Out of no where, coolant temp was rising, so I pulled over to see what the frack was going on. Popped the hood, didn't see anything.. coolant bottle was full.

(On a side note, I am using a honda coolant bottle because I couldn't find a place to mount mine with this new FMIC short route piping. This one doesn't have the extra hose for extra coolant to spew out onto the road, like the old one. I don't know if that could be the cause.. or what)

Anyways, so I called my shop, he said bring it in, but pull over as many times as you can on the way so it doesn't over heat.

So I'm west bound QEW, right before the exist to Erin Mills Parkway.. and all of a sudden I see a sh!t load of smoke come out of my exhaust, and from under the hood. Threw it into neutral, and pulled over, and shut the car off. Then I ran out of the car, totally freaking out, not knowing what to do. I called 911 - popped my hood and flames shot out from around the rad hose.

It was on fire for like 1-2 minutes then a tow truck showed up with a fire extinguisher and put it out.

From what I can tell.. Rad hose needs to be replaced, as well as the radiator. The rad fan is destroyed, it melted and fell off the car. Turbo lines are toast.. Maybe more.

It's at the shop right now, cooling down. I hope my engine isn't fucked. Right now I'm waiting for the shop to tell me whether I should make a claim, or not.

On the plus side, my new valve cover that I got from Mike D still looks pretty sweet

Holy sh!t dude!

Hope everything is OK and you didn't fry more than what you thought.

What the hell caught fire?

OMG, I'm glad you're alright but it really sucks about your car. I sincerely hope your car doesn't need much to be in top shape again.

Old/frayed wires overheating from the cooling fan running for an extended period of time?

Glad it was put out in a hurry.

Just another reminder to mount a decent extinguisher in your car. For the money invested in the car, it's worth it.

I really have no idea what caused it. But I know that my coolant temperature was fine before I switched the coolant bottle.

The rad hose/fan/radiator was what was on fire.

I'm for sure getting an extinguisher.

I was freaking out so bad on the side of the road. I love this car, my favourite DSM that I've owned for sure, and watching it burn was so hard, lol.

I wish I took a picture..

Mike, just a thought.... You just installed a FMIC that is now
in front of the rad. I bet before you installed the FMIC, your coolant temps were just fine? Now with a FMIC blocking some of the air flow to the rad and perhaps ?no working fans? the coolant temps would rise potentially causing a fire. I wonder if the shop that installed the FMIC played around with the fans at all? - you'll probably never know now since it's all burnt and/or they'll never admit it?

Keep us posted on the outcome

You know what, at times like these thats the LAST thing thats on your mind. Be glad THIS didnt happen to you lol. Good to hear you were able to put out the flames in time.
Now im for sure buying an estinguisher for mine. It was overheating last weak, but it was just the radiator cap that needed to be changed.

Yeah Mark, I was actually just thinking about that..

The fans WERE working fine before the FMIC was installed. I remember seeing them on. But to be honest, I never actually looked to see if they were still working after. I just assumed that they would be?

The shop should be calling me back later, so I can ask them if they touched the rad fan at all. My A/C was removed at the time of the install.. but yeah right now pointing the finger at them isn't going to solve much. Can't really prove it.

Any other cosmetic damage (Paint, bumper etc)

I wonder if this falls under your insurance company's "fire/theft/vandalism" clause...

Hmmm... if the car is modified, probably not, however I have heard on many occasions they have covered it.

Grant?

No real cosmetic damages. Bumper is fine, intercooler piping is just black.



My car's engine is still pretty much stock. Just new intake filter and the FMIC. Still on the stock turbo.

thats why having a fire extinguisher under the passenger seat is the best $20 you can spend.

Glad you're okay. I always thought having those extinguishers by the A-pillar were ricey. I guess with our cars, its more like a requirement. Just like CAA .

Even if it overheated (due to non working fans), i would assume you'd only overheat and possibly warp your head.

Unless there was a short somewhere... thats the only thing i could think off.

It could have gotten hot enough that the pressure escaped via a loose clamp or ripped hose somewhere, and then you could have the perfect mix of heat, oil, sparks etc...



You were right, those extinguishers are ricey.
What kind of fire are you going to put out with that cute thing? A birthday cake? I bet they are hardly used, and when they are they go out before the fire does.
You need at least 2.5lbs, preferably 5.

There was some good info posted here recently:
http://ca.dsm.org/forums/ubbthreads...r=259089&Searchpage=1&Main=38987

x 3.
Definately ricey and look retarded on the A pillar. I could also imagine getting hit in the head with it during a collision.

I keep a decent size one behind the driver seat

So I can pick one up at like, Home Depot or something?

^^^
Yep, they have the 2.5lb for $30 or less.

The shop just called me back. He said he tried to start it and it was running like ass and keeps dying out. Said it could be the turbo or something else, or even could be wire related. It's hard to say right now.

But from all this money being spent already.. I think I should end up having to go through insurance.

The insurance broker said he's sending the adjuster person to come take a look at it and see what happened and how much damage there is.

Also said some investigator person is going to come and ask me a bunch of questions.. which I guess is a must considering it was a fire.

I wonder if Tashko was on the right track. Perhaps the fan itself malfunctioned and burned, and/or cause your wiring to burn, along with the MAS wires and everything else in that bundle, and in turn, cause the smoke out the exhaust(bad A/F ratio), making your car run like crap now.

Sorry to here about your luck, hope everything works out and there's not to much damage.

Sorry to hear about the mishap Mike, hopefully selling me your OEM coolant bottle had nothing to do with this!

I can't see the coolant itself causing the fire, where it couldn't escape from the Honda overflow bottle you have. I agree with the guys, should be related to either the fans not being hooked back up correctly, or the wiring in that area.

As for your mechanic trying to start and it keeps dying, do you have upgraded injectors and DSM Link or something similar? If so, was your battery disconnected causing you to lose the ECU settings? This might be off on a complete tangent, but it happened to me

Good luck

That's frickin' balls, dude. Sorry for your loss

Sorry to hear it Mike! But glad that you are ok at least!

Nope, my engine is completely stock, like I said. I was going to install an AFPR this week.. but obviously I'm held back now. That would be the 2nd engine mod after the FMIC.

Yeah since the fire was around the rad fan area.. it must be related to that. Some investigator person is going to have a look at it on Monday I'm assuming.

The battery was disconnected while they were installing the FMIC. I remember having to reset all my radio settings. Why would that be an issue though? Wouldn't the settings just come back?

It would be nice to get a data logger on it to see if any sensor signals are missing. For example, if your ECU is not getting the water temp signal (not the one for your gauge) it'll run the car rich.

After an ECU reset the idle is usually a little unstable while the ECU figures itself out. If you have a vacuum leak it may even stall.

Your rad cap should vent if the pressure builds too high. Also, if your expansion bottle from Honda doesn't have an overflow and the pressure builds, I would assume it would pop the fill cap off assuming it's a plastic snap jobby.

I hope it all works out well with out needing much work.

I caught that bat sign

Yes, it would be covered but depending on your insurance company, they might make a stink about your mods as that could have been the cause of it.

In 99 times out of 100, it will be covered and your insurance rate will not be affected since it's a Comprehensive (fire/theft/vandalism) coverage.

Without a doubt, I would make the claim as long as your insurance deductible is either 300 or 500. At 1000, might not be worth it. What is your comprehensive deductible, Mike?

No. The radio or ECU needs some power to retain everything in memory. Obviously no power, everything gets erased.

It's a 300 dollar deductible. So yeah chances are I'll be getting a claim. I mean if I don't, I'll be faced with a 200 tow bill, and now the cost of a rental car for x amount of days.. plus the repair bill.

The broker said he is sending a notary public officer to ask me questions as well. That sounds pretty serious...

I wonder if that's a standard thing for fire, in case you torched it on purpose, since they don't raise your rate on a comp. claim?
They probably go in prepared for the worst, then they see the car.

notary officer? They need a statement under oathe. I hope they don't suspect you of misrep or anything.

Sorry about your car Mike but I'm glad that you are OK.

But like, why would someone torch their car on the shoulder of the highway?

Also, say it turns out to be a write off, do they just go by the blackbook value of the car? Would I get to keep the car after? I hope this isn't the case because I'm sure the blackbook is less than 8k, even though my engine has a crap load of new parts as well as a brand new tranny/clutch.

Sorry about your car. This made me go out and install a fire extinguisher in the hatch. The thought of my car burning right infront of me, with nothing I can do to stop it scares me more then it bieng in a collision.

Who's to say for certain that it was actually on the shoulder of the highway? They're gathering that information under oath...
The insurance company is just covering their bases, for any possibility.

If it's written off, you can negotiate to buy the car back for a price, to do what you wish with it.

If it's a write off.. they will give me the black book value? Or is there any other consideration for that price? Say new parts etc?

I didn't know you could buy it back. But would it even be worth it if it's a write off? Considering then wouldn't all the repairs have to come from my own pocket?

It's best to just speak with the insurance company about it.
An adjuster will look at the car and determine its worth (excluding any damage from the incident).

When my Cavalier was written off, I had stripped it a little bit and sent it to the wreckers before the adjuster had even seen it.
If you have access to your car, you can take whatever you want from it right now. It's still your car, right?

When my Cavalier was written off I sent my receipt for the tires I had recently put on it and they gave me almost all my money back. Enough that it wasn't worth the time and effort taking them off and paying to unmount from the damaged rim, etc.

If you buy it back, it will have a "Salavage" title which may make it more difficult to sell in the future and, unless you have a friend, the safety inspection may be more rigourous.

If your car is worth more to you than the book value, you could always have it appraised and insure it for the appraised value. You'll pay higher premiums but if it's written off you'd get more than the book value back which is probably only $600-$1000 for 1g a/b's.

Hey mike, How bad is the damage? your spider looks pretty good.
Just buy it back and fix it, Jason liu had his car written off, he bought it back i think he might even be driving it now.

Was there any paint damage?


-Manuel

I'm waiting for a call from the insurance company today, as well as from the insurance adjuster.

The damage isn't too bad. No body or paint damage. But I'll probably have a chance to go to the shop and snap a few pictures.

My guess would be that when they were cutting through the rad support for the FMIC outlet, they hit the wire harness on the other side. Then as you were driving, the damaged wires shorted out and caught fire.