Almost Flaming Touring!

[Davenotouring]

Went to start the car to go to work this morning, started it up...Within seconds there was whitey grey smoke coming from the air vents in the centre and from under the wheel arch and around the bonnet, I thought, that's odd. Car spluttered, I turned it off and opened the bonnet.
There was smoke coming from the area to the left of the battery where the ecu wiring is.
Grabbed my fire extinguisher, (thank fu*king god almighy mary joseph!) and sprayed it there, and the drivers kickwell.
Car stank of smokey shi*, you know the smell if you've smelt a burning car.

So, now I have to take the Civic to work.

Before I do, I will disconnect the negative battery terminal. The car was ticking and going silly while this was all going on.


Any advise?!

My advise is, always carry a fire extinguisher.

Once there is a small flame, cars go up very quickly. By the time I'd filled up a bowl of water, it would probably have been up in flames.

Trust me and buy one.

[zaust]

don't sound good m8. hope you get it sorted.

[Adammcf]

Always meant to get one but keep forgetting. Looks like it would be a good idea especially since I'll be changing the engine again!

[Davenotouring]

Sorry to hear of your troubles also Adam.

I know how you feel on that one. Horrible.

Best of luck with it, if I am free when you are doing the engine change I would be glad to help.

So annoying, get the car all nice, running pretty much spot on. Then another thing goes wrong. Yesterday on the way to Gaydon, my n/s/r wheel was trying to remove itself from my car, turned out to be the disc grub screw not letting it tighten up properly, because it was loose.

Sorted that at Gaydon, cheers to Glenn, Richy, Jonbuoy (etc!) and thought right, just got a couple more bits to sort and it's up to a level which I'm happy with. (It's never perfect is it!).

And now this!

Wahey!

[Moofles]

poor dave and just as i'm about to post a poll you won't like


(glad to hear you rescued it btw!)

[320Touring]

nice job recovering the touring dave!!

shame it happened to ya

shouldnt be too dificult to sort-sounds like just some dodgy wiring!!

as long as you're ok mate

[Kedge]

Bit of shitter for you mate!

Better sling my extinguisher in the boot till i get my seat mounts!

[Karan]

just switch the looms over dave!

or better still get demlot to sort it...hahaha

hope this doesnt effect our outingon monday!

[Simon13]

is it the loom? my starter motor went in a cloud of white smoke!!!

[SwirlyE30]

Mate that sucks.You car was looking sweet yesterday.


I know what i want now! I wanna sell mine in January and get a red Mtech'd touring with a 2.7! fancy doing a swap? Nice and economical

[Davenotouring]

just switch the looms over dave!

or better still get demlot to sort it...hahaha

hope this doesnt effect our outingon monday!

Hopefully bloody not!

How hard to change the loom?

Hoping it's something simple.

Could be starter motor related, I know it was dodgy.

But the smoke wasn't coming from there, although it could be a 'connected' wire.

[Karan]

hmmmmm

was it from where loomk goes thru bulkhead?

cos i know that loom was 'ropey' when we were installing lump....

however i did wrap it in loadsa insulation tape remember!!!

things like this piss me off!

then again cars break down a lot more if u use em properly like u do!

[PeteE30Tourer]

That has to be my worst nightmare having seen so many cars go up in flames by the roadside - it's a horrible sight no matter what the car.

Time to get myself a fire extinguisher - wasn't someone doing a group buy of these a while ago? If not, someone should. How much are they?

Hope you get it sorted soon!

[Richy325iTouring]

just switch the looms over dave!

or better still get demlot to sort it...hahaha

hope this doesnt effect our outingon monday!

Hopefully bloody not!

How hard to change the loom?

Hoping it's something simple.

Could be starter motor related, I know it was dodgy.

But the smoke wasn't coming from there, although it could be a 'connected' wire.

Could be anything Dave if itÔš's electrical the point of fire would just be the weakest point in the circuit. Or a short in the loom

Hope you get it all sorted fella.

[Davenotouring]

I might try to sort a group buy, I need another one now. Highly recommended!!

Richy, could be the starter motor wiring in that case.

Dad did electronics in the RAF so I'll get him to have a looooooook.

Cheers chaps.

Never-ending innit this car business!

[Richy325iTouring]

id change both to be honest though dave as you cant tell what damage has been done to the loom now

[johnono]

gutted mate its always the way init? uԚ´re almost there and then boom, or snap or psssst or whatever

uԚ´ll get it sorted though mate

[glenn]

was it from where loomk goes thru bulkhead?

cos i know that loom was 'ropey' when we were installing lump....

however i did wrap it in loadsa insulation tape remember!!!

i think that's where i'd start my investigation, dave.

Before I do, I will disconnect the negative battery terminal. The car was ticking and going silly while this was all going on.

was the starter solenoid stuck on dave, and that was the noise's you could hear.
if the starter was still engaged, it could have melted a wire near where it goes through the bulkhead, then shorted itself.........!?

[Davenotouring]

I'll have a look when I home after work,

Electrics are scary.

Started a fire extinguisher group buy in that section!

[psychochild187]

iam hot-wireing my golf at the moment as the key dont work
i didnt relise that if u bundle the wire up is makes a transformer and start smoking . ( leason learnt )

[psychochild187]

gutted mate its always the way init? uԚ´re almost there and then boom, or snap or psssst or whatever

uԚ´ll get it sorted though mate

that made me laugh

[jonbuoy]

Dave
Remember you have fitted another bonnet on there, not the original. Have a look on the inside of the bonnet for any burn marks, you could be earthing the battery! And you was mucking around keep bump starting it probably the wiring, maybe?

[Rearwheel_nick]

hope this doesnt effect our outingon monday!

i wonder what you could mean.......wooohooo you pair best be there

[Andy335Touring]

Well saved Dave, i must get around to fitting my extinguisher !

[rare]

Bloody hell mate, sounds dodgy! Got no advice im afraid...how about some flames down the front of that new bonnet?

[Davenotouring]

Thanks for the advise chaps.

Was chatting to people at work too today.

I will try to change the starter motor tomorrow.

I have put the car into my garage, taken the battery off, disconnected the ECU and pulled the loom through the bulkhead. Can't see anything obvious.
Doesn't look like there were flames, just smoke. I got a bit excited with the extinguisher. Better safe than sorry though.

Hopefully get a better idea of the problem tomorrow.

[Karan]

hope this doesnt effect our outingon monday!

i wonder what you could mean.......wooohooo you pair best be there

we'll be there!!!

places all booked and paid via paypal online.... but none of us have received anything thru the post

[Lordschleife]

hmmmmm
then again cars break down a lot more if u use em properly like u do!

Unless its a Honda but I'd guess Dave already knows that

Re fires I knew someone that always wore fire retardant gloves and shoes when he was driving as a mate of his had a fire once that came through the dash, and couldn't steer or brake it was so hot!

All this extinguisher talk has me thinking too. I have the bimmer extinguisher but
a) its probably so old it needs recharging, where can I get this done?
b) its so pissy small that it probably wouldn't do much anyway

What do people recommend for a car extinguisher, powder (as most seem to be) or foam (as I think the motorsport ones are?)

Good luck in sorting the touring Dave

[Rearwheel_nick]

hope this doesnt effect our outingon monday!

i wonder what you could mean.......wooohooo you pair best be there

we'll be there!!!

places all booked and paid via paypal online.... but none of us have received anything thru the post

yeha me either, i'm gonna pm or email terry at driftuk same happened last time. in the end he just ended up emailing me all the stuff and i printed it off.

it should hopefully be a good fun day. hope it doesnt piss it down

[Davenotouring]

I think that powder is ideal, even a reasonably small extinguisher has a large effect.

1kg powder is sufficient I would think. Unless you wanna go super safety and carry a 5kg one!

Here is the mess the powder left on the drive, (oh and the car!).

[Lordschleife]

5kg?!???

Too much extra weight!
Maybe a 1.5 kg is the way to go?

[gareth]

woah dave!!! you were lucky there!

i had a chrome bumper 4 door 320i shed once... i was welding the footwell up and after i'd finished i hugn around for 15 mins clearing tools up before going round the back to eat a bbq... we were there and could smell something a bit strong but put it down to lighting the bbq with a can of cold start and a lighter!!!! then my bro came running out shouting that the car was on fire!!!!!!!!

the underside of the dash had gone up... GET THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER i thought..... IT'S IN THE GLOVEBOX!!!!!!!! not the best place to keep it! we got the fire under control with 5 gallons of scotting mineral water that my dad luckily had but the entire interior was gutted........

amusing afterwards though.... at least the car only cost Ԛ£200!

[Lordschleife]

Whoops!
Still at least it was a 320i (ducks) :p

I tried to light a BBQ at a mates once with a can of wd40 when he realised he had no firelighters
All it did was create a huge fireball that lasted about 1 second and singed my eyebrows
Managed to get it lit with candle wax in the end...
Cold start eh? Have to remember that

[Jos]

Excellent save there Dave, as you say better safe than sorry. Any idea what it was yet?

Regarding choices, here's my 2 cents:

CO2 is the best choice as it leaves no mess at all, however foam is by far and away the best at actually putting fires out. Dry powder is horrendous to clean up and is only about as good as CO2.


Used Powder on a boat fire, took a week to clean it up.

Used Foam on a burning subframe bush (induced by me with a torch then it lit the undersealer..) fire went out immediately.

Used CO2 on a PC at a LANParty, probably didn't need it but it was sorta on fire and was worth it for the laugh

[Demlotcrew]

Will need to pop round have a look!

A