Self Combusting Xm!

Scary stuff!

Just found some piccies from almost 3 years back now of my favourite Xm, and how it
ended it's days with a damned good attempt to take me permanently with it.

Some of you may recall my horror story at the time:

The car was a base 2.0i wearing quite spectacular alloys shod with 2 day old 205
Goodyear NCT's on the front and near new Continentals on the rear; I was driving
hard 'full pelt' on a dual carriageway when I suddently realised there were BIG
orange flames leaping well past halfway up the windscreen from under the bonnet...

hard to miss that's for sure!



I didn't even have a chance to pull completely into a nearby laybay when it stopped being
a car and instead turned into a significant hazard to my/everyone else's health. I'd literally
5 minues earlier just expensively filled it completely with petrol for a long haul journey and
when I struggled out of the car grabbing immediate belongings a Police motorcyclist appeared
from the layby and had the road closed immediately and the Fire Brigade called when I
mentioned the fuel up!!

I knew the car was a gonner but grabbed anything I could out of the boot which contained
a good %age of my toolkit/jack/halogen lamps/extension leads etc etc and got told off by
Mr Policeman in the process! In fact I was carrying everything barr a Fire Extinguisher!

Still, it took the FB a fair while/20 mins to arrive and this is the end result:

True definition of doom maroon?:





How to empty a very busy dual carriageway:





I really get upset seeing these - I really enjoyed driving this car:





...and I never really got to try these tyres... :-(





Happier days with buddies on front road:





The cause?

I'm now pretty sure it was either a perished fuel feed hose on the top of the engine or
an oil leak from the rocker cover gasket burning onto the exhaust manifold setting up
the sound deadening insulation.

Have you checked your fuel lines etc!?

Andrew

This post has been edited by Andmcit on March 07, 2008 01:05 pm

And I'd just taxed it too...

Andrew

I should think the fire had nearly died out by the time they got there, although I'm surprised the fire didn't reach the fuel tank in that time, but the rear end looks virtually untouched, were the contents of the boot still intact?

I have to say, there's many a time I've felt like doing that deliberately to some of the cars I've owned when they refuse to co-operate...........my current one included

Wow Andrew, this could have been serious!

I've had one porous fuel pipe replaced on the V6 a year ago, but it had warned me sufficiently for me to get alerted (odour). Still now another one on the to-do list, this one doesn't leak but it looks popous so better be preventative...On the V6 PRV all these are hidden under the plastic cap so you wouldn't see anything normally, but long ago I've found it's easier to live without this cap...

I always have a non-expired extinguisher in the car, lately also I'm becoming psychotic and thinking it's too far a reach in the back seats, better to screw its bracket on the front passenger footwel...

BTW that poor XM looked seriously sexy overthere, this colour with those wheels give it a very sporty accent -what are they, Borbets?-. I understand u didn't keep the wheels, why, are they damaged by fire?

cheers
George

That would be my worstnight mare, just stood waching your pride and joy burn away

You had a bit of a lucky escape there.

Ouch Andrew, that must have been hard to see... I'd be completely gutted if I had to stand and watch my pride and joy go up in smoke

Just lucky you survived unscathed, and I know people will say 'its only a car get over it', but its not so easy when its one you're attached to, and not some dime-a-dozen, easily replaced throwaway Mondeo or similar....

Ciarán