Car caught fire today!

[A4 Effort]

[a little long, so bear with me] <--- that's what he said

Sooooo, i took a half-day at work today to take care of some personal things. One of the things i wanted to do was to swing by my dealership to check on some parts that i had ordered, and to see about having a Tech take a ride with me to listen to a rattle that had been coming from the front passenger side of the car. This rattle had been annoying me for months on-end, and i could not isolate it for the life of me. Well, the Tech wasn't available, so the Service Manager took a ride instead - of course, i couldn't reproduce the rattle with him in the car (typical, right?), and i told Ray (Service Manager) that i would bring it in another time to have them take a closer look.

Well, i'm driving home jamming to some TOOL when my radio cuts out on me, and then comes back on. Then, all of a sudden, a huge cloud of dark, grey, ominous, smoke comes pouring out of my a/c vents into the cabin. I also noticed that it was beginning to come out of my hood by the windshield wipers too. I immediately knew i had some sort of electrical fire and whipped the car to the side of the road and popped the hood. Now, of course, the last thing you want to do to a fire is give it more oxygen, but i wasn't about to sit there and let my baby burn. So, i open the hood and discover that i have a fire back by my battery down in the small well between it and the cabin filter cover. At this point - i'm freaking out!!

I managed to extinguish the fire and upon closer inspection, i discover that my in-line fuse for my amps had some how worked its way loose and shorted out on the metal a/c lines leading into the cabin via the firewall. The entire fuse holder was melted, and the (+) positive cable was completely torched, as was the (-) negative cable. I didn't have my tools on me, so i wrapped the (+) cable up in some cloth and secured it in the engine bay to avoid any more metal to metal contact and limped home.

Here is the carnage

The black soot came off easily, and there wasn't a lot of damage to the paint except for some severe yellowing on the hood directly above where the fire took place.















The good news is, is that i didn't lose her. The other good news is that i finally figured out what the hell that rattle was (yeah, it was the in-line fuse banging on the a/c line). I replaced the fuse holder, battery cables, and amp cables and despite her yellow bruise under the hood, she's back to normal.

Let this be a lesson boys and girls, make sure all your electrical connections are secure!!

[Nebone]

OH SHIT! Got fire Extinguisher?

[A4 Effort]

OH SHIT! Got fire Extinguisher?

I'm getting one tomorrow

[dingguhlbary]

at least you aren't dead man. i've heard some wack stories on the internet about car fires.
good luck with the yellow spot!

[Nebone]

I've seen some small ones at Lowes. Make sure you get one for electrical fires as there are different kinds.

[MultiAudis]

holyshit

[andyrew]

I had a fire extinguisher in my 914 and I used it to save my buddies freshly painted bug, his fuel line caught fire :O

Dont have one in the Audi yet.. but it is a reminder that I NEED one... Where to mount it... Pass floorboard.. ya..

[DND]

Glad you're okay and it wasn't any worse.

[maxspeed]

pwnd.

[ExpLlclT]

dude ouch , its ok though your car is hella clean

[Mad_Audi]

man u are so lucky. glad it didnt mess your car up too bad!

[Seerlah]

I told myself I was going to get a fire extinguisher couple months back, even better reason to go and get one. Not to be that guy to point the obvious, but it could have been a lot worse. You should be able to wash that those stain out and have it looking right again. Just have to find the correct compound for those situations.

Out of curiosity, how did you get the flames to extinguish?

[Kyle H]

Holy crap, your car is so hot (even without the fire! )


Glad you took care of it before it got too bad, I'm gonna go make sure my fuses are all secure now... lol.

[A4 Effort]

Out of curiosity, how did you get the flames to extinguish?

I was able to blow them out. Stupid, i know, but i was panicking and pretty much did the first thing i could think of. Luckily for me, it worked

I really love this car and would hate to have lost her

[4A Play]

Wow, that is one hot ass 30v. Is that a painted roof or viynl?

[Seerlah]

I was able to blow them out. Stupid, i know, but i was panicking and pretty much did the first thing i could think of. Luckily for me, it worked

I really love this car and would hate to have lost her

You got the flames out. Not so stupid if it worked.

[sixfiveoh]

Wow I want a white A4.

[A4 Effort]

Appreciate the compliments guys

Wow, that is one hot ass 30v. Is that a painted roof or viynl?

It's painted. Had it done about 3 weeks ago.

[4A Play]

If you dont mind, how much did the paint job cost you?

[generik777]

I think I'm gonna get a little fire extinguisher to keep in my trunk. Glad to see your car didn't get hurt too bad. So clean looking.

[Yaktizzle417]

Man, if my car caught on fire, I'd let the thing burn to the ground.

[le91688]

I never realized how much i love your car.

Sucks about the fire tho!

[J Ozzie]

Sheit dude, glad your ok n shes ok... Thats like me headin to kelowna(15 min from merritt) but in the talon

Drivin along and my Rear diff locked up on me doin 140k..BAM it goes and here i am goin FUCKKK stearin the car back end is slidin around i cam a foot close to the side raod barrier... Then im like FUCK! stupid dumb talon... and my gfs all scared, Im frickin LIVID. Im like great stupid rear diff.

Ne ways im in the car with her callin the rents sayin this dumb car broke down again, the next thing you know is this car slams on its brakes infront of me guy comes running to me

''GET OUT OF YOUR CAR ITS ON FIRE!!! QUCIKKK" so i grab my stuff tell the gf to run way down the street cus if it blows id rather me get hurt then her..

So i get out look under the car... Hugeee oil fire.. all the oil that leaked out onto my custom 3'' exhaust and caused a nice oil fire that wouldnt go out..

So here i am in the middle of no where had a tiny bottle of water tryed that..didnt do much because it beign an oil fire.. Then i wave down a truck and this nice lady is like i have a extinguisher so i put out the fire and got towed back to kelowna..

[A4 Effort]

4A Play

The roof cost me about $400, i had some other work done to the car as well, but i believe that portion came out to around $400.

Sheit dude, glad your ok n shes ok... Thats like me headin to kelowna(15 min from merritt) but in the talon

Drivin along and my Rear diff locked up on me doin 140k..BAM it goes and here i am goin FUCKKK stearin the car back end is slidin around i cam a foot close to the side raod barrier... Then im like FUCK! stupid dumb talon... and my gfs all scared, Im frickin LIVID. Im like great stupid rear diff.

Ne ways im in the car with her callin the rents sayin this dumb car broke down again, the next thing you know is this car slams on its brakes infront of me guy comes running to me

''GET OUT OF YOUR CAR ITS ON FIRE!!! QUCIKKK" so i grab my stuff tell the gf to run way down the street cus if it blows id rather me get hurt then her..

So i get out look under the car... Hugeee oil fire.. all the oil that leaked out onto my custom 3'' exhaust and caused a nice oil fire that wouldnt go out..

So here i am in the middle of no where had a tiny bottle of water tryed that..didnt do much because it beign an oil fire.. Then i wave down a truck and this nice lady is like i have a extinguisher so i put out the fire and got towed back to kelowna..

That's crazy man. Glad you got yours out too. I would hate to sit there and have to watch my car burn - that has to be a gut-wrenching experience. One i am fortunate enough not to have gone through.

[Lazer Viking]

oh shit, the fire made your whole roof black !

haha, still looks bangin dooder

[B5Burn]

Wow, thank goodness you got out in good time to save your life, but more importantly, save that beeeaautiful car! ;) haha kidding.

The day I was teaching my wife to drive standard, it was with her 'new' 65 Beetle. The thing was built to the tits. I could juuuust get the front wheels of the ground on a good launch with a low tank. Annyway, it had dual downdraft Dellorto carbs with massive paper filters on top... JUST as we finished a lesson, I drive her home, stopped at the first light and I see smoke out the back.. turned it off, yelled GET OUT and took about 3 steps to cover 100ft of pavement to the gas station on the corner. A kid who was admiring the car spotted what was going on and nabbed the extinguisher for me as I ran up... slowly opened the lid and it was one of the oily filters that had some flame to it. Puff puff, easy to put out, but DRAMA!!!! Not even 3 minutes later, two giant firetrucks arrived.. and promptly left. Lid had to be repainted and the bay needed cleaning, but the Ins company took their $100 and it was all show quality chromey again.

After seeing your story... I know what I am buying this week end.

B.

[zrowcool]

seriously need to get a extinguisher in my car... i had 2 ground cables come out and had the power cable short out on my fuse holder also. i had wanted to get one but always put it to the side. i think this might be my sign

[VTAudiA4]

Wow that is one sexy A4. Get some S4 sides and you will be all set.

.....

Sorry to hear what happened.

[pipe7284]

damn that sucks. specially on such beautiful car like yours.

[blacka4]

i had 2 cars of mine catch on fire. One the exhaust leaked and caught the rubber hanger bushings on fire and my A4 caught fire when the body heat fabric fell off and was laying on the exhaust. I wouldn't have known about that fire had my ICM not shit and the car ran like crap. limped home popped the hood saw flames, grabs extinguisher from trunk...put out flames. I carry a extinguisher in my car and always will...never know when you might need it.

[lookaught]

Glad you caught it in time to save your car. I've known several people who have had their cars go up in smoke.

There is a video from a few years ago of a Mk3 or 4 golf with a huge turbo kit and endless mods that catches fire when the oil line to the turbo leaked. The guy was just out on the road and had no extinguisher, he filmed the car burn to the ground in front of he eyes, it caught fire and smoke came into the vents as his passenger was filming in the cabin, so its from beginning to end, including the feeble attempts to put it out. sooooo sad, its like losing a child.

Though I dont think its really necessary for most cars, its a good idea if you have a modded car. You never know when shit will happen!

EDIT: and I found the video click here for tears. I guess he did get an extinguisher eventually but it was too late. :(

[Siena]

Glad you got that fire put out.

Your car's a beauty, by the way.

[A4 Effort]

Wow - so sad. The fire right at the beginning when they popped the hood is what mine looked like. Soooooooo thankful.

Glad you got that fire put out.

Your car's a beauty, by the way.

Appreciate it - yours is quite the looker as well. Dig that orange

[Seerlah]

Bought a fire extinguisher and mounted it to my subwoofer box . Without this thread, I would have prolonged it to the point it would have become irrelevant to purchase.

[deadleavesdie]

That sucks dude...

[A4 Effort]

Bought a fire extinguisher and mounted it to my subwoofer box . Without this thread, I would have prolonged it to the point it would have become irrelevant to purchase.

Glad someone was able to benefit at my expense We mean to do stuff and sometimes all it takes is a little motivation

[sirmeeps]

that thing is hot man glad to see another good lookin 30v keep it up and dont let it catch on fire again

[tamadrumr88]

don't clean the underside of the hood, it gives the car character

[MattzWarsteiner]

The short could have melted the AC pipe = phosgene gas. < not good.

So the electrical work needs more care, but your firefighting skills are top notch A4 E.
You are lucky the battery didn't explode.