Has your car ever started on fire? How?

[spacetrace33]

I'm just curious and looking to read some stories. Maybe learn something.

[Medtactics]

Well haven't exactly put a car on fire, but that green-blue-blackish insulation is really easy to catch on fire in these cars, the door panels are damn near impossible without accelerants. That's all I really know of how burnable a saturn is.

The engine blocks on the backside (facing the fire wall) can get coated in oil from leaks and become a fire hazard, the exhaust side is pretty much cleaned by the elements. All it would take is for the alternator/starter to start welding itself from a short.

[madpogue]

Not mine, my wife's. And just slightly. '80 Renault LeCar. Exhaust was shot, we were dirt poor students back then, so we jerry-rigged some of that cheap-o Murray's flex-pipe. Well evidently it couldn't quite handle the heat of the catalytic (cataclysmic?) converter, and we must've somehow got oil splashed on it. Floor carpet started smoking so we pulled over right away, looked under and the pipe and cat were RED hot, with just a little lick of flame from the oil on the pipe. No fire extinguisher, I don't remember how we put it out. Maybe just tossed some dirt at it. Fortunately the carpet didn't actually catch. Pipe was still glowing red for some time. We christened that event "Renault-byl" (it was the late '80s....).

[red92xblue]

I bought the car used years ago with 124,000 miles on it. 2 almost a fire incidents 1. the door lock wires got tangled in the window regulator (its like a scissor) and 20 amp fuse was in the 10 amp socket for said wire. well the wire lit up like a toaster element and started the carpet insulation on fire, next one is my ignition switch shorted internally and burned some wires behind the dash, i ended up installing an inline fuse on the ignition ground side so it wouldnt happen again. This saturn is still my daily driver. Oh do you mean a fire on any car? Damn i could write a book about fires. the main thing to know is keep a fire extinguisher handy and know that you only have seconds to put out a engine compartment fire ,after that wiring insulation and vacuum lines start to melt and paint starts to discolor and seconds after that forgetaboutit.

[SC2Sick]

Was welding and being stupid and an ember somehow landed on the carpet. Got it taken care of quickly at least.

[cdxhizors]

I had an amplifier on the back of the seat in my old sc2 melt down and catch the back of the seat on fire. Filled the car with smoke and all that jazz. I also had a sw2 I bought that had a fire under the dash at some point where a mouse had shorted wires out. Melted the whole harness. It was a parts car so I didn't much care to fix it or investigate.

[billysvue]

WHile troubleshooting my old , 0455, evap leak code last year, I pulled the purge valve(EVAP circuit) and was jumpering it to the battery to work it, while I used contact cleaner on it.

I felt Darwin watching me as I dashed away from the fiery ( top of the battery/ near my face) scene, tossing the rattlecan away, exhaling vigorously and waving my hands in front of my singed face.

Almost purged by a valve.

Fire went out on it's own. THe contact cleaner is pretty light/burns up quick.
Just don't use it near a sparking power connection.

[alordofchaos]

Not mine, but someone lost a 911 a day so ago, in TX

(I cropped the original picture for size)

[TXSaturn02]

Coworker had it happen to him. I can't recall exactly (don't work with the guy anymore - thank goodness), but I believe his car was smoking (steam) from overheating under the hood. He stopped and tried to cool off parts of the engine with his shirt and it caught fire (putting it on something very hot?) along with some other combustible fluids under there.

[spacetrace33]

Thanks guys, I enjoyed reading these stories. More are welcome.

One thing I can contribute is, don't underestimate the power of your wheel bearings, and hardware.. Wasn't full out flames, they were yellow. Pretty much had to replace everything that was behind the tire. Got lucky it didn't get engine or fuel lines.

Never again will I say, run it until the wheel falls off. Lol.