Yep, so I'm driving down the road with the AC on and the radio on and I'm smelling the wonderful odor of burning rubber/plastic. Then my idle starts jumping around and the car is having trouble running...I look for the nearest gas station, park next to the fire extinguisher, pop the hood, grab the extinguisher, and open it up and I definitely had an electrical fire. The drivers side motor to the fan on my radiator had completely seized. The motor lit on fire when I opened the hood but it was easy enough to put out. I pulled out a pocket knife and cut the lines going to that motor and limped it over to the shop.

I wonder what's causing the crappy idle and stuff. He's putting a new radiator fan in but the idle has us stumped. The boost/pressure sensor lines were connected just fine so it's not that...hmm...

Well, coulda been worse. It could have gone up in a blaze of glory...hehe.

 

good fortune compared to others I guess

I will most certainly equip myself with an extinguisher especially since I did all the work on my car myself and have absolutely no idea what Im doing

 

:O)
Yeah, extinguisher coming here too...

 

Someone needs to use that for a signature haha

STEPHEN

 

A mechanically seized electrical motor will draw much more current than it would at operating speed(s). It’s possible it was stressing the battery/alternator, maybe causing a drooping idle.

As for the fire: A fuse should’ve gone before a fire ensued, if the abnormal current draw was the culprit. Was it a harness that went up in flames?

 

LOL!!

 

It eventually led to a harness but first both motors would come together. We'll see what happens with this one...I am curious as to the diagnosis.

 

Sigged!

~Kris

 

:O)

 

with as many fires as ive read about, im going to get a extinguisher as well... however i will not EVER mount it on my a pillar.

 

I reacently had my center-channel BOSE amp smoke on me, scared the hell out of me! I thought my baby was gonna go up in smoke... luckily it just spewed a cap all over and only smoked, no flames. :\

I want to get one of those small extinguishers too but I dont want to get a crappy one like I've read about in the past that only lasts a couple seconds... I was thinking about mounting it in then resessed portion of the hatch 'tray'.



Did you locate what was damaged in the wiring harness yet?

~Kris

 

Man engine bay fires, are becoming to familiar for the members here. That sucks but sounds like its gonna be repairable.

 

Yeah, it'll get fixed...
It looks like the fan motor just seized and the two cables that go into the motor caught fire at the housing.

 

Thats good, I was worried that the increase in current caused something in your harness to go as well...

~Kris