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Again on the nightly news tonight there was a report on a car that caught fire after hitting a pole or something. I thought car fires went away with the Pinto. It's 2018. What exactly is causing this? Well, aside from the Li-Ion batteries.
Causing? Hot engine and combustible fuel. The more important question is why do no people carry fire extinguishers in their vehicles? They're cheap, and can easily stop a minor fire that could be repaired into a totaled vehicle.
Rupture a pressurized fuel line in a hot engine bay and you will get fire. Honestly, it's all lack of the draw in how the sheet metal crumbles and how the lines are routed from tank to engine.
Really surprised fire extinguishers aren't more common. Guess no OEM wants to suggest their cars will catch fire and car fires probably aren't common enough for the .gov to mandate it.
I carry one in my older modified cars. Never know when a fuel line I've disconnected a few times will let go. My new, untouched cars I don't. I really should.
Last edited by BostonMike7; 08-06-2018 at 07:41 PM..
A vehicle with an engine or electrical fire would likely be totaled either way. Even if the fire was quickly put out and everything looked to be ok, the chemicals from the fire extinguisher would cause hidden damage to electrical connections and other stuff that it got into. It would be similar to a flood damaged car.
Also, vehicle fires can progress very rapidly. I would not think it would be a good idea to tell people to open their hood to try to put it out. The fresh supply of oxygen from opening the hood I would suspect could be very dangerous.
If you have a car fire, I believe the best advice would be to get out and get to safety as quickly as possible. It's not worth risking 3rd degree burns just because you happen to have a little $19 extinguisher with you.
Apparently there have been over 400 car fires of Hyundai/Kia cars. Video shows the fires might be coming from the lower passenger side of the engine bay. BMWs have had a number of car fires while parked. No definitive answer for either one, but I'm pretty sure you can guess there's a faulty component or design flaw.
In the old days, engine fires were mostly due to poorly redesign fuel systems, and improper oil circulation.
When you consider how many vehicles are on the road, car fires are actually quite rare. Especially considering the number of combustible materials used in a modern automobile.
I have been in a car fire back in the 1970's. It was a Ford LTD station wagon deluxe. We had just shopped at Priceco for toilets and stuff for a house build and the vehicle caught on fire. We got every thing loaded out the back end before the fire took off, no injuries, on Ventura County 101 N freeway pulled over into the dirt by the vineyards lol long time ago
I have an extinguisher but more out of habit. Sometimes just to have available when I am working in my car.
I've been told that under no circumstances should people open the hood of their car to try to fight the fire themselves. The best you can do is immediately shut off the ignition and get away from the vehicle.
What surprises me is that cars still have no external switch for fuel cut off....
Causing? Hot engine and combustible fuel. The more important question is why do no people carry fire extinguishers in their vehicles? They're cheap, and can easily stop a minor fire that could be repaired into a totaled vehicle.
If you hit something hard enough to cause a fire, its probably totaled any way.
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