Here’s to an exciting evening in the Rainey household...

After my wife got home from work, we took her car to a neighboring town to a body shop for repairs. On the way home in my Honda Accord, we were less than 2 miles from home when I pulled to a stop at a left turn light and immediately started smelling an electrical fire!

Naturally I presumed it to be “somewhere else” and started looking around for signs of a residential or business fire, but within seconds noticed smoke coming from under the left side of my hood! I immediately shut down the engine, hit the emergency flasher button, and told my wife to get the heck out of the car... NOW!

Once safely behind the car I dialed 911 and had two fire trucks plus police on scene within 2 minutes. By then the smoke had backed way off, but I still didn’t dare open the hood until fire crews were available to extinguish any actual flames.

The firemen carefully opened the hood and used a FLIR to examine hotspots... which confirmed my gut feeling; an electrical issue in or about the A/C compressor, since that was the only time on that side of the engine bay.

After several minutes I was given the okay to restart the engine with the compressor cut off. Further checks with the FLIR showed the compressor temp dropping from an initial 300 degrees to just under 270, so I was given the go-ahead to drive the rest of the way home, with a local policewoman following in her cruiser in case of additional problems.

Needless to say, it was an “exciting” evening that I’d prefer to never repeat!!!

Now for a trip to my mechanic to determine the exact problem, and estimate for repair! At this point I’d consider dumping the car (just put $2,600 into a head rebuild after it dropped a valve less than a year ago), but it was my late brother’s car, so I feel like I must keep it going if the repairs aren’t TOO exorbitant!

So, how was YOUR evening?!?

quote:

Originally posted by bronicabill:
So, how was YOUR evening?!?

Drive home around 11:30 p.m. was uneventful. The reason I mention is because deer are on the move up here and every night I drive home I've got them on the side of the road, in the road, or crossing the road.
Last week I looked down to adjust the air and when I looked up, I had a deer in the center lane and one in the far right lane. I didn't have time to react but went right between them as they just stood there.
Deer. Every. Night. Did I mention I work only two miles from home?
While not as exciting as yours, I hope it stays that way.

Just out of curiosity, do you keep a small extinguisher under that driver seat or somewhere else accessible?

Timely- What's a good Vehicle Fire Extinguisher?

Home Recommendation too- Thank You Mitch

quote:

So, how was YOUR evening?

Not this evening, but a sort of similar story.

I was re-positioning an airplane from the Orlando Executive airport to the Orlando-Sanford airport for a client, a very short flight, just a few minutes.

As I entered the airport traffic pattern at Sanford, I extended the landing gear. This changed the pattern of air flow around the airplane and I immediately started to smell the distinct odor of electrical stuff burning. The landing gear actuation in this airplane was via electric motor, not hydraulic, so I concluded that the problem was associated with that system. I pulled the circuit breaker for the landing gear system and manually checked that the gear was fully extended, but the smell kept getting stronger even though the breaker was pulled, so it seemed that the problem was in a different system.

I was in the immediate vicinity of the airport so rather than taking the time to trouble-shoot, I set my priority to getting the airplane on the ground. I informed the tower that I had smoke in the cockpit, that I would be shutting down all electrical systems, and would not be communicating with them since I was shutting down the radios as well as everything else.

Tower cleared me to land, any runway, told me that they would roll the equipment (fire department, etc.). I turned the master switches off, which turned the alternator off and disconnected the battery from everything, and landed a bit fast with a longer than normal roll-out due to no flaps (they were actuated electrically, not hydraulic, on this airplane).

I pulled clear of the runway, shut the engine down, fuel valve off, and un-assed the airplane as quickly as I could. With no rear-view mirror I had not been aware of the fact that I was leading a parade. Fire engines, an ambulance, police cars, and airport security were all following me.

The usual questions: "How many souls on board? How much fuel on board?" (only me, and roughly sixty gallons, enough for almost four hours of flight).

Maintenance shop had sent a tractor out to tow the airplane to the shop. The problem was quickly identified as a burned out motor for the auxiliary fuel pump, which is driven electrically (the main fuel pump is driven mechanically by the engine).

No damage, except to the airplane owner's checking account.

I'm betting this was all caused by a seized or shot AC clutch bearing.

Problem is a lot of times the bearing will often trash the surface the bearing rides on. A new clutch and bearing may not be enough to repair. Then you get into AC evacuation/new compressor/recharge... $950+ later you have a working AC again.

Had the same issue with a Volvo and decided to trade it in.

This is what I carry in the vehicle

First Alert

I had two patrol cars catch fire while I was in them. Not totally destroying them but enough to permanently deadline them.
It was good training on how to bail out of a burning car.
Just another perk of police work that was skipped over during recruitment.

When I was in second grade my dad bought a Volkswagen station wagon with the engine under the storage bay in the back of the car. We had the car all of a day and I was riding home in the way back over the engine and told my dad I was really hot. (Aah the days before car seats and booster seats for all your children and before we all wore seat belts...how did we ever survive)

He told me to quit my bitching we would be home soon I was just warm because the engine was back there

Well, long story short, I kept getting hotter and when we got home he opened the back and lifted the engine cover to show me it was nothing and whoosh...Fire. Big fire

I remember we lived by the flight line on wheeler Air Force base in Hawaii and one of the fire trucks that responded was one of the airport truck. They apparently had been doing something and saw the car on fire near the flight line and basically just drove over on their own

Of course the car was a total loss and my dad went back to the dealer and came home with an identical car!

All of the family told him he was crazy if he thought we were getting back in another one of those things. Fortunately (I guess?) the dealership had a sister Datsun dealer (did I mention this was the 70s?) and they gave him a Datsun station wagon instead. That car was a POS too that rusted so badly in the Hawaiian salt air that I lost a stormtrooper action figure through a hole that rusted in the floor. But I guess at least it didn’t catch fire?

After that, my mom never let my dad pick out cars again

I've mentioned in a few threads here that for a while in the early 2000s I drove a 1988 Mercedes 560SEL.

It was my dad's old car, and I went off to college and got my own car, and then my dad died, and the 560SEL just sat in my mom's driveway for a few years.

Until, one day, some family was coming into town and my mom wanted to let them borrow the car and asked me to take it in for an oil change and put new gas in and whatnot.

About the time I got out of her driveway, I noticed thick white smoke pouring out from under the hood. Pulled over in front of her house, parked the car, turned it off, popped the hood, and it no kidding looked like the entire engine compartment was on fire. Big flames.

I ran inside and got a fire extinguisher and put the fire out, but of course the 20+ year old Mercedes was totalled. I miss that car.

As best we were able to determine, rats were nesting in the engine compartment and had chewed into both wiring and gas lines, so when the car turned on, the fuel pump squirted gas all over the engine compartment and the chewed up wiring sparked and ignited it.

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
Just out of curiosity, do you keep a small extinguisher under that driver seat or somewhere else accessible?

I have never considered it before, but times they are a changing!

quote:

Originally posted by maladat: <<snip>>

As best we were able to determine, rats were nesting in the engine compartment and had chewed into both wiring and gas lines, so when the car turned on, the fuel pump squirted gas all over the engine compartment and the chewed up wiring sparked and ignited it.

My Accord has been parked in the back yard for nearly a month now as my wife didn’t want the front yard to look like a “used car lot”. Consequently it hasn’t been touched!

When I went out to start it, the battery was dead enough that jumper cables were required! Also noticed while the hood (bonnet) was open was the fact that squirrels had been there, and had eaten much of the heat shield (blanket?) that protects the hood from heat. I highly suspect that the rodents also chewed on the wiring, and they are the cause of the electrical issues.

From this day forward, none of my cars will be parked out back... AND they will be checked frequently for tree rat invasions. In addition, I have decided that my Rossi .22 revolver will now be always loaded with either .22 rat shot, or .22 S ammo! That way any additional “problems” can be rectified without alerting the local person police department!

I have a 5# Kidde ABC with the metal nozzle and valve in the Ferrari and keep an LED light under the engine compartment to keep the pack rats from gaining a foothold