Engine Fire! COVER THE POSITIVE TERMINAL [Merged 1-9]

[HokieDSM]

Last night I was driving over to my friend's place to chill out some, and I pull into the parking space and notice that there's smoke coming out from the passenger side of the hood. The car's on the timer, and hinking first that I'm overheating, I look over my gauges - temperature's ok, oil pressure's ok... hmm. I pop the hood to take a look, and there's a FIRE right next to the battery!

I turn the car off and run to get some water. After I put the fire out, I'm still trying to figure out wtf happened. Seems that somehow a spark must have jumped from the battery to the strut tower brace to a wire and caught fire... two wires got melted/burned through.

The weird thing is I drove her home. The car seems to be running fine... stereo works, engine runs, I can't figure it out. I checked it out today, and I melted two wires... one of them coming from out behind the intake mainfold before going into a conduit, and another on the passenger side which had some kind of plastic connector and sheath (which got melted) before going into a conduit by the charcoal can. I dunno what the deal is!

I guess it could have been a lot worse. Discuss.

 

[truwarrior]

Your fuel filter is right around that area. Is that leaking at all? Maybe your battery released somes gases and something ignited it.

 

[MrPikolo]

the battery hit the hood? Check that. Happened to me before

 

[chrysler kid]

check the a/c and other goodies. headlights maybe

 

[Eclipsed]

go dsms

 

[ph3r3d]

Originally posted by Eclipsed
go dsms

 

[thehyena]

you should prolly replace those wires too

 

[HokieDSM]

Well... I went out and took a look at the car again today (gonna drive her in just a few minutes). Everything seems to work fine, with the exception of my CATZ HID driving lights (aka foglamps hehe) -

So my guess is that somehow the lights got overloaded and sparked the fire, melting their wires. Everything else, at the moment seems to be A-Ok though. Should be fun replacing the wires

 

[MyRidzPhucked]

i know what you mean i have to rewire my whole radio system wires... left one cut for a couple of minutes in my saab, drove too fast and sent a good amount of smoke out the vents before igniting inside the car, i was lucky i still have lung power .
anyways i have to take the whole dash off just to get access to the HUGE wire loom (fully fully loaded) yay!

good luck dude

 

[Isotta91]

yea i know how the engine fire goes :laugh: . i'm kinda happy it happened, set me up with a nice galant vr4 block from oversees along with the vr4 tranny...now boosting a concervative 15psi and i love it. anyways, good luck with finding out what happened, thats half the battle. in my case, it was a small power steering fluid leak and the fluid connected with a stripped wire to my boost gauge. poof up went the car damaging pretty much everything under the hood.

 

[Spool'n Spyder]

I was leaving my friends house today and my car studdered a few times. I
wasnt sure what was going on, then I pulled up to a stop sign and
pushed the clutch and it felt like it melted when I pushed it in. The car died so I got
out and saw a little smoke from under the hood. I raised the hood and
saw a few little flames. I couldnt blow it out cause the fumes were taking my breath. I couldnt find anything to put it out with and by the time my friend got there, it was 3 foot flames. Burnt everything from the middle of the engine compartment to the passenger side fender (fuse box and all). I am in the middle of doing an awd swap on that Spyder. I guess now i'm gonna try to put the awd Talon together. Only problem is i've sold tons of parts off of it. I just dont know what i'm gonna do, this was my daily driver.

Do ya think I could get a fuse box and wiring harness and try to fix the Spyder, or with the wires all burnt is it toast?

Thanks, Nathan

 

[DSM90AWD]

Do ya think I could get a fuse box and wiring harness and try to fix the Spyder, or with the wires all burnt is it toast?

You've likely also toasted engine sensors, wiring to those sensors, plugs, ignition module, coil packs..etc due to the heat. Not to mention the original problem (clutch went to floor) which maybe indicative of Crankwalk

I'm thinking the worst since I've not seen the damage firsthand, but If it were me I'd take this opportunity to swap in true turbo engine. You said you have an AWD parts car?

Sorry to hear of your loss, it pains me everytime I hear a story like this. I'm suprised more people don't pickup a basic Halon system once they've put significant $ into their cars (next mod on my list).

 

[ddavisaf]

You know that silver reflective looking device on the bottom of the hood? That's put there to smother flames in the engine compartment. At least, it trys to. Just an FYI for y'all.

 

[DSM90AWD]

You know that silver reflective looking device on the bottom of the hood? That's put there to smother flames in the engine compartment. At least, it trys to. Just an FYI for y'all.

Look at his profile pic. CF hood. They do nothing but smell reeaaallllyyy bad in an engine fire

Not to mention if your engine is on fire, leave the hood down, as fresh air feeds a fire

 

[ddavisaf]

Look at his profile pic. CF hood. They do nothing but smell reeaaallllyyy bad in an engine fire

Not to mention if your engine is on fire, leave the hood down, as fresh air feeds a fire

I didn't look. Good call.

 

[Defiant]

You know that silver reflective looking device on the bottom of the hood? That's put there to smother flames in the engine compartment. At least, it trys to. Just an FYI for y'all.

NO IT ISN'T, AND KILL THIS IDIOT MYTH FOREVER.
IT'S ONLY A HEAT REFLECTOR TO TRY AND SAVE THE HOOD PAINT, AND THE ASSES OF ALL THE LITTLE BASTARDS WHO THINK THE HOOD IS A SLIDE WHILE YOU'RE SHOPPING AT WAL*MART.

 

[Defiant]

So, what was the fire? Another unshielded positive terminal finding the strut brace, from a sliding, unbracketed battery?

 

[ddavisaf]

Or maybe I'm wrong. I was told that information as a fact, not a myth. We learn something new everyday.

 

[poppyseed]

Yah defiant is right, its to protect the paint. You ever seen people's hood with the paint all burnt off right above where the motor sits. This is actually the first time i have ever heard someone say it was for fires on the engine (pretty funny theory to). My question is the hood is metal, why would you think that is to protect against fires. Whats a fire going to do burn through the metal, we don't exactly use jet fuel in this cars.

 

[ddavisaf]

I never put much thought into to be honest. I was told that the reason for it being there was to protect the driver from engine fires. The person said the clips that hold it up would melt and it would act as a blanket and drop over the engine smothering the fire. I simply accepted it without arguement. Like I said though, I'm glad I learned otherwise. Now I know better and I won't make the mistake again.

 

[Iluvskanks]

The person said the clips that hold it up would melt and it would act as a blanket and drop over the engine smothering the fire.

I just have to say some one really put some thought into that, clips melting and dropping it down. Now that is brilliant, now I have a good way to mess with people when they ask what that is for.

I always get the why is there a hump in the hood? I am so sick of that question that now I just tell them its to make room for the nitrous. You should see people's faces cuz they believe it. When you say to make room for the cam gears they just look at you like cam what.


Back to thread try to find the source of the fire figure out why it happened fix that then test the wires for resistance, it should be close to 0. Replace ones that aren't and try to start. Depending on how bad the fire is a lot of sensors could have been melted to.

 

[projctWraith]

You could probably fix most of the damage with a COMPLETE engine harness replacement.

 

[Iluvskanks]

Or save your self some money and got to junk yard to get them.

 

[Spool'n Spyder]

Ok, I got into it today and yes, it was the strut bar. I have been modding for a while and just thought it was about time to get one. I ended up paying more for the strut bar then I did the turbo

We dont think its all that bad. It burnt the engine harness, water lines, cam position sensor, fuse box, cruise control, bov, gm maf, maft wires (just from the fire not electrically).

I bought a harness, fuse box, and cruise control from a junk yard for 100 bucks (I didnt think that was bad). I'm gonna try and relocate it behind my glove box. I was gonna do this when I built the motor but there is no better time then now.

I'm gonna relocate the battery to the space between the back seat and the trunk.

I will never drive any modded car again without a fire extenguisher of some kind.

I AM going to salvage this car and when it hits the road it will be awd.

Thanks for the help, Nathan

 

[eviltalon1]

Hey Nate Dogg, its Danny, were you and Jason able to get it running the other day? And have you gone by the house and got the TB? Also i think I have a cam angle sensor you can have. Shoot me a PM.

Danny