She caught on fire today :(

[Teal9Four]

94 gt. driving down the road today everything going normal then all of a sudden i smell rubber burning, then few seconds later smoke starts pouring out from under my hood. i immediately pull over and throw open my hood and see that my fuse box is on fire. i take my shirt off and use it to smother the fire. it just catches on fire so i sprint accross the street through traffic into am/pm and grab a gallon of water and run back and put it out. had me pretty scared i was gonna loose my baby.

anyways, anyone ever heard about the fuse box catching on fire??what happend? its at the dealership now. i wonder how much its gonna cost to have a new box put in and replace any of the wire that fryed too. battery melted so im gonna need that too. any gueeses at the cost? damage isnt as bad as i was expecting.

 

[1105]

wow man that sucks. Never heard about that happening before.

 

[94TURBO5 O]

Sorry to hear about that man. Maybe your PS started to leak and hit the header and the fire started that way. I was driving my Mom's Jag down a dark rd and noticed the shadow on the road of the car was glowing orange. I pulled over and the chit was on fire! The dealer showed me the break in the PS line that leaked on the headers and then poof.

 

[1hot5.0]

Don't have any ideas on that, sorry to hear about that though. Jr's idea sounds resonable though. :dunno:

 

[urban96]

my friend had a battery explode all over his engine last summer, maybe something like that happen

 

[SN95StangMan]

That sucks. I think I'm going to start driving around with a small fire extinguisher. Last thing I want is some small BS fire spreading and burning my whole car down.

 

[89VertLX]

A fire extinguisher is always a good thing to have in a car. Just make sure you get a good Halon one. The dry powder in standard fire extinguishers can cause huge problems with your under-hood components, and they aren't always good at putting out electrical fires. Just my $.02...


Sam in Denver
89 LX 'vert 5.0
71K original miles, bone stock

 

[wytstang]

That sucks man i've never heard of this either. I would do to your local junkyard for the box and other small bs if it to $$ at the dealer. As far as cost

 

[Rootus]

The very first "mod" I did when I bought my car was the addition of a Halon fire extinguisher. No sense putting effort and money into your baby only to watch it go up in smoke. You got lucky this time, don't rely on luck next time .

 

[1105]

I need to get a fire extinguisher for my car here soon.

 

[Imyourzero]

I had a similar experience in Nov. 2002 except it wasn't caused by my fuse box. Still not sure to this day, but I think it might have been the alternator. And I didn't get to extinguish it because I was pulling a dead kid out of the road.

Some of you may remember the story.

 

[yellow5.0cobra]

If you need a fuse box, I have one, cept its outta a V6. Should be the same tho. Dont see a reason it should be different.


Sucks to hear the mess. Just trying to help you out.

 

[madams74]

I had the alternator dead short last year. The positive post was shorted to the case. I had the fusible links blow on me. The engine died instantly. After the smoke cleared, I attempted to start it up to get home. It started but with no voltage on the meter. I relized that the links were melted so I check out the alternator to be sure it was OK. My voltage meter set on the ohm/continuity reading. I had the short being shown from the positive post to the grounded case. It could have been worse. The battery could have blown. I have heard other horror storys on mustangs. I believe the headlight switchs have been known to melt. This includes the FOX body as well.

 

[5.0 from 95]

It could be from a loose connection at the fuse box. Most of the time, fires from electrical issues start from either to large a fuse on to small a wire or a loose connection, because that acts like to small a wire trying to pull to much current.


Paul

 

[tmoss]

Most fuse box fires are started by loose connections - the push on connectors get old and loose tension and heat up which causes them to get looser, which causes them to heat more, and so on till a fire starts.

 

[haulbalz]

man that sucks... as far as cost, any dealership is going to be expensive.. should have taken it to some local shop...just my .02

 

[Black95GTS]

The dealership is gonna try to sell you a wiring harness, I'll put money on it. And for a fun fact, the old school shelby cobra's came with a fire extinguisher from the factory! Doesn't show too much faith in the product though...

 

[Teal9Four]

well, im in the military so im not near home so i have no tools or anything to work on her or else i would have just fixed it all myself. secondly im not too familiar with the area im in so i didnt really know of any reputable shops to take her to which left me with one choice which was ford. the fire extinguisher is definitly a smart idea. im pretty sure ill be out looking for one first thing when shes back on the road.

 

[95YellowGTbeasT]

Insurance

 

[Killercanary]

Halon is hard to find, actually I thought it was outlawed??? I figured a wal mart special fire extinguisher is better than nothing, so that is what I have in mine.

Where does the fire start when the fan bearings seize? I know Joe (vib) had this happen.

Also, my cousin's 94 had an undhood fire start right where your's did and it was a similar situation to JR, only my cousin's brake line had a hole rubbed in it from his dipstick rubbing on it. Luckily he too carried an extinguisher with him and quickly put it out.