As Frankenstein would say....."FIRE BAD" !!
 

I was driving the 7 on the Highway approaching a Bridge when the car seemed to backfire, it lost power and then regained power (RPMS) back . It had never done this before. As I approached the Bridge, it lost power again. I tried to accelerate by depressing the gas pedal, but it didn't do anything. It just seemed to idle. I was coasting and barely made it accros the steep Bridge.

I gained speed after I reached and crossed the Bridge and just coasted/rolled the car off onto a street. I stopped at an intersection and the 7 turned off. I tried to restart the engine but it didn't want to stay idleing.

A Motorcyclist drove and stopped next to me and said "Sir, your muffler is on fire". I got off the car and ran to the rear and saw flames coming out and around the tailpipes. The flames started to melt the rear rubber liner that sits around the Tailpipes. THEN, the rear bumper started to catch on fire also. I got on the phone and called 911 to get the Fire Dept out there ASAP.

It was then that a car stopped behind me and the gentleman quickly got off and got his fire extinguisher out of his car and turned off the Fire.

Fire Dept got there and inspected the burned/melted area and said the cause was more than likely that the Tail Pipes had touched the Bumper liner.

I THINK NOT!!

I think the Engine blew and either hot oil or hot components/particles blowing out the muffller set the rear on fire. Anyway, the car had to be towed. I tried to restart the engine and it did. But it will not rev and it turns off after a few seconds.

QUESTION: If the Seal(s) are gone. wouldn't it blow oil out through the exhaust?? What and How do I start to rule-out the problem(s).

I'll get it fixed, but I'd like to fing out what happened to the Engine before I have to haul it to a "Rotory Friendly" shop.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks for looking.

Hope this kind of $#!t never happens to anyone of you!

Could be the muffler colapsed or something.. disconnect the cat and see if it can run/has power.

Start checking the fuel lines back there. A split fuel line could cause both of your problems (fire & car no-worky).

I would say check your ignition ( coils, spark plug wires ), Something here could of failed and loaded the engine/exhaust up with raw fuel - thus the fire.

Tom

My vote goes with this being your problem.... but dude... taht so sucks...

oh, not as bad as the brand new BMW BarBaQue I saw about 3 months ago... whole thing in flames and 'sploding, like the movies, freaky sh!t.

Muffler looks pretty good. I think the stalling episode is directly related to the blaze. But I'll check the MagFlow a little closer tomorrow after work.

BTW, I'll post a few photos of the damage tomorrow.

The blaze was directly on the area of the S/S Tail pipes and the Bumper Liner. Then it quickly spread to the actual bumper,.. but concentrated to the area above the Tail Pipes.

Had it been a fuel-fed fire (split fuel line), the end result would have been catostrophic.

Thanks for your reply and advise. I'll check the fuel lines anyway.

I'm getting spark to the plugs because the Engine turns on,... just doesn't rev. Only idles a little rough for a few seconds and then turns off.

Are you sure the Lead coil IS firing - the trailings alone will start and run the car, just not very smooth.

Tom

I didn't get a chance to check anything. Probably won't check anything thoroughly till the week-end. I'll test the Coil at that juncture.

When the Engine first lost power,..it regained (normal operation) it's HP and high RPM for a moment. Then it quit again and never regained full power. Perhaps your hypothesis is a good place to start~!!

Thanks.

Very sorry to hear about your situation, but you need to carry a fire extinguisher with these cars (well, you should probably carry one in any vehicle). Just buy a small automotive one and stick it in the passenger-side bin.

Ironic. I almost bought one this past week-end. I drove the 7 to P-Boys but all they had were the small chrome w/ cheesy red flames on the body type Extinguishers. I didn't want to pay 50 bucks for a cheesy Extinguisher.

It would have saved the bumper damage. Still doesn't solve the Engine problem though. I'll invest in a good extinguisher once my 7 is up and running again.

Thanks.

Sounds to me like you stopped getting fuel to the engine! How old is your fuel filter?

It was replaced in Jan/01. 32K miles ago. Sounds like lack of Fuel and/or Spark may have caused the Engine stall episode. Still confused about Fire causation/sourse around the TPs.

Did the flames start from inside the muffler and burn like that before the bumper started or was it on and around the muffler and then the bumper started on fire ? I guess the fuel could blow around and drip over there if a fuel line were to blame.

Sorry, not to laugh but if anyone ever said that to me at a red light I would bust out laughing for sure.

I remember the fire was concentrated to the top outer area of the TPs. Can't recall fire coming from within the TPs.


If that ever happens to you, ....you better grab an Extinguisher and laugh all the way to the rear of your FD quickly :)

If the fire seemed concentrated on and around the muffler & tips im going to have to lean towards maybe leaking fuel line also, it would certainly be possible for it to run along the bumper then drip down on the exhaust tips I would think. Did it smell gassy at all or anything ?

No abnormal smell of fuel. If Fuel was dripping/running from a line,.. the Fire would've followed the fuel back to the line.

It would have been almost impossible to contain or extinguish the blaze.

Ka-Freagin-Boom!!

I really don't think it's a FFF caused by split fuel line. But as I stated before, I'll double check as soon as I can.

change your filter, i've heard that it needs to be changed every 15k miles

Here's a few photos of the fire damage....

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/...earFire002.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/...earFire004.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/...earFire005.jpg

Negative. It should be replaced every 60K miles or 60 months, whichever comes first.

should and in practice are two different things

when i used to have a lightning, yeah i know pistons suck ... blow me


i used to change the fuel filter every other oil change... its a cheap part and can wreak havoc with your car if you dont replace it regularly

What was the cost of the Lightning Filter and how easy was it to change out??? I think we're comparing apples to hemorrhoids :)

Wow.

Did you exhaust overheat light up in the center console by any chance? It sounds like you lost ignition to a rotor which would dump raw fuel into the hot exhaust system and obviously cause a fire.

now thats a true bbq flame cooker