My celica: On fire!, uh oh.... Options

[samir0189]

Today, less than 5mins before.



the car jerked and sputtered and i saw white smoke, i dont remember if the car shut off or if i shut it off, and then...







The aftermath....

[richee3]

Holy crap dude. You're really lucky that the fire didn't go any further than that.

[Keiri]

Ouch. I'm sorry to see your car in that state...do you have any ideas of what started it? Battery?

The damage looks bad but not as bad as it toasting the whole engine bay...you going to repair the damage?

Good luck either way and I'm glad no one was hurt.

[samir0189]

oh, an idea of whats toast, it looks as if the radiator fan is the start of the fire. according to the FD it was "an electrical short," thanks for that info guys.

Radiator Fan (shroud is melted completely)
Radiator cause its half melted
Airbag Sensor
Engine Shield
Battery
Misc Wires
"flame retardant" engine noise/heat thing is burned pretty bad.

Sure theres some other things im missing, still a little in a daydream...



This post has been edited by samir0189: Dec 10, 2009 - 3:31 PM

[ETNRIDER]

Looks like something put a hole in the battery.

[samir0189]

it was only me in the car, and i am also glad it didnt get worse than that. I am going to repair, HOW is the question....

Just got a call from the toyota dealer it is at; possibly a total loss, the wiring harness is TOAST and discontinued FML guys. $2000+ estimate in parts. OUCH.

[808celica]

Ho damn!!!!!!! nuckin futs atleast it was a small fire

Did you do the ricky bobby up and down the road??? jks bro, glad you're safe

[samir0189]

my stomach hurts.

[azian_advanced]

i thought at first this was going to be a 'hey look at my air-brush flame paint job' thread.. but damn, your car really was on fire!

[Nial]

Let me get this right....you stopped to take a photograph of your car on fire before putting out the flames....are you nuts????

[dustin15brown]

wow man, crazy...... but why were you taking pics?!

[Cuts_the_Pilot]

i agree with neil haha.

first thing that came to your mind was i better take a pic of this ****...and them put it out

although having the pic is kinda cool.

[epocsirhc]

Well what is he supposed to do throw dirt on it? How many people carry a device around that puts out a fire? However I was amazed that you took a picture of it and sorry for the loss.

[95CelicaST]

Many people carry fire extinguishers in their cars.


Is insurance picking up the tab on this? Because you can get a harness, radiator and fan on here for cheap. Hell, Dr Tweak could MAKE you a harness.


And if the airbag sensor is bad, shouldn't it have deployed your airbag?

[richee3]

I wondered the same thing about taking the picture instead of putting the fire out, but I had already thought about the little problem of not having anything to put it out with. All you can do is stand back and watch it burn. I'm really sorry about that, Samir. Hopefully it isn't a total loss.

I thought the airbag sensor was an impact sensor, so fire wouldn't affect it. Only sudden jolts?

This post has been edited by richee3: Dec 10, 2009 - 5:58 PM

[Random_Stranger]

Dang, I think "Hot Rod" has some competition here. But glad you are ok and it didn't do further damaged. It looks as if your battery blew up, but as to why? I have no idea. Regular batteries scare me now, especially after my fan chopped into two of them, spilling battery acid and still driving (stupid me), knowing how hot it gets under my hood. So I bought an optima and it lays down with the plastic under it protecting the battery. Anyhow, just glad you are ok.

[samir0189]

I was waiting on the fire truck, and i figured, pics or gtfo, so. i took pics in the 3 minutes that felt like a lifetime. I figured my car BETTER not catch a fire another time so id take pics this time around

Sadly i do not carry around water or an extinguisher with me as i should, so i was forced to watch my celi burn until FD got to me.

Here is the story, KBB on my car is 1500$ with my amount of miles, 280k.

Toyota quote is over 2k to fix. and to top it off the airbag harness is discontinued. SO the insurance WILL total it, i didnt bother to call them.

I dunno if the airbag sensor is dead, but it is a little melted id rather get a new one. the airbag light in the car is on, didnt get to check the code yet.


I need anybody's help! IF you guys have any of the parts i melted, please PM me SOOOON. Thanks 6gc.


richee - i think you are right, the wires to the sensor melted and the ecu seems to have just recognized it lost contact with it.

This post has been edited by samir0189: Dec 10, 2009 - 6:02 PM

[Nial]

Well what is he supposed to do throw dirt on it? How many people carry a device around that puts out a fire?

Well I would do what ever I could to put the fire out...if that meant using mud then so be it...wet grass, drain water... anything...yank off the top radiator hose and use cooling water. I would franticaly use absolutely anything I could lay my hands on to put the fire out. I have 2 fire extinguishers in the GT4 and one in the Corolla...its always always the first thing I buy for my car after watching my mates car burn and being powerless to do anything about it but the fire was behind the dash so we had no choice.

Everyone should carry a fire extinguisher by law.

But I`m glad that it wasnt too serious and that noone was hurt, its a horrible thing to watch. I`m sure it will soon be sorted out and as good as new

[epocsirhc]

The airbag wouldn't go off unless the metal coated ball moved enough, grounding the circuit. Again sorry about the loss.

[samir0189]

Well what is he supposed to do throw dirt on it? How many people carry a device around that puts out a fire?

Well I would do what ever I could to put the fire out...if that meant using mud then so be it...wet grass, drain water... anything...yank off the top radiator hose and use cooling water. I would franticaly use absolutely anything I could lay my hands on to put the fire out. I have 2 fire extinguishers in the GT4 and one in the Corolla...its always always the first thing I buy for my car after watching my mates car burn and being powerless to do anything about it but the fire was behind the dash so we had no choice.

Everyone should carry a fire extinguisher by law.

But I`m glad that it wasnt too serious and that noone was hurt, its a horrible thing to watch. I`m sure it will soon be sorted out and as good as new

there was nothing i could do. even the rad hose was IN the flame. I was waiving/flailing my hands like a idiot apparently cause no one in FL here stops for you even where there are flames shooting from your hood. they couldn't give 2 sh*ts. I really do think i am going to invest in a mini fire extinguisher; a fire was THE last thing i expected opening that hood- i need to be better prepared. I can't say "when will i ever use a fire extinguisher
" anymore.