FIRE!!

[thechori]

alright, i've been trying to fit a fuel line for the past 2 days (the only thing keeping my car from running), it has almost driven me crazy. today i finally get the thing on (to my knowledge it was on pretty damn good) and i went to start the car (i was so excited that i finally got the fuel line on that i forgot to put the upper radiator hose back on.. im sure this didnt have anything to do with the fire though [the car has been sitting for 4 months])

i turn the key and the car tries to crank, but i think the starter is just doing all the work, the car isnt turning on. i get out and take a look at the bay and i see a tiny light and im like wtf, and the fire begins. such a thing was unexpected and im dumbfounded for a moment; i run to the kitchen to fill a cup with water (yes im an idiot) i run back to the car and the fire has gotten bigger, and is now on the floor where fuel had spilled from the other day. i throw the water and it doesn't do shit (yeah i'm pretty sure water wasn't the best choice, but there was no time to really think) so then i run to get my hose and i hose the thing down......

nothing really looked too bad, i'm sure the fire fried a few sensors, and being on that side of the engine bay it definitely could've fu***d up the wiring harness... i was so frustrated i just came inside and here i am, i'll check out what really happened later tonight and update you guys. i'm in no mood right now


please don't flame me more then my car already has, lol

 

[steveyblack]

well the starter emits sparks and that could of started it, like if you had any fuel on the lines/engine bay, and then caught the rest on fire?

 

[ill Z]

That F***ing sucks bro. HOpe she's okay, get her fixed and be careful when working on the fuel system. Get a fire extinguisher if you don' t have one. Anytime I do serious work I grab the one from under my sink and put it in the garage just in case(came with my apartment )

 

[GrimJack]

Chanced are you've got some work to do.

First, get that fuel fitting sealed, and when you fire up your car, do it where you don't have any flammable material lying around.

Next... figure out what's been damaged by the fire. A good portion of the stuff in your engine bay is actually very fire resistant, of course. You're still likely to need a bunch of re-wrapping on your wiring harness, and a lot of your vacuum lines will be fried. Also check the connectors and plugs on the side that lit up. Some of them are likely to be in sad shape. The worst will be the small stuff - single wires, like to the knock sensors, can't absorb much heat, so they go fast.

Head to your local auto supply store and buy a bunch of wiring housing in different sizes, and several rolls of electrical tape, rip off the singed bits and fix them.

If there are plugs that are damaged, look for a cut wiring harness here in the for sale section to salvage from.

All in all, this can often be fixed without much investment.

 

[thechori]

Chanced are you've got some work to do.

First, get that fuel fitting sealed, and when you fire up your car, do it where you don't have any flammable material lying around.

Next... figure out what's been damaged by the fire. A good portion of the stuff in your engine bay is actually very fire resistant, of course. You're still likely to need a bunch of re-wrapping on your wiring harness, and a lot of your vacuum lines will be fried. Also check the connectors and plugs on the side that lit up. Some of them are likely to be in sad shape. The worst will be the small stuff - single wires, like to the knock sensors, can't absorb much heat, so they go fast.

Head to your local auto supply store and buy a bunch of wiring housing in different sizes, and several rolls of electrical tape, rip off the singed bits and fix them.

If there are plugs that are damaged, look for a cut wiring harness here in the for sale section to salvage from.

All in all, this can often be fixed without much investment.

thanks for the advice, i appreciate it. i'll probably take a better look at the stuff tomorrow when i get off from school.. hopefully not much was damaged, if worst comes to worst i've got a turbo harness, and all the turbo components... :naughty:

 

[Setheroo]

Fixing most of the things that got fried are mainly just time consuming. Once upon a time I didn't tighten up the cold start injector fuel line... I went to crank over... wow... I had a blaze.

Thankfully I had the fire extinguisher... but I had to run to get to it... so quite a few wires got burnt.

Good luck on making the fix... engine bay fires... ftl.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Damn, I got a few teaspoons of fuel in my bay from taking off the fuel rail this last weekend... I'll be extra careful when I go to put it all back together and start her up.

 

[BillyM]

...on a preventative note, jumper the fuel pump BEFORE you start the car.

MUCH MUCH MUCH easier to see/hear/smell problems without the big 7m making all kinds of noises. ...and plus that way it won't catch fire, like yours did. I got the idea you were in impatient person from your bushing purchase, and am sorry it's come around on you this way, but there are some times you really must be patient with these things (hmm.. sounds like a PM I sent recently).

Best of luck getting her fixed.
--billyM

 

[ForcedTorque]

It sounds stupid, but beating the fire with your shirt would work better than water. Water only spreads gasoline. I always think about the shirt thing when my fire is out. A fire extinguisher is a mod that not many of us shadetree (yes, me included) mechanics think about in the whole build process.

 

[mclabaugh]

i've got a bunch of cut connectors, i'd say at least 90% of the connectors from the 89+ NA harness. came cut on my JDM engine. i'm in the houston area.

 

[ValgeKotkas]

I have like....3 extinguishers in my garage now

 

[mclabaugh]

fire extinguishers are a must in any garage (and my wife's kitchen)

 

[thechori]

yeahh i just picked up an extinguisher for the car, the idea of a fire just never came to mind. (unexperienced n00b.. :\ )

the only things that were ruined were 2 vacuum lines under the manifold and some regulator thing for the lines. also one of the plugs for the injectors got cooked, i don't know how that happened b/c nothing else around the area did.. (maybe the fire came up through the line?) i'll have some pictures tomorrow

 

[GrimJack]

Sounds like you got off easy!

You'll replace all those injector plugs when you go to RC550cc injectors anyway.

 

[IJ.]

After having an Oil fire on a turbo Lancer from a burst pressure hose I keep extinguishers in all my cars. (Had one in the Lancer just never much bothered with the DD's)

Bit of a clue with dry power ones though is give em a good shake before use as they compact riding around in cars and do jack shit if not shaken up!

 

[thechori]

alright, finally some pictures
(yeah i know alot of my vac lines are off)

here's what got the most of the flame, it got cooked totally. if anyone has this part LMK, i don't really know what it does; pretty sure it regulates some vacuum lines but have no idea what for

here's the damn fuel line.. it's from a turbo so i had to beat it into place to fit (probably why it didn't seal correctly) ((you can also see the surrounding rubber for the starter connection melted off, it's just the copper wire now lol))

after the fire, this plug was OFF the connector, and it was cooked as you can see in the next pictures (i put it back on trying to test fit it back on, had to break off most of the plastic because it was deformed so badly)

and here's how the engine bay looks right now (in all it's glory)

i'm really glad so little was ruined, but things just seem to keep going wrong for me.. sometimes i think this is God's cruel way of telling me to stop settling and just go through with my NA-T haha

 

[thechori]

alright i've repaired about everything that the fire pwned, just need to locate 1 water line (gonna try o'reilly first) here's a pic of all the nice wiring i redid

i couldn't find where either of these 2 plugs went though, check em out

this one is located under/near the intake manifold, i think it just might be for a turbo car b/c i could NOT find where it was supposed to go

this one on the other hand goes near the oil filter, i'm dead sure it goes onto this little spot (where the boot fits perfectly), but the little nub that the female plug goes onto is gone (i'm pretty sure this is for the oil pressure sensor or something)

what should i do if it did fall off and i've got nothing for it to plug onto?

 

[jugodegolf]

Well your fire was not near as bad as mine. Good luck get her fixed quick.

 

[Burntz]

wow, this really scares me. because my injectors have been leaking pretty badly and i keep driving it around.


eeeek