM
Reminds me of an old kernel error msg:
"Aiee penguin on the SCSI-bus."
From the 90's era linux/drivers/scsi/esp.c
No Sig to see here, move along, move along...
(Score: 1) by francois.barbier on Wednesday April 09 2014, @04:44PM
Computers have bugs in them...
Now cars have spiders in them...
What's next? Snakes on a plane?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 11 2014, @06:00PM
A computer bug that makes cars potentially vulnerable to bugs. The fix is a software update. In fact
"In 1946, when Hopper was released from active duty, she joined the Harvard Faculty at the Computation Laboratory where she continued her work on the Mark II and Mark III. Operators traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped in a relay, coining the term bug. This bug was carefully removed and taped to the log book. Stemming from the first bug, today we call errors or glitches in a program a bug."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @08:45PM
I recently saw an item about an airliner that aborted a takeoff because the instruments were reporting gibberish.
Turns out that in the span of less than 2 hours that the aircraft was on the ground, mud daubers had built a nest in one of the pitot tubes used for sensing airspeed.
There was a nasty previous incident when a pilot ignored the same indications.
Birgenair_Flight_301 [wikipedia.org]
-- gewg_