my car. . . caught. . . on. . . fire!!!!
 

just a small one, but scary none the less. . .

well, i guess rotaries ARE unreliable!!!

haha, i cant post any pictures up cause my computer doesnt allow me to load em from my camera at work. . . BUT, tis true. . . my car caught on fire yesterday afternoon while i was trying to get some taco bell. . . i tell you, that placed is cursed!!!

anyways, on to the story. i had made some changes on my ecu for the air temp correction factor before i left work. it had been running very rich lately, so i leaned out the correction a bit. . . that has nothing to do with it, except the fact that my car was running nicely afterwards. i went to kmart to get some halloween candy. came out, got in the car. . . drove to taco bell (same parking lot). . . went to the drive-thru. . . turned the car off (cause they cant hear me through the massive, powerful rotary roar) and looked at the menu. i then noticed a burning smell. i thought taco bell was on fire. so i started looking around for suspicious flames atop ye ole bell of taco. . . nothing, looked down (naturally to the front of the car), and noticed a bit of smoke coming from under the hood. . . OH FREAKIN NO!!!!111ONE

i jumped out, popped the hood, and found a small fire forming down by my spark plugs. . . RIGHT NEXT TO THE FUEL LINES!!!!! AAAAAHHHH!!!! i ran up to the drive-thru window. . . knowing they were gonna give me a hard time cause you just arent supposed to do that, but luckily i was still in uniform. . . so they trusted me. they opened the window and i said. . . er screamed. . . "MY CAR IS ON FIRE. . . GIVE ME A CUP OF WATER, PLEASE!!!" they gave me a cup of water and i ran back. . . thinking "man, im about to mess something up with this water". . . geh. . . oh well. . . i just did it. poured water on the flames. . . didnt go out. ran back and they had a pitcher waiting for me. the pitcher did it. then i had to push the car out of the drive-thru. workers helped me out. . . one of em wanted to push on the bumper. . . had to tell him otherwise, but yea. anyways, i got it to the parking lot. . . then people started flocking. one kid even started asking me if i would fab up some stuff for him?!?!?!?!?! what in the world. . . i asked him if he remembered the fact that i told him 1 minute ago that my car was just on fire!!!! then some other guy started asking if i did the work myself. i said, naturally, "yes." he came back with, "thats the problem. usually, if you let a shop do the work you wont have problems like this." i laughed. he said, "im serious, ive been working at a shop for a long time now and thats what i know." i said, "man. . . ive been messing with cars longer than youve been growing that highschooler mustache. . . so, im sure i know a bit more about the matter than you. . . what are you doing here anyways? go get something to eat."

so, upon further inspection (while i waited on my ride), i found that it was a spark plug wire that had become severed. it just kept on firing and eventually caught things on fire. . . niiiiiiice. i knew the wires i was using were "up to no good" and they were only temporary since i was planning on putting a set of accel 8.8 300+ wires on it THIS WEEKEND!!!! the one that went was a little short and i felt that it was bad that i had to kind of stretch it to make it fit. . . shoulda went with my instinct on that one. haha.

anyways, i went to advance later that night and got a coil wire. some build it yourself universal thing that had a needle-like terminal fitting thing on it. so you had to push it in the wire. . . weird. anyways, i started it up (funny thing. . . it was running pretty well ) and drove it home.

lucky for me, it wasnt one of the other wires that force you to have to take apart the entire car just to get to the coil!!!

anyways, i thought id share that with you guys. . . haha, great experience!!!

ill get pics up of the culprit as soon as i can this evening or the next.

paul

Scary!!!
I guess I'll go buy a fire extinguisher finally.

Glad it wasn't a total loss. Good Catch.

damn, that sucks..hopefully the fire didn't ruin anything else

oh god, you must have shit a brick. Especially after all the work you must have in your car.

I guess next time your learn and have that shop that kid was telling you about install your shit. LOL, rofl.

lucky...
when i had teh stock FPD and hearing the stories i would get a lil scared leaving the car warming up in the winter.
i had a celica catch a small fire in the engine bay, but that was cause the piston went through the block and oil got on the header....

RB? You mean to tell me with that much work on your car and you don't have a small extinguisher in there? :nono:

Just kidding. ;) Glad it was only a small fire. :)

haha, well. . . the first thing i thought was. . . "oh, THIS is why people have fire extinguishers!!!" hahaha, NEXT MOD. . . fire extinguisher mounted to the passengers side a-pillar!!! itll be chrome too!!! yeah, ill get STREET CREDIT from that one!!! only the FAST cars have to have fire extinguishers. . . to put out the fire from all that speed!!! :D

yeah, i was wanting to really get into it with him. . . i wanted him to pry deep into his genius and figure out what on earth i should do now or shouldve done in the past!!!!

Holy smokes man. I saw the title of this thread and my heart dropped. I feel for you man. Thank God it was very minor.

Every time I read about such stories I think "Ramy, you better get that Halon 5lb Extinguisher man...stop stalling!"

Glad everything's alright. :(

~Ramy

glad it was only minor and you put the fire out before it went out of control..

next mod...fire extinguisher lol

i have to get one myself, just in case..

Just finished with my next mod, fire extinguisher. Check another single item off the ever growing, never ending list. Yeah, $10 for a fire extinguisher is cheap insurance.

Then I drove through Taco Bell for lunch. mmm good.

Now I know why you needed those measurements, lol. I'm glad it was a small fire and you and your FD are ok. I always thought fire extinguishers were for big ego'ed ricers....... Guess I should warm up the rice cooker!

yeah every time i read one of these threads i think about buying one. Then i forget the next day :P

i guess ill go get one this week cause damn ill be mad at myself if it happens and i dont have one.

glad to hear you and your car got out of it ok!

Mike

Okay okay…my turn my turn!!!

Just finshed breaking the in the motor (1st one I built) and installed the boost controller and lines. Since I have no need for the nipples of the LIM, I passed the UIM nipples thru two on the LIM nipples…one to the boost controller and the other to the BOV. The third lower nipple points toward the WG…AH HA! I'll pass the WG line (from boost controller) thru and down the the WG. Looked good idling…first time on the interstated boosting, GUN IT!! CAR TAKES OFF!!! Fawk yeah!!! SLAM fuel cut!! Hmmm…need to adjust MBC.

Pull off the interstate to a light, smoke starts coming out of the vents…WTF MATE!?!?! Oh shit! Realized the line probably touched the manifold (not wrapped…D'oh) FAWK!!!

I look around, how to get out of the line of traffic I'm in….frantic…I look straight ahead…Fire Station, well alright. I pull in and pop hood, then hatch, go for the hatch…grab Fire extinguisher, pull pin, and open hood, hoping I'm not feeding the fire…

I look at the two sides of the vaccum line…both roasting away, towards LIM and towards WG… I shoot the fire extinguisher away from the car and see the shit I'm about to shot into my bay?!?!?! No way, I can't do it.

I reach in the car pull the flaming vacuum line off the LIM…look down other one is still burning…lay on the ground and grab the other line and pull it out…stomped them both out and threw away in the fire stations trash can.

No one came out to help me…kind of glad since I looked like a dumbass…drove on, no fires since…just couldn't force my self to hit the exhaust side of the engine with that white powder stuff. Now if the fire was different, and untame-able…I'm sure I'd have no problem.

Great story rotorbrain!

Excuse my ignorance, but why would it be bad to have shot the extinguisher at the exhaust side? Can the powder be damaging?

lol good story - glad your baby is still alive!!

because everything I have down there is satin black ceramic coated :cool:

LOL. Ahhh, ok. Thanks!

i was thinking about just getting a cheap extinguisher, emptying it, and filling it with water, then shooting some compressed air in there. . . i dont really care for the fog of a regular extinguisher either. . . that stuff is a mess and would NEVER go away. . .

or just make sure youre close to a taco bell when the car catches fire and youll be okay!;)

paul

I started carrying an extinguisher in every vehicle after a fuel leak on my Corvette. No fire, but raw gas at 55 PSI was spraying onto the exhaust system after a seal on the fuel filter failed. It all evaproated before it hit the ground, so I never saw any trace of a leak - but I sure could smell it!

The extinguisher needs to be clamped down so it doesn't become a projectile inside the cabin, but you might not want it on the A pillar or anywhere else where you or a passenger could be slammed into it in a crash.

If the white stuff is chemical it eats up all your electricals if you get water on it afterwards. Put the extinguisher in front of the passenger seat on the floor.

I have mine attached to a piece of flat aluminium bar bent into a wide U-shape which bolts onto the front seat mount points. SUPER solid, and the extinguisher sits right up under the passengers' knees and is close to hand.

They have automotive grade ones that don't tear up your electricals and such. They aren't as large; but if you can't put out the fire with a smaller one then you'll need more help anyways.

As far as mounting it, just put it in the passenger side storage bin. It's easy to access from the drivers seat, and out of the way of passengers.

Gald you got the fire out before you had major damage.. What " things" were actually burning?

To funny but true. I personally had to take a pass on the chrome but I keep a big clod hoppin extinguisher in the pass floor board pretty much all the time. I caught a shitty D.E.I. (the ones "Eastwood" sells) turbo insulation bag on fire last summer. Yes I thought it was supposed to act as heat insulation but I it really acts as kindling. Anyway glad to read your mutherfucking shit didn't burn to a crisp.

I mounted my Fire extinguisher on the Rear bin divder.
Right in the middle.

You should never leave home with out it.
Can turn a $200 Fix into a $15000 fix or total loss..