Hi everyone,wonder if anyone reading this could give any ideas what could have happened.i'm waiting for an assessor to look at my 54plate/2005 sti but in the meantime i cannot get my head round why its happened as the car had been stood 10hr so it wasn't hot.As far as i know have no enemies but on sat teatime i used my car parked it up round 7 o'clock then at half past 4 sun morn i heard a loud bang+a flash from outside the next thing i knew a neighbour banging on my door telling me my car is on fire..i didnt open the bonnet for fear of explosion but the fire looked like it was coming from round the battery+fusebox area,obviously by time fire dept came the front end was up in flames 80% on the passenger side,has anybody else experienced anything like this or heard of anything.the car has just gone 3 yr old so i cant get my head round the idea of an electrical problem which the fire crew said it looked like unless it was a manufacturing fault as none of the electrics had been tampered with (i.e an aftermarket alarm etc)only thing that was done b4 i bought it was prodrive re-mapping the ecu(i have the certificate so i know they had deffinetly done it).my only answer that i can think of is the loud bang was the battery blowing up then causing the fire? any ideas would be appreciated.i'm just hoping it wasnt some jealous bast*rd that started it.thanks jason

 

sounds to me like a battery problem of some sort.

maybe starter,alternator or main feed cable to them developed a small earth fault allowing the battery to get hot over a period of time until it said *** this and blew up.end result 1 scooby on fire under bonnet.

 

I have had an engine fire before andf mine was caused because of some dodgy wiring to the fan. I did open the bonnet and nearly died when the flames were higher than the bonnet was when lifted I was lucky though as I had a fire extinguisher to put mine out. I just paid out myself to fix mine and its 100% now Hope this makes you feel better

 

hi johnny thats the only thing i could think of that the positive had earth up somewhere but it just didn't make sense as none of the parts&wires you listed has ever been disturbed,touched or removed in the 15 months i've had it.if it ends up being one of the things uv mentioned i must be one of the unluckiest men alive,cheers

 

sounds like a battery exploding for whatever reason, it happens, usually when being charged and disconnected when the charges is still switched on.

could have been a live touching something it should not.

if mailcious look around for the remains of a firework, crow scarer or such.

sorry for you mate!

 

Also check that the battery strap hadnt come loose and twisted shorting out the + and - terminals on the battery happened to me once but while I was driving

 

hi steve when i saw it on fire i stood there helpless.Thats the only bollock i dropped not having a fire extinguisher at hand because you always think its not going to happen to a 3 yr old car but i'm getting one now because i could have saved most of the car.thats the only thing i can't get my head round none of the wiring hadn't been touched it was all original factory spec nobody had tapped into it anywhere if they had i could av put it down to that.its going to be inspected tues so hopefully by wed i should know.cheers

 

hi paul & gussy no battery terminals were loose.i wake up thinking about what could have happened(like you do)but i've just got to wait & see what they say after inspection.i found a used match where the wipers are mounted & i know easiest thing to presume was that it was set on purpose (i'm putting this to the back of my mind) i dont know if this was put on after as a **** joke or what.nothing else was tampered with i.e bonnet,doors etc & like i said the 1st thing i saw when i opened my front door was the fire contained just round the battery area.i will just have to wait i just thought they may be some other people out there whos had the same thing & this was the best place to ask because if it was manufacturers fault they would never tell me that this has happened before.My worse fear is that if it has been done maliciously by some jealous tw*t & if they do mend my car i'm going to have to get rid of it or have sleepless nights for the rest of my life anyway,thanks to all jason

 

might sound dumb but hey ho - couldn't have been an attempt to disable the security ????

 

hi dad,if it was an attempt to disable the security he certainly did a good job of it(see pics on my scooby). i dont think so pal because there was nothing else to suggest someboby tried to steal it(all doors still locked,no lock damage,bonnet was closed & i dont think they can get at it from under the engine area as there was a big plastic stone protector cover bolted underneath like most scoobys av

 

My uncle had his XJR burned out on the drive by someone - they reckoned the bloke had set fire to a jacket and thrown it under the engine bay. IIRC the repair bill was well into 5 figures.

Have you checked under the car to see if there is anything there as burning cloth could easily burn for a while and set fire to wiring and spread around the engine bay ?

 

hi mike,yes mate that was my 1st thought so i checked the best i could when it got light but although i was in shock i remember when i opened my front door it was in the early stages of the fire & it was all in the engine compartment(nothing underneath or above the bonnet).when the garage finally took the car to be inspected i also had a look at the remains but it was generally just a big blob of plastic mixed in with some other bit & bobs but without putting my csi uniform on i saw nothing which would indicate being started with a cloth or something.sorry to your uncle & anybody else which has had there pride & joy set on fire because i cant understand what people get out of doing it i'm just preying mine doesn't come back saying it had been intentional,if they have a problem with you,come & see you.must be cowards with no b*llocks

 

i seriously doubt it was started deliberatly,from what you explain it certainly sounds like battery related to me.

whatever it was that caused it there is certainly some damage to the front end,i wouldn't be at all surprised if that was wrote off by insurance assessor.

 

If they do write it off & they find the cause if possible i may try & buy it back off the insurance for salvage price & repair it myself because as far as i could see it hadn't touched any of the engine apart from the cam belt & covers & its only just done 30000 miles,i dont know how much they would want for salvage but if its round 3k i probably would because i loved that car.If i didnt get it back on the road somebody else would because although they are not cheap there are plenty of salvage parts i can get off e-bay or whatever.We'll just have to wait & see unfortunately