Sorry about your car-what a bummer. This scares me silly. Just bought an 87 GT with less than 27,000 miles. Looks just like yours. I would be crazy if it burned. Does anybody know why these things are burning? I thought the pyro problem was solved with the older ones? I'm going to do the cold start maitainance suggested earlier. Any other suggestions? Thanks

quote Originally posted by Zoom88: DUDE.....man I am realllly sorry to hear about your car !!! Do you have any idea what has been the cause of these fires? Your really freaking me out with all this talk of fire. Let me tell you what happened to me recently....I was running down one of the back roads heading home one evening about 2 weeks ago and I ran over a couple of those plastic bags (like Wal-mart has) Anyway when I looked in the rear view I didn't see it. Anyway I pulled into the first store I came to thinking it hung up on the front facia. When I got out I could smell plastic burning and looking under the car it had sucked up under the car and caught on the exhaust pipe where the cat is . (or should be)The pipe being hot it melted almost instantly and was burning let me tell ya its not easy putting out burning plastic that is melted on to the exhaust !!! The way the air is designed to flow under the car it looked like it was trying to suck it right up into the engine bay !!!

That is exactly why I purposefully avoid those bags. The fieros aerodynamics cause a low pressure area right above the decklid and behind the back window which causes air to rush up from the ground through the engine bay. (That is why the engine gets so dirty so fast) It also sucks up those bags. Not good.

------------------

Damn, Phil...if it wasn't for bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all! If you're going to have this happen to you, you might as well do some good with it. Start driving Yugos.

I AM sorry to hear about the car...hope you get into another one, quickly.

So, Dude, Will you let everyone know what caused the fire, if you can figure it out through the mess?....Paul

Any chance of an determining why? Pics? Real sorry to hear this. Hope #4 will be a charm.

------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Red 88 GT T-Top 3800 Supercharged
White 88 GT Stock
Please give me a rating if you appreciate my contribution.

Hey Phil!
I'm really sorry for what happened!!
Is this due to the well-known fire problem of Fieros? If yes, what was (or still is ) this problem and which cars are concerned?

Good luck Phil!

------------------
Christophe from FRANCE
**1986 PONTIAC FIERO - V6/2,8L**

Something to bear in mind guys and gals. Lightning does strike more than once in the same place:

My uncle has been struck by lightning 3 times, in 3 different places.

My neighbor has had both his jeep and camaro catch fire in the same week.

I had to attend 4 family funderals and a wedding within within 10 days.

I had an auto accident in my Blazer, and had my miata catch fire in two back to back saturdays.

My point is, wierd cooincidences can happen to one person. Engine fires are not exclusive to Fieros. I personally have whitnessed dozens of car fires while driving. not one of them has been a fiero. I have owned over 12 and have never had a fire.

The only thing we can really do to try and prevent this happening to our cars is to take precautions.

1)Regularly maintain your cars.

2)Always have a Fire extinguisher in every car you drive. and make it accessible to you from the seated drivers position.

3) and most importantly, pay attention to warning signs; unusual sounds and smells.

Dude said his car did not sound right when he shut it off. He was in a hurry and left the car because he had an appointment. Dudes fire could have been prevented if he had taken a minute or two to take a look (and perhaps sniff) in the engine compartment.

I may get flamed (no pun intended) for saying this, but i have a good reason and right to. My wife dropped me off at work in my Miata and then picked up our son for a nice mountain cruise with the top down. When she dropped me off, it had a strange sound to it, which i ignored because i did not want to be late for work. It then caught fire while she was driving my son up palomar mountain. There was no extinguisher in the car. and she had no cell phone. She and my 8 year old son were terrified and alone on the side of the road while my car burned to the ground.

Now, every car at my house has a cell phone in it, fire extinguisher, and a driver that will never again ignore a warning sign.

Be safe people, i hope this never happens to anyone again. I didnt mean to preech so damn much, ill get off my soap box.

Dude, i am so very very sorry you had to go through this again, if its any consolation i know EXACTLY how you feel. and sometimes nothing you can do can stop fate.

------------------
Monkey
"No matter where I go...There's my car"

*Just arrived...84 Indy 4-spd
87 T-Top GT 2.8/5-spd
87 Hardtop GT 2.8/5-spd
97 Trans-AM WS6 6-spd
91 V8 Monster Miata 5spd
69 Mustang Coupe 302 4spd

Added 2 short movies
http://members.cox.net/lothe/monstermovies.html

Hey Phil!

I'll sell you my 88GT! You can think of that fire as a chance to 'upgrade' . https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/011988.html . Anyway, that really is a shame about your car. It's sad, but every time I work on my car's electrical system, I worry that, overnight, there will be some short that will make my car a big plastic torch. It's even sadder when it does happen, though.

GTDude,
My sincere condolences.
Maybe we should start a fire prevention class for some of our more volatile members.

Sorry to hear about your car GTDude, but thankfully you are ok. Good luck in getting another.

Shawn

------------------
T.Shawn Palmer
'85 SE 4cyl 5spd
'88 Econo Coupe 4cyl Auto

I'm very sorry to hear about the loss. I know that this advise doesn't help you at this point in time but to everyone else reading this post bear in mind that your Fiero is quite old. As such ,the rubber fuel, A/T tranny oil, and coolant lines may be brittle. They don't last forever. Neither does the O ring for the CS injector line or the seal plate on the fuel block. I hope that Phil relays the cause of his fire but a word to the wise, maintain those items. As for Phil, I trust that he will be back with a new and better project soon. Good luck guy.

Sorry about your loss Phil.

OK... I couldn't help myself

Guyz, thanks for ALL the condolences. I really appreciate it.

The fires seem to start around the front exhaust manifold for some reason. I think it was an oil leak this time, but not sure. I'd bet on it having something to do with the front manifold or something in that area. I'm sure there were no leaves or anything and the recall w/s had been removed. I think after sleeping on it, what happened is that a vacuum leak occured and I ran it idling for about 5 min trying to find the leak....vac leak = lean = hot. It was idling at 2500. When I shut it off and shut the hood, the temp increased due to no air flow and some oil leaked down on the manifold. All speculation.....but I believe it is exactly what happened. Again...my stupidity...........oh well.....I'm ready for a new GT.......who's got one?

Phil

------------------
GTDude
OVER 25 years GM experience

Tell you what, I'll sell you my stipped down 85gt so you can build a wide body kit on it with a new engine. if it catches fire we'll know it's you and not the cars =)

j/k man I feel for you losing your baby's, and if you want some work i've got a rust free 85gt chassis for you that has been detailed and is just begging to be made into a show car.

-shaun

Phil, you have to hold the record for owning the most Fieros that have caught on fire.

I was close to having my Formula go up from a high idle problem that sounds a lot like your story. I had been letting it idle in one place while searching for the vacumn leak. I ran into the garage to get a tool or something, and it took me a minute to find... when I turned around there was some smoke coming out of the engine bay! I ran back to find one of those plastic wire protectors had gotten hot enough it began to melt and start on fire! It was still very small, and I was able to put it out without any serious damage... but another minute with my back turned and who knows!

I am terribly sorry to hear about your Fiero, and glad to hear nobody got hurt. Good luck in your hunt for a replacement!

that fricken blows

sorry about your loss man... its always sad to see a fiero go up in flames. its even more sad to see a fastback. then on top of it, its yours! man, i feel bad now i'll keep my eye out for a fastback around here and let you know if i find one.

btw, there's no way you're getting to drive mine when its done! lol

------------------

That sucks man.

What a shame this happened to you again.

Mama said they'rd be days like this.. they'rd be days like this my mama said.

I saw a picture somewhere on the net where a guy had made a trailer out of the back half of a GT. Perhaps he could fix you up with the back half of a GT. I know you could glue it on the back of yours and make it work.

My 87 GT looks just like yours. And, now I'm going to find out why it idles too fast.

I don't want it to be another statistic.

Sorry to hear about your car.

Jim

quote Originally posted by RossT: I wonder how many fieros have burnt because of this: http://www.fieropride.com/tech/fuelleak.htm

I found that problem and fixed it during my 3.4 conversion, but had no idea it was so common. I thought I had damaged it while R&R'ing the fuel rail, but I'm sure I didn't help it either way. I'll bet that's exactly what happened to Phil. Either that, or not using the right kind of thread sealer tape or not using it at all on the fuel line hoses over by the battery.

Dave

------------------

- Electron Blue '88 GT 5-speed (1 of 1): Before After ZZ430 Ram-Port FI--Wanna Race? Follow it here on the Forum!
- Silver '88 GT 5-speed (1 of 139) w/cammed 3.4
- '98 6-speed Corvette Coupe, '87 Coupe SOLD!

quote Originally posted by GTDude: The fires seem to start around the front exhaust manifold for some reason. I think it was an oil leak this time, but not sure. I'd bet on it having something to do with the front manifold or something in that area.

I've spilled oil all over my manifolds during oil changes and all it does is smoke, I've never seen it catch on fire. Oil doesn't burn very readily. I'd be thinking about fuel. Changed the fuel filter recently? That sucker's right by the cat, maybe it was leaking.

Dave

The closest I'v ever come to a fire was when I was replacing the fuel filter, I forgot to take the cap of to release the pressure first. It sprayed all over the engine (wich was of course off) But still I was afraid to start it. Phil, how about you get a v8? In a chopped notchback.. I never heard of a choptop catching fire.

Cory

Sorry about your loss.

i dont think oil would have caught it on fire either..... reason being is that the 85GT i purchased had a hole in the block, and a busted connecting rod that i didnt know about (didnt knock and just had a miss in the engine) well my girlfriend drove it and i hopped in my 86GT well about 4 miles or so out that road, the 85GT downshifted from 2nd to 1st and i heard a loud grinding noise, then a chunk of metal came out from under it. i picked it up to see that it was a piece of the block, well my girlfriend was still going with it. i caught up to her about 200-300 yards up the road, smoke pouring from the 85GT decklid, but the car was still running. it was a 1 lane road and no place to pull over (hillside) so i told her to just keep driving till she could find a place to pull over. well 1/2 mile later she pulled over. 2 quarts low on oil. smoke still pouring out and the oil was pouring right onto the cat. NO FIRE!! just alot of smoke.

i think phils problem is fuel somewhere. oil would have a very hard time catching on fire. and if it did it is very hard to keep burning.

matthew

quote Originally posted by crazyd: I've spilled oil all over my manifolds during oil changes and all it does is smoke, I've never seen it catch on fire. Oil doesn't burn very readily. I'd be thinking about fuel. Changed the fuel filter recently? That sucker's right by the cat, maybe it was leaking. Dave

Dave makes a good point about the fuel filter connections possibly leaking. Not only is the filter near the hot exhaust it is in a hostile location subject to water and road dust. I have seen these lines to the filter nearly rust through. We could badly use stainless steel fuel lines here. A new product perhaps? We could also use a source of O rings at the cold start valve feed tube. Rodney are you listening?

------------------
87GT 3.4 Turbo Best 0-60 5.2 seconds
http://turbofiero.fierojoe.com/turbo.htm

quote Originally posted by maryjane: I don't know Phil. Can we trust you not to burn up another one? Who's willing to risk their baby? j/k Sorry about your car Phil. I was lucky the other night. BTW, you get the booby prize. Jane

Sorry Phil,

Damn, 3 crispy crittered GT's, gotta be a record somewhere.

Jane, Heck give him another, the more he burns up the rarer mine becomes and no you can't have mine.

Good luck hunting for your next car.

BTW heres your booby award:

Earl R.

Darn this thread. Sorry to hear about your misfortune Phil. I hope you find a Fiero that will last, but this thread has had me paranoid all day today! About two hours ago, I locked the keys in my car with the engine running, and all I could think about was GTDude and whether or not I'd be next. Luckily I didn't have the door shut all the way and found something stout enough to push the power window switch. It took 35 minutes to get the door open. Geez... I've had my adrenalin fix for the day.

Next on the list: More spare keys.

Edit: The view looks good from here... Gives me something to look up to.

------------------
BlueGT

[This message has been edited by BlueGT (edited 01-03-2003).]

Hey Dude,

Sorry about your loss. If you didn't have bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all. We'll probably have a bunch of folks out this weekend under the hood looking for fuel and oil leaks. 15 year old o-ring seals are probably the underlying cause.

any odd lights comming on???
when my kid drove my 87se to ny ny from miami
the footwell lights keap coming on a odd times
why?, a short in the main wires where they go thru the rear bulkhead had frayed the wires and a day later they caught fire burning up the rear eng compartment totaling the car, no gas leaks or oil leaks just a bad short!!!!
fix to prevent this is eazy just wedge in some foam[pipe inslulation] between the bulkhead sheetmetal and the wires to prevent them from rubbing and shorting

------------------
Question wonder and be wierd
are you kind?

GTDude. why not see if FastFieros will sell you one of the GT rear clips he has and rebuild your car? Just a thought anyway.

------------------
1987 GT 5spd. Black/Silver itnerior.

The project continues. I have the MR2 Turbo 5spd w/limited slip, Shifter Assmebly (cales shifter and all) and my car is apart. Working on Buying the 1uzfe (4.0L DOHC Toyota V8)
Twin T28 Ball bearings here i come :D

Guyz......I thoroughly believe that all of the fires were in part at least, my own fault. The first one....a red 86GT I hear threw a rod and the car was QUITE hot. I was determined it was carbon.....yeah! The second one is the one that slipped in the ditch and the cat caught the leaves on fire and it burned to a crisp. The one last night definitely did not have a fuel leak or I would have smelled it, but it did idle at 2500 rpm for at least 5 min after being driven for 20 min. It was DEFINITELY HOT under the hood, and of course once I shut the hood, it only got hotter. I think I had a valve cover leaking in the front because that is where it looks like the fire started. SO.......I will just have to say that I don't blame the cars. I blame me...in part.....AT LEAST. I am a kind of hurry up and do thing kind of guy. It doesn't always mix well with Fieros.

Anyway....after listening to you guyz...and thinking about my Flaming Fieros....the next one I get will be treated differently. Not better....just differently. And I've already checked into 2 auto discharge fire extinguishers that I can mount in the front of the engine compartment....LOL. They will cost about $300 but I figure it's money well spent.......considering my history.....lol. If another one catches fire it's gonna have to be an electrical fire up front some place.....LOL!

So....don't blame it or even most of it on the cars. Blame me for most of it. I honestly believe that if someone else had been driving any of the 3 that all would still be around. There's something about me and fire...I had a house burn down too. So give the cars a break. They aren't fire traps. Only when examining my experience does it appear so.

Now get out there and find me another car DAMN IT!........LOL.....MANY THANKS GUYZ

Phil

------------------
GTDude
OVER 25 years GM experience

Gee Phil... Does it rain on you even when your in the house?

------------------
BlueGT

Here is a car for ya Buddy....No engine to worry about catching fire !!! hee hee

------------------

You should change your user name Flaming Fieros

Fiero Flambe'....So...could someone build a fire suppression system out of say, and extinguisher and some NOS solenoids and nozzles of some type?

quote Originally posted by USFiero: Fiero Flambe'....So...could someone build a fire suppression system out of say, and extinguisher and some NOS solenoids and nozzles of some type?

That's a pretty good idea. Perhaps a Halon extinguisher would work. It could have the switch mounted somewhere on the dash that wouldn't get bumped.

Once again, sorry about the car, Phil...

------------------
'84 Indy 5spd, awaiting wiring harness

GTDude!
Sorry about your loss.
Anytime that your are in my area, I will let you drive my red 87 GT!
The most knowledgable Fiero person in the history of the world driving my car will probably have everything fixed in just one drive! Either that, or, well, I'll join the club and bring wennies and marshmallows to the roast.
jetman
I just dont know why the worst things happen to the best people.

Sorry to hear of your loss. Better luck with your next one.

You're the reason people think Fieros catch fire. Maybe you should get an Aztek, nobody will care if that burns.

Are you starting to feel like Joe ??? from Lil Abner who walked around with a cloud over his head?

------------------
Notchbacks Rule
84 Coupe(parts car)
85GT(show car)
87SE Gold(project car)
87SE Silver(daily driver)
88Coupe (daily driver)
88Formula (daily driver)

If anything good comes out of this, it will be to get everybody to get out and
check their cars for any type of problems that cause fires. I narrowly escaped frying a wiring harnesss and or the car because I didn't want to stop right away and check an odd smell. So if there is anything, I say we salute Phil and not let his loss be wasted.

We are all driving cars that are 15-19 years old. Maybe they need a little TLC.

------------------
__________________________
88 GT V6 Fleet white

DIY Leather Interior Available

Shipping weight..1200-1500 lbs.

300 styles to choose from, and Discounted Kits available.*

*Note: All Discounted Kits Must be shipped refrigerated

Sorry to hear about your car. Happy new years If you have insurance to cover it, at least you get to try a new one. Im really paranoid myself about mine. I keep an eye on garage floor, driveway and how cars feel and sound all the time. I check anything out of the ordinary right away. Hopefully I wont ever have the fire problem (knock on wood)