The Accord caught Fire

[EricW]

The accord caught on fire last Friday night when i got home from work, luckily. There was some smoke on coming from under the hood on my way to the college, from work, and it didn't smell like oil. I checked under the hood when i got there and couldn't see an obvious problem and i had to get to my english final so i left it. When was done with my final i drove back to work and it was smoking again so I checked again and didn't see anything other than the power steering fluid was a little lower than it normally is. So i went back to work because I decided I was going to check it out when I got home. Along with the exhaust leak that I had been hearing for less than a week.

I drove home, smoking again, got out of the car started to walk to the door and looked back at the car and there was a orange glow coming through the radiator. YIKES! I opened the hood and tried to blow it out since it was small, but it just got twice as big. So i then proceed to turn on the water hose and spray it out with a small burst so i didn't crack anything. Well here's what you've been waiting for, the pics.

The area of the fire.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/ericrw165/Fire/th_100_2543.jpg (http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/ericrw165/Fire/100_2543.jpg)

The only damage other than the hose.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/ericrw165/Fire/th_100_2544.jpg (http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/ericrw165/Fire/100_2544.jpg)

The High pressure hose.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/ericrw165/Fire/th_100_2542.jpg (http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/ericrw165/Fire/100_2542.jpg)

The heat shield that was around the HP hose.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/ericrw165/Fire/th_100_2546.jpg (http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/ericrw165/Fire/100_2546.jpg)

The exhaust leak. Just a small one. LOL the wastegate tube isn't attached to the exhaust manifold any more.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/ericrw165/Fire/th_100_2545.jpg (http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/ericrw165/Fire/100_2545.jpg)

I plan on either removing the Power steering or doing something like Dennis did and route it around the drivers side of the engine.

[forrest89sei]

OH GOD!

Glad it was a minor one!

Still Sucks though!

Good Luck on removing or Re Routing the Lines

[A18A]

holy shyte good thing thats the only damage done

[EricW]

holy shyte good thing thats the only damage done

Other than that the primer on the hood bubbled a little in a small patch that you could cover with your hand.

[russiankid]

Well good thing you stopped the flame on time. We need a warning sticky to reroute the lines if you are running power steering with turbo.

[bobafett]

Wow it could have been a whole lot worse! Thats scary!

I'm glad your car is ok still.

[EricW]

I'm real lucky. It could have been much worse. It added an item to my Christmas list, a fire extinguisher. lol Which is something I've been meaning to pick up any way.

[AccordEpicenter]

yeah you def need a fire extinguisher. Im eliminating ps entirely on my new setup

[EricW]

I took the belt off to move the car from the yard to the driveway and it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. So I may just roll with out it for awhile and see how i like it.

[Pico]

sorry to hear what happened to the car

[GraniteLXI]

Wow, thats damn scary. Thank god you caught it early and didn't just keep walking away! Glad to hear the damage is minor and your safe.

[labeledsk8r]

damn that sucks, good to know you cought it when you did

[MessyHonda]

reminds me of when my dx catched on fire...the power sterring hose was leaking oil on the exhast and when it gets hot it catches on fire...let us know with what extinguisher you go with...i want something small....i saw this one called like ice fire or something....it comes in a can.

[AccordB20A]

The title made this thread sound worcer than it was. Glad it wasnt any worce! No power steering looks like the way to go lol

[mushroom_toy]

Power steering is a creature comfort no one needs in all reality. Makes people weak lol.

[2oodoor]

Power steering fluid or Dexron has a low flashpoint the warmer it gets. I found that out the hard way once when I was working on a customers 68 mustang , the power steering is a ram servo on the drag link, right by the exhaust.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t280/roodoo2/1197548881.jpg

[Civic Accord Honda]

Power steering is a creature comfort no one needs in all reality. Makes people weak lol.
word

[carotman]

I would just re-route the line, It's not that bad honestly.

[fogged]

Happy the car is ok. I guess it was good that it happend at home with a hose close at hand, and not at school. I would just remove the ps. Its really not bad. Just sux for the first few months, when you get into a parking lot.

[SQ is the SQUAD]

funny story. my grandfather just had a talk with me about letting my father borrow his car to get back and fourt from work while he is out of town. he asked me if i though it was a good idea, i told him i dident have a problem with it seeing that i had another car to drive. my grandfather has a 99 buick park ave, mint! it had just under 50k on it. besides my 91 y/o grandfather, i am the only person who usually drives the car. to make a long story short, we just got a snow storm today. my father forgot his food at his job, which is about 5 block from our house. he takes th car to go get it, and come back like an hour later. the said it took him about 30 mins just to get up the hill before our house. the hill was only about 200 yards at the most. anyways, 5 mins later we get a call from my cousin next door saying the car is smoking. i told her it was ok, my father got stuck in the snow and the tries are prob hot, i just happen to go look ouside and seem all the flames. the car is toast. the first thing i though was to run to my tow truck and get the fire extinquisher. my dad grabs on and i grab the other, but they where frozen! i dident know extingushers could freeze! anyways, by time the fire department got here the car was ingoulped (sp)

[snoopyloopy]

whew. that was close. but glad to hear that it's not as bad as it could have been. and that's why i keep an extinguisher in my car. "just in case."

[guaynabo89]

Wow

Sorry to hear man. What caused it? Glad it didnt get any worse than what it is .

[race12001]

yea we get several calls a year from cars catching fire but roodoo i wouldnt recomend a hand heald halon ext if you breath it in it can kill you cause it sucks the o2 out of the air i use just a standard abc ext

[2oodoor]

the car was ingoulped

How about let's say "fully involved" lol.. sorry to hear about the Buick. No telling how that happened, the ice is conductive so it could have got on the batt wire around the starter and shorted. Some of those Buicks have the battery and main circut protection under the back seat too, wierd but I like those .

and race12001, I never use halon, that is an extinguisher I keep on my desk in case one of guys in the shop set themselves on fire takng a gas tank out. (first responder ) Yes ABC are much safer, I have those all around ....not quite as handy sometimes though. thanks for empathizing the danger of halon that I may have recommended inadvertently without warnings.
How would an ABC extinguisher freeze though, that is wild.

[EricW]

Wow

Sorry to hear man. What caused it? Glad it didnt get any worse than what it is .

I'm not sure if the heat caused the High pressure power steering hose to crack and leak or if the hose just started leaking and the fire caused the cracks. But either way the High Pressure hose started leaking on the exhaust manifold and the power steering fluid caught fire.

How did you have that hose made that your using Dennis? I know you said you had it made but how did you have the end made that connected to the pump?

[lostforawhile]

How about let's say "fully involved" lol.. sorry to hear about the Buick. No telling how that happened, the ice is conductive so it could have got on the batt wire around the starter and shorted. Some of those Buicks have the battery and main circut protection under the back seat too, wierd but I like those .

and race12001, I never use halon, that is an extinguisher I keep on my desk in case one of guys in the shop set themselves on fire takng a gas tank out. (first responder ) Yes ABC are much safer, I have those all around ....not quite as handy sometimes though. thanks for empathizing the danger of halon that I may have recommended inadvertently without warnings.
How would an ABC extinguisher freeze though, that is wild.thats not true about halon, if your in a car on fire you probably shouldn't be inside it anyway. the standard ABC dry chemical extinquishers can cause severe damage to your car. not only does the chemical agent corrode anything aluminum,it will destroy any electrical connections it gets into,as well as any kind of circuit board,and ruin your paint. the halon has been used for many years in cars,as well as in aircraft,as a matter of fact it's the only agent allowed into an aircraft. once you put out a fire with a halon extinquisher, theres no clean up whatsover. it aslo can reach hard to get to fires such as those under a dashboard. where a dry chemical just won't reach,the agent seeks out the fire. i have never heard of anyone dying from a halon extinquisher. i had a small carb fire,used an abc one,and i'm still repairing the damage from the extinquisher. the stuff simply won't come off,it's in everything.

[2oodoor]

^^^^
yep abc does make a hella mess, about the halon, I was responding to race12001 post. I would use a halon in a race car if regs approved it.
Sorry EricW , I read the Buick post and forgot where I was at, didnt mean to hi jack.
On those hoses though, we have an industrial hose making place here that I use to make all those hoses for hydraulics on sweepers, backhoes, booms,HVAC, etc. I think it would be worth checking out in your area, They have elbows and various fittings that can get you routed with out having to have molded hose.

[86ccord]

wow.. you did get reall lucky about your fire not being huge.. well.. hope it doesnt happen to you again! or anybody really..