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

[knochgoon24]

Even bad grounds have been known to heat up the cruise control cable to the point of incineration.

I did not know that. Interesting...

 

[talonalex92]

This happened to me about a yeare ago. I had just installed my new optima a weekend prior, and that weekend I installed my new ported IM. Started it, everythings perfect. After it warmed up, closed the hood, went for the test drive, hit the end of 1st gear and on the shift my car shut off. Wtf? I sit there and smell a horrid burning smell. I get out to open the hood, no. The battery terminal hit the hood and essentially welded to it. After I got it home, I wrapped the battery in carpet, and about 4 spools of wire later, it ran right. From the fuel rail, to the ecu. Every wire, fried.

 

[19BLACKGST98]

That sucks man. I hope they fix it and done end the life of another DSM.

 

[TRSblader]

That's really unfortunate man. Car looked pretty good before that. Hope you can get everything fixed

 

[50trimmed1g]

I did not know that. Interesting...

I learned about it from a wiseman on here actually. I guess it's happened to a few people. Then I told the guys at RRE about it and they said they've seen it happen also. I still don't know why a bad ground would cause that though. I guess it's because one of the grounds goes straight to the throttle cable where it meets at the throttle body.

 

[HIGHPSI4]

The same issue happen to a guy that drove a 3000gt VR4. He took the car to a high end shop to have a lot of work done. Shop did a lot of work on that car. Shop owner told the car owner to secure the battery before the battery started a fire. The car owner stated that he had driven the car for a long time with out a tie-down. On the way home the battery rolled over and started a fire out in the middle of nowhere. Burnt EVERYTHING! A 15K VR4 that was nothing left. Secure any battery before you drive the car.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

pic of strut bar installed before fire?

is your strut bar straight design all one level from one end to the other? it looks like it was right there by the terminal

 

[Tison28s]

Never could imagine this happening . Sorry to hear it man.

 

[architechnik]

It's all about the batter relocation with fuse breakers. I'm so paranoid, I've put a solid fuse, a fuse breaker, and a battery cut-off switch. The battery is secured inside a box, which is secured again in the trunk.

When I first installed strut tower supports I had the battery in the stock location and was very uneasy looking at the pos terminal just forward of the brace. I put the battery as far forward and secure as possible. I didn't care if it hit the ground, but god help me if it hit the +.

 

[b00stedtalon2]

I wrapped my strut tower bar with electrical tape around the section that was near the positive post, when I had one.

 

[gofer]

thanks for the responses... i just didn't think that it was THAT big of a deal, i guess i found out how serious it is that the (+) terminal isn't touched. i just hope that someone who reads this can go fix the problem before their car goes up in flames... i hate seeing DSM's trashed, im hoping my insurance co. doesn't want to send mine to a junkyard too.

I learned about it from a wiseman on here actually. I guess it's happened to a few people. Then I told the guys at RRE about it and they said they've seen it happen also. I still don't know why a bad ground would cause that though. I guess it's because one of the grounds goes straight to the throttle cable where it meets at the throttle body.

i think it might have taken a few things to cause this... after the fire was out i noticed the bolt that grounds the battery to the chassis was sheared off AND those wires off the positive terminal were exposed and touching my strut tower brace. not sure if it took that combination to start the fire but that throttle cable was definitely frying itself...

pic of strut bar installed before fire?

is your strut bar straight design all one level from one end to the other? it looks like it was right there by the terminal

you can see the strut bar in the second picture down from the top. its the old school RRE
straight design. they are really hard to find, now i can see why...

 

[ricktb]

Love the first pic with the homeless guy right there! sorry 'bout your car dude, hope you get good coin from the insurance

 

[knochgoon24]

That Nikon D40X took some really nice shots. At least you had the camera in the car. Do you have that steady of a hand or did reducing the image size remove the blur? 1/4sec is a decent shot to hold by hand. After watching my car catch on fire, none of those images would be clear.

Those photos may have just influenced my next camera purchase.


And I doubt the car it totaled. It would take more than that. If they do total it, buy it back and rebuild it with the money they give you. My friend has done that twice with his car.

 

[gofer]

i did that steady hand... the tripod was in the back but i already looked like a loser with my car on fire, i didn't need to be the dude taking shots with a tripod too. i hope they don't total it but my insurance co. is being really flaky about the whole thing, this will be my first claim in 8 yrs with them and im not impressed. totaled or not that car will be out on the street again, thats my baby and i could never get rid of it especially with all the blood and sweat that me and all my buddies have put into it over the years...

 

[SD99GST]

Man i spotted that strut being too close the first day i met you.

Really I'm surprised that the insurance company is even touching your claim, did they actually see the strut bar? Noticed it was off in one of the pics. I used to work for a insurance company way back and on a heavily modified car they wont even touch it if after market parts are not claimed and a fire happened due to a after market part. But good luck, hopefully you have a "preferred" company and everything works in your favor.

 

[Defiant]

I used to work for a insurance company way back and on a heavily modified car they wont even touch it

"Heavily modified" as defined by the insurance companies means "chromed lug nuts".

 

[dsmfa9nutter]

That's why you paint your bright shiny chrome strut bar flat black and say it's factory. That really sucks gofer, you're car is a beautiful example of a 2g, hopefully the insurance doesn't total it or if they do, you can buy it back and at least get a salvage title on it.

The following goes for everyone...

ALWAYS CARRY A FIRE EXTINGUISHER IN YOUR CAR EVEN IF IT'S STOCK!

 

[98GSXtreme07]

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.

I know it's a few years old but that was halarious.

 

[Lofty]

That's why you paint your bright shiny chrome strut bar flat black and say it's factory. That really sucks gofer, you're car is a beautiful example of a 2g, hopefully the insurance doesn't total it or if they do, you can buy it back and at least get a salvage title on it.

The following goes for everyone...

ALWAYS CARRY A FIRE EXTINGUISHER IN YOUR CAR EVEN IF IT'S STOCK!

It kinda makes you seem like a ### though, fires usually only start on carbeurated engines.

Seen a lot of honduh guys with fire extinguishers.

 

[98GSXtreme07]

It kinda makes you seem like a ### though, fires usually only start on carbeurated engines.

<b>Seen a lot of honduh guys with fire extinguishers.</b>

It's cause Honda guy's have such <I> HOTT </I> cars... But to stay on topic, I'm going to check mine when I get home.

 

[Lofty]

It's cause Honda guy's have such <I> HOTT </I> cars... But to stay on topic, I'm going to check mine when I get home.

No I was just saying, it's highly unlikely to have a fuel injected engine catch fire.
So instead of carrying a fire extinguisher, just make sure your + terminal is covered.

 

[AWDTSIer]

Here is a pic of my buddy's AWD laser after it caught fire, However to this day we still don't know why it did.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[kmoore]

Man, you guys are making me a little nervous. Gofer, did your setup look anything like this?:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Problem is the driver side strut tower nut that holds the strut bar in place is stripped to all hell, so I can't take the bar off.

 

[Defiant]

That's the kind of setup that'll do it. Get a stripped nut socket from Sears. Consider a piece of nylon between the bar and the terminal, and make sure the battery is slid back as far as possible.

As for an extinguisher, I just saw a new one at Wal*Mart for $14, just a spray can that sounds like it works a lot like Halon did- no mess, just flame suffocation.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

perhaps just wrapping it like this guy did will be sufficient?