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I was driving back to work after going to lunch with the wifey, making a left hand turn from 34th street onto 8th ave. Came through the turn somewhat aggressively, boost rolling on nice and smooth with 50% throttle or so and straightening out into WOT. Then it happened. The smell of burning plastic. I looked around quickly, checked to see if another car in front was burning. No cars for some distance. Then smoke starts rolling into the cabin from the passenger window (which was open) and whirling around in the passenger floorboard area. Oh shit. I immediately pull over and start the engine fire routine I have planned for. Stop the car, kill the engine. Open the fuel tank door and hop out and remove the cap (to relieve pressure so fuel wont continue to feed the fire. Lots of white smoke pouring from the passenger side near the battery. Hmmm. I pop the hood and run around and open the hood. This past weekend I wired up my boost control solenoids (MKIV solenoids in fact) which I had disconnected a while back. It was a ghetto-fabulous rig, was crunched for time and just ran the wires. One of them being a 12V line connected to the (+) terminal, unfused. Well, that nifty left hander I was proud of apparently allowed the unibody to flex just enough to let that 12V line slip between the side of the radiator and the boost pipe on the driver's side. When I straightened out, it pinched the wire and grounded it. Now what I had in my engine bay was a 5 foot lamp filament with plastic insulation wrapped around it and 800 some odd amps flowing through it. The entire wire cooked from the battery to the pinch and was the source of all of the smoke. I grabbed the wire in a fit and attempted to pull it loose from the battery, but it only burned the side of my index finger like a ropeburn. Completely looking like a fool, I slung my right foot up and ripped the wire loose with my shoe. I'm sure it was a comical sight. The first thing that went through my mind after popping the gas cap off was "Well, Ive done all this but I dont have a fire extinguisher." Wags' groupbuy was a fleeting but sombering thought.. I was expecting to watch it just burn and burn, maybe putting a few marshmallows on a stick and having a treat. Fortunately it didn't come to that. Looks like I will be investing in a fire extinguisher this weekend. I couldn't imagine losing a perfectly good car from something so simple. :-/
[ ashleypowers.com ]
[ agpowers@bellsouth.net ] When pigs dance, you better get it on video...
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12:02:45 07/26/02
