Soo my feiro cought on fire.... (Page 1/3)
tonytoes MAR 20, 04:06 PM
So this is my first time posting and I was hoping that I could have some help. I was driving my automatic 88' GT and I got home and something smelled like it was on fire. I popped the trunk and saw a wire near the engine coolant line was on fire. A quick run to grab our fire extinguisher and the fire was out. I will admit I don't know much about cars but I was wondering what do i do next to try and get the car up and running again.


Here is more of a zoomed out view of where it is.


here is a better picture of where the fire was. It looked like it was a wire that was on fire when i saw it.


Here is another picture of where the fire was.

I know that the pictures might not be that great but they are the best I can manage.

Like I said I don't know much about fixing up cars. but any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for the help. And if anyone has any more questions for me I'll gladly give the answer if I can.

[This message has been edited by tonytoes (edited 03-20-2019).]

Gall757 MAR 20, 04:32 PM
Welcome to the Forum! You will need to edit your pictures down to a size that can be seen.....about 800 pixels wide. It looks like a hot wire was rubbing on the valve cover...just a guess on my part.

[This message has been edited by Gall757 (edited 03-20-2019).]

tonytoes MAR 20, 04:40 PM

quote
Originally posted by Gall757:

Welcome to the Forum! You will need to edit your pictures down to a size that can be seen.....about 800 pixels wide. It looks like a hot wire was rubbing on the valve cover...just a guess on my part.





thank you i got the images resized

[This message has been edited by tonytoes (edited 03-20-2019).]

theogre MAR 20, 04:48 PM
No clue from you pic's.
MANY things can cause a car fire.
Examples:
Any oil leak or wires rub on exhaust is very easy to have a fire. More so w/ Fiero because of the exhaust setup.
Battery cables and others carry high amps that can cause a fire rubbing on frame block etc. Many other wires can too a never "blow a fuse."

Expect to replace the alt and other things because Dry Chemical gets into bearings and other moving parts.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

olejoedad MAR 20, 04:49 PM
The damaged wire attaches where the battery main ground wire attaches.

1. Can you trace the damaged wire back to it's source?
2. This may be as easy as putting on a new ground wire set.
3. I would suggest cleaning the battery terminals and grounding points throughout the car.
Patrick MAR 20, 05:29 PM

quote
Originally posted by Gall757:

You will need to edit your pictures down to a size that can be seen.....about 800 pixels wide.



I didn't see the original images that the OP posted... but I just wanted to add that a width of 1024 pixels is perfect for this forum (no scrolling required left to right) when viewed on a "standard" 1920x1080 resolution desktop monitor. It's also the maximum width that PIP will accept (along with a max file size of 300 kb).

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 03-20-2019).]

wftb MAR 20, 06:04 PM
Before you start tracing wires, disconnect your battery. Hopefully the copper part of the wires is still there. Trace the wires back till you find undamaged insulation and then just replace the damaged part with new wire. You can use insulated butt crimps or solder joints with shrink sleave insulation. If it is large wire say that goes from the battery to the alternator you can usually get a new assembled universal piece from an auto parts store. Welcome to the forum, have fun. Oh and clean out your heater fan box, another future fire waiting to happen inside there.
Gall757 MAR 20, 07:15 PM
Maybe a plastic vacuum line was melted too.....they are not very tough.
Spoon MAR 20, 07:20 PM
Fusible links in that area could of blown. They give off obnoxious smoke until the wire is broken and then the smoke disappears leaving the Novice scratching his head along with a look of confusion on his face. Same thing happened to me (non-fiero vehicle) when I was young & naive about modern engine wiring.

After the smoke cleared I thanked the Almighty that the vehicle didn't burn to the ground. Later on I was schooled and found out the Almighty had nothing to do with it. A few Wise-men in the automotive field came up with some way to ignite the engine harness in order to save a circuit from going rouge. A very unusual concept right up there with blood-letting & snake-oil in my opinion.

Spoon

------------------
"Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne." - Kurt Vonnegut

olejoedad MAR 20, 08:10 PM
There are no vacuum lines or fusible links in that area of the 2.8.
The area is the grounding point for the factory battery ground, and the residue visible in his picture is typical of burned wire insulation.
I suspect that he will find a corroded ground connection that built heat and charred the wire insulation.