Had a quick search and couldn't turn anything up. On my way back to the office after having the car serviced, and smelt a funny smell. Thought it was the wreck in front of me. About 100m later light bluey/grey smoke started appearing from just infront of the passenger side (RHD) bonnet hinge. Bugger. Pulled over, grabbed the fire extinguisher, popped the hood. There was a nice little fire ontop of the trailing (I think) coil. Fire was blown out by a passer by. Note the car was running when I shut it off, all be it roughly.

Any thoughts as to why it caught fire?

 

Faulty/old spark plug wires that were arcing and possibly hit a flammable substance (it was just serviced, so who knows what they used in there, I know around here they spray carb cleaner/brake parts cleaner to clean up any excess oil from the oil filter and it can pool up in areas if they're not careful). It's hard to say.

 

Unfortunately i'm leaning to mechnic error. The smell probably started 200m down the road. The igniton leads were all replaced a year ago. Glad I caught it when I did i've seen the burnt out result of a oily rag left in a alfa gtv, not good.

 

given the fact that it was just serviced I would say something might have been left where it shouldn't have been or there was a substance (carb cleaner, whatever) puddled under/near the T-coil......

However probably some loose connection, old or dirty connection arcing in there actually started the blaze

 

The catch is the engine bay was steam cleaned at the end of the service (to try and locate a oil and power steering fliud leak). Hopefully i'll get a reasonable explanation this morning. Any idea what a coil is worth?

 

Used? About $25. New? Probably a good chunk!

 

Doh, the ignitor was fried as well. That turned out not to be cheap, coils were $50 each in oz $'s. Thinking about some of the wierd little symptons over the last week, this fsailure may have been on the cards.