Most Common Cause of Fire

I do a lot of work as a classic car appraiser and do a lot of foresnic appraisals. The most common type of fire is a garage fire belive it or not. People keep way too much junk in thier garage. Oily rags and a spark from a grinder or old electrical apliance and watch out.

 

The only street fire I've loned my extinguisher to put out with is an old pickup truck engine fire with a teen couple driving. It was quite a blaze at a major intersection. Just a carb fire. I had a friend w/ a Porsche dash fire that totaled the car.

 

because you are on ferrari site. no one posts the camry's that catch on fire. to answer your question, i imagine most cars catch on fire from flammable liquids getting on hot surfaces. if you are worried about it (i'm not), check all your flammable liquid hoses.

 

In the last week I have driven past two cars on fire. I didnt stop to take photo's. But if it were a Ferrari, then yes I would have stoped to take a few. For that reason, I think a fire in a ferrari is just as common as in a normal car.

 

That's one cause. Also, clamps that bite into the rubber lines can cause premature failure - I have seen this in a 355 Spider.

To answer the OP, I had the fuel lines in my 328 replaced (one had started to turn brittle) with OEM-type materials. No alternatives were recommended at the time (early 2006).

 

355 fires tend to be from loose bolts at the fuel union in front of the engine, or loose hose clamps in the fuel filler plumbing, or overheated cats.

348 fires tend to be from overheated cats or loose hose clamps in the fuel filler plumbing.

TR fires tend to be from fuel line cracks near the fuel pump or overheated cats.

Overall, Ferraris catch fire less often than other makes (1/2 percent for Ferrari, 2% for average makes), but this is generally attributed to the lower miles put on Ferraris.

Gasoline is volatile...flammable. It burns. Driving any gasoline-fueled car carries risk of fire, especially performance gasoline-fueled vehicles.

Automatic fire extinguishers for your engine bay are recommended...plus, don't drive when your cats are overheated (Ferraris have SLOW DOWN warning systems for this) and make certain that your hosing/clamps/plumbing all are 100% sealed tight.

Do not tolerate even the slightest fuel smell or leak. Ever. In any gasoline-fueled vehicle (especially boats and aircraft).

 

The moderner aluminium Ferraris (348's and TR's not included here, only 360's on) can catch fire due to earth connection issues with the aluminium chassis, this causes a short and next thing you have wires on fire and the rest is history.

Very recent example: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=172146

Using the aluminium chassis as the earth path has been causing issues since they went this way I believe, thus I cannot understand why they just don't simply run a few extra wires to complete the circuit and also make the cars safer it appears.

Pete

 

Very true, but not much of a concern for 348's and TR's!

 

Yup

 

Most F fires are due to fuel line proximity to hot cats. The cats are beneath the engine which is a poor placement area, so any fuel compromise and the thing goes up. On a Porsche the cats are off to the sides so not the same problem. With Mercedes they use titanium to cool the cats which is more expensive. I would say F's burn far more frequently on average then almost any other car out there, certainly on a per mile driven basis.

 

Nope. Nope. And nope.

Ferrari fires are listed above.

Porsche 928 cats are directly in the middle of the car, right under the automatic transmission cooling hoses. Hose leaks, car fries.

Ferrari's burn at 1/4 the rate of other car makes per insurance stats (though the per mile average is a different story altogether).

 

I bought a 348 with modified cats and modified electronics.When I test drove it it had the slow down warning system light on.The dealer and my mechanic said that this is a false reading and is no longer working as the cats were excluded and a sports exhaust is on the car.How do I know if something goes wrong in the future if this light is not reading the original system?

 

Are you saying that there are no cats on your car? The SLOW DOWN lights only apply to cars with catalytic converters installed.

 

why would you say that? Why would you post that without any evidence? I'll give you credit, at least you post "i would say". most people post it as a fact without any backup besides the few that get sensationalized here.

 

Most common cause of fire related directly to the car itself is lack of maintainance. Garages that catch fire, or gas station fuel nozzles that stick open are external causes, no different than if someone walked up and torched your car on purpose. But when a car catches fire on its own, its almost always a maintainance related issue. Either old cracked hoses, deteriorated wiring, or something assembled improperly.

 

The slow down light only tells you if the cats are having a problem (overheating). If your cats are empty (hollowed out) or they have been replaced by straight pipes you have no need for the warning light because there are no cats. to overheat. I would have thought that they would make the light turn off in some way even if it meant disconnecting the light bulb. In any event, if there are no cats. you can ignore the slow down light.

 

This is based on four years of crash and burn cases that I've heard of on F-chat alone. My guess is in 6 or 7 times out of 10, any F impact that(usually) compromises the fuel lines, winds up in the car burning up. When you combine that with relatively low mileage, F cars easily come out the winner in car infernos. I would challenge anyone on this.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The most common cause of fire is sparks or heat on flammable materials.

 

That was a joke right??

 

Fire is no joke, Scott.

 

(notice where he put "I am so smrt") (his spelling, not mine!)

 

What's this supposed to mean?