Tonights the night my car caught fire
 

So heading home from work data logging to see if i was still getting AE Triggers at steady state. Everythings great, think to my self "looking good, its time to start test fitting my ARTech mani and DP and sorting out oil drain/ intercoolet piping".

A few min later im coasing down a hill and notice as i try accelerate that ive go no power, i stomp on it a little and it picks up like normal " must have just been the throttle sticking a bit" i think. 5 seconds later the car dies, rpm etc all go to zero. Pull over thinking and notice black smoke comming frmo the engine bay. ----. Pop the hood and boot, praying to Hustlers mum that my fire extingiusher is in the boot. It was, from there everthings a blur, i must have ripped out the pin and safety tag and went to work on the engine bay.

Fires out, Phew.

Have a look at WTF has happened. In hindsight it was a little fire, and possibly would have burnt itself out had i not done anytthing.

About 18 month ago i had a $900 alarm / remote central locking system installed. The speaker im assuming from that system had fallen off its bracket and goen down and caught on the exhaust, caught fire, blew my 30amp fuel injector fuse and killed the car.

I checked the area for obvious damage and found a very powdery and sooty enhaust side but nothing that looked totally fucked ( apart from the melted alarm crap). A random in a house nearby gave me the correct fuse from his corolla to test out. fuse in, key on fuel pump primes car fires and seems normal.

Had a friend follow me home and its sitting in the driveway now. will post up some pics in a few days on the weekend.

Scary but interesting night for me. I immediatly thought it was something id done, blew the engine or the MS or my wideband had somehow turned into a flux capacitor and i was in an alternate reality where my car was even more ---- than it alread is.

Anyone else have " Car on fire stories? "

Can anyone see any way my MS / Wideband coudl have been damaged before the fuse blew? i gave each a good sniff and nothing smelled burn / fried.

Have a good night!
Scott

Never had a car catch fire, but stories like this make me re-think my decision to not have a fire extinguisher in the car. I wish there was somewhere good to mount it where it wouldn't show.

I've got one.

Years ago, I had a s/c'ed 99. I let a "friend" borrow it to go get his gf...in turn I took his bike out for a spin. About two hours later I get back to the apartment, jump in the car and crank it up. Car is running like ----...sounds like a Subaru and the CEL was flashing. I asked him WFT he did to my car (and used a 1/2 tank of gas in a short trip) and he claimed "I didn't do anything, it was running fine when I parked it". Yeah whatever. Needless to say there was almost no compression on cylinder one. I had no choice but to keep driving the car. I did for for a couple of weeks with no problem other than a lot of white smoke in boost and having to add a lot of oil.

So I was out with friends one night going to a "spot" to do some watching. When we got there, a couple of people were pointing and saying something under my car was glowing. So I pul over (mind you it's 2am in an empty industrial park) and there is a sizable fire on the exhaust side. I knew I didn't have anything with me and the realization of watching my car burn was setting in....very hard feeling to explain. Seeing you sh!t on fire and not having anything. So one guy jumped in his car and went tearing ass for something to put on it (gas station was about 1 mile away). Within moments, another guy comes over with a bottle of Mountain Dew and starts pouring it on. That 1 liter bottle of the good stuff was just enough to extinguish the fire. Whew.

What ended up happening was that the blowby created too much pressure in the crank case and pushed the oil dipstick up and dumped a bunch of oil on the exhaust, which in turn caught fire. Had to replace some things, but the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Most stories I've heard include the battery not being covered (or tied down properly on the NA), and large, loose metal objects in the trunk making contact with the battery terminals.

I left one of the three ground straps off my transmission/engine on my old Jetta when doing a clutch job once and burned every ground wire in the car. That was fun.

I put mine here, the floor mat covers the front bit and the seat when pulled forward a bit covers the rear.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-G...0x600%255D.jpg

<threadjack> many ground straps do our engines have? I have one bolt leftover that I labelled "transmission ground strap," but I hooked up the one by the dipstick and don't remember any others. I'm hoping I just used the wrong bolt on that one.
</threadjack>

That's actually not a bad idea, I'll check it out. What if I let somebody short drive my car, will the seat still slide forward?

That's the passenger side, mine's a Eunos Roadster ;-)
And yes, seat still has full travel

I had an extinguisher infront of the drivers seat on my old car (read:higher seat than a miata) and I never noticed it. was a great spot for it.

That is cheating! I wouldn't want one where a passenger would see it. I would get really tired of hearing things like "Is this car going to catch fire?? ZOMG let me out!"

One on the engine itself near the exhaust, and another on the PPF, back near the differential.


Only car I've yet set on fire was my '76 Beetle. The battery in those cars is inside the passenger cabin, sitting on the floor beneath the rear bench seat. The floorpans on this car, as with most other VW Beetles, were rusted all to hell, with huge gaping holes in some places.

So one day I happen to hit a bump, and that was the proverbial last straw. The battery fell out of the car through the floor, tipping over sideways as it did so. The positive terminal came to rest upon the chassis, generating a large amount of heat as it caused the surrounding metal to rapidly transition from solid to liquid form. This was sufficient to ignite the padding on the underside of the seat, which in the Beetle is made from a material that strongly resembles horse hair.

Fortunately, the rear seat of a Beetle is very easily removable, as there is a storage space under it. I thus rapidly came to a stop, tore the seat out of the car, and tossed it smoldering into the ditch at the side of the road. The battery, by this point, had worked its way free such that it was no longer in contact with the chassis, so I carefully lifted it back up through the hole, placed some scrap lumber which I found nearby across the hole, set the battery atop the wood, and carefully drove to the auto parts store, whereupon I shared a pretty good laugh with the guy at the parts counter when I requested a new battery and a hacksaw.

LOL at the Beetle fire. That's the only car I've ever had a fire in, too. I was an hour from home, on the way to my first day of work at a new job, not even 5 minutes from the restaurant where I was headed.

Round a corner onto a busy street, look in the rearview and see smoke pouring out of the engine compartment. Jump the curb, run around to the back just as the flames start peeking out of the vents. Pop it open and stand there amazed that my car was on fire haha. Somebody with an extinguisher stopped and put it out.

Turns out the tube that the gas line attached to at the carb somehow managed to back out, leaving me pumping gasoline onto a hot motor. Good times.

On the bus going to a track meet in H.S. (many years ago), loud bang, alarm beeping on dash, and smoke started pouring out of the left rear tire area of the bus. Turned out the parking brake had not released. After about 40 miles the drum was red hot and caught the tire on fire. Coach went through quite a few fire extinguishers as the dry chemical ones wouldn't cool down the brake drum and it would simply reignite things.

We all crammed onto a smaller bus from the nearest school district and made it to the track meet.

I once had a mercedes 300SDL. That stands for super diesel, long wheelbase. 83 or something like that.

I was driving to see my frand and hmm car started smoking from engine. i look at water temp gauge and MOTHERFURKKER IS PEGGED. Now this had happened to me before; the water pump went and car overheated, ---- warped or something like that I forget. Anyways, THE SHIZ IS HAPPENING AGAIN. I was like bitch, fu you I am so getting to my frands house.

So I plow on down 95 and by now, the motor is pouring out thick black smoke. I get 20 miles down the highway and it is so bad I can't see so I pull into a rest stop. Shut car off hoping it just needs to cool down. Surprise won't start. Got it towed to a benz shop and they said that I had melted the pistons to the cylinder walls and they were fused. Ugh i hated those old fukin cars.

Hehe. I knew a guy who lost a Ghia to the same failure. It actually ignited the engine case. When the firemen arrived and saw that it was a VW, they just let it burn. Not because they were jerks, but because you can't really extinguish burning magnesium.

For those unfamiliar, the carburetor on a VW engine sits on top of a vertical pipe, and is located above the distributor. Some folks stick little plastic inline fuel filters in the line between the pump and the carb (which runs directly above the distributor) and when these cheap little filters crack, they start pouring fuel right onto the distributor cap.

Anyone that has owned a late 80's ford 5.0 prob has a alternator fire story, I had a few catch fire. Last one was a few years ago on my 89 F150. Left house and made it to light at end of street, maybe 1000' saw smoke rising from under hood and new it could not be over heating already, open hood and with no extinguisher or tools I pulled off battery cable and started huffing. I blew out the fire in the alternator! But had inhaled a little smoke and passed out on side of road. People stopped to see if I was alright. After a few minutes I was up and about with a cough.

One miata "fire", Last year at 24 hour Chumpcar race at VIR I had fitted our car with a LARGE oil cooler so we were unsure how much oil the car held. Changed oil during our safety break and apparently put too much oil in the car. After my stint in the car I pulled back in pits and my crew starts yelling "the car on fire!" They tore open the hood and stared assessing the problems still thinking the car was on fire from smoke.....as I yell to help me get out of the car! Window new was stuck! Turns out it pushed out the dipstick and sprayed oil everywhere, smoke but no flames. Back on track the car went...

My 02 Impreza caught on fire a few months ago, and only about a month after I bought the car. I was driving down the highway and it started to feel as if the brakes were dragging. I pulled over and noting felt hot/looked out of place, so I pressed on. A few minutes later, I saw some smoke coming from behind the car so I took the next exit and pulled into a parking lot. I ran into a nearby gas station and asked them if they had a fire extinguisher because my car was smoking(in the back of their parking lot). They were anything but helpful at first but finally brought out an extinguisher when flames started coming up. It took two extinguishers to put it out and the fire department came, but things went a lot better than they could have. The fire was above the fuel tank, and to this day, I have no idea what the cause was. The car was, and still is, bone stock with the exception of a skid plate, mud flaps, and rally lights. I had the car towed to a dealer because I was too busy to make the repairs myself. A bunch of fuel lines/lines for the evap system were melted and had to be replaced. Fortunately, the car has been fine ever since the incident.

While all of this was going on, I had $5,600 in a backpack in the car because I was headed back to school and would be leaving from there in a few days to pick up my Miata. That would have been pretty shitty if my dd, plus the money for my future toy, had all burned up.

Had an aircraft catch on fire. That turned out VERY badly.

I once had an intercooler sprayer (on an old DSM) with a tank in the trunk. Kept it full of water. Temps dropped below freezing one day and I accidentally nudged the pump switch to the 'on' position while on the highway. Burned out the motor and lit my trunk floorboard (which was wood) on fire.

Pulled over and sprayed it with my extinguisher.

Was the aircraft flying at the time?

While doing the oil return line on my old A4, the metal line hit the starter positive terminal and lit the rubber portion of the line on fire. The smell from it was so bad that when I tried looking to see where the fire was coming from, my eyes started watering immediately. I then stood there for a few seconds before my dad doused it with water, which luckily put it out.

Good stories :). Not gonna post pics, honestly i cant see any damage ( apart from my fked alarm ). Just an engine bay covered in white powerdery ---- thats a real ass to try and clean :(. Guess ill clean it up proper when i rip crap out for my turbo install :D

ran my nb with apparently a hell of an oil leak...
engine blew on i80 in new jersey (hole in the block) and there was a very small fire...
nothing major though

Yes. Aircraft was equipped with a Halon fire extinguishing system (didn't work) and an ejection seat (worked great). Gives you life but takes away your fitness to fly in the Navy. Herniated three discs.

This was in 1991, Gulf War pretty much finished, and politicians looking to cash in on the "peace dividend." Not a good time to be a medically-grounded fighter puke. Tailhook was just around the corner.

I had an unfused wire going from my alternator terminal to my LC1 running through my firewall. I attempted to drill a hole next to it for a vacuum line to be run, and I nicked the wire with my drill. The bit grounded the wire to the firewall and it melted the wire from the firewall to the alternator terminal. It also managed to melt other stuff like vacuum lines and it melted a little hole in my master cylinder (which I JB welded to repair). I ended up putting a FUSED wire in it's place and I have yet to see 1 leak with my master cylinder.
Also...if you EVER blow a fuse, keep in mind that it most likely blew for a reason. DO NOT stick a paper clip or something in there to replace the fuse...that's a different story, same car though.
I do keep a fire extinguisher in my trunk, just for insurance.

Do you know stefan morton? I figure how many guys with turbo miatas live in tasmania... right? lol

You herniated 3 discs from the ejection seat?

delete

Nope dont know him, but i have seen one other turbo miata here :)

I'm not surprised.

Not being a Naval aviator myself, I've never had the pleasure of experiencing a catapult launch, a nighttime carrier landing, or being blasted out of an aircraft by a solid-fuel rocket located directly beneath my ass, but that's essentially what an ejection seat consists of. It's designed to offer the pilot an alternative to being killed, but not necessarily to provide him with a gentle massage on the way out. Think >10g straight up.


Also, the name hornetball makes a lot more sense now.

Scary stuff man, glad you were able to save the car.

A couple years ago I was out playing around with some friends at a small oval track nearby. I saw a friend's SR20 240 catch fire. It was small at first and would have been easy to put out, but it just kept spreading. It took forever to get a fire extinguisher over to the car and by the time a firetruck showed up the car was pretty much a puddle.

Seeing that made me realize how quickly all your hard work can just disappear. I went out and bought a fire extinguisher that night to keep in the car. It stays wedged behind the passenger seat.

My dad's '77 911 sometimes likes to start billowing smoke out of the air vents due to melting plastic insulation. If it ever actually caught on fire, I think I'd let it burn, even though it has an extinguisher in it.

Bout 3 yrs. ago,working on the fuel lines under the hood of a running mazda,a rubber hose pops off and starts spraying fuel everywhere!dimwit that I am, I reach for the first thing that will shut the motor down,coilwire.Not only do I mildly electrocute myself,I set the engine bay on fire and my effing hand.:P

L5-S1 was the worst. I had surgery on that one. Really debilitating.

Also have two in my neck that sometimes make my left arm and hand tingly/numb. Not bad enough to worry about.

Better than dead by a long shot.

The name "hornetball" always made sense to me. ???

^Sounds scary beyond all reason. I remember some of the safeties involved with E.O.D. and the downed planes with ejector seats. The list is about a mile long. Never got to actually get near one, but saw the list of safety precautions and realized I never wanted to. I'll hit bombs with fuses in them with a hammer all day long before I get near an ejector seat.

On a side note what is a good/recommended in car extinguisher? Rol bar mounts prefered.

It makes a lot of sense once one knows that you were a naval aviator, specifically an F18 Hornet pilot. Perhaps Joe had not realized that.

looks like this.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._2467409_n.jpg

Just go to summit racing and pick one up. I have a little chrome one bolted to my harness bar between the seats, I'd like it in a better spot but have yet to find one. Most come with their own bracket you can hose clamp on to your roll bar.

I think mines a 2.5 or 1 lb bottle, not sure. But I pulled the pin and sprayed it for a split second once when I was bored and the gauge now shows 75%. Get one as big as you can fit/afford.

Recommend Halon gas. If you get the ones that are powder and ever have to use it, you'll have one heck of a mess on your hands. The fire suppresant powders are also very corrosive.

As a side benefit, the environmentalists hate Halon. Ozone depleting gas, you know.

The problem with Halon is that it doesn't stay put. So, if you have a situation where there is a constant feed of fuel and source of ignition + oxygen gets reintroduced as the Halon dissipates ==> you are back on fire. That was the issue I experienced way back when.