Whoaaaa.. Big 3 Caused Fire?

[chibahawk 10+ year member]

K - please read and help out.

I did the Big 3 months back and everything was well.

However two days ago I noticed my car had a little bit of a slow time starting, thought nothing of it though even as it continued (but didn't worsen).

Then driving home from work, I park, and I notice smoke coming out from the side of the hood, so I pop it and see a small fire occuring right under my alternator - after wiping the shit out of my pants I waited til it cooled down to note that there was white stuff all over my connection I had made to the alt.

What do you think caused this? and what's the course of action now?

Right now my car is parked in need of a tow truck, I didn't want to try starting the car after seeing the alt. fire.

please help, need car back soon and don't want to go to the mechanic unedumacated.

Click to read more...

 

[dalucifer 10+ year member]

pics?

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

Sounds like you made a bad connection to the alt which arced and lit up something around it, possibly oil.

 

[Worlddre 5,000+ posts]

corrosion

 

[jjski78 10+ year member]

x2 On the bad connection. Did you properly insulate it?? Did you fuse the wire going from the alternator to the battery?? Those would be the first things I would check. Make sure there is no metal to metal contact where there shouldn't be. If there is, correct the problem and wrap the wire in electrical tape. That's about all I can think of that could cause a fire like that. Also check the whole wire for abrasions. Wire loom is your friend here!! Hope it helps, and sorry to hear about your car. Oh, and as for the corrosion, spray a little white lithium grease on the connection, or, you can do an old-timer's trick and coat it in vaseline. That also works on top post batteries. If you get that white powder on the posts of your battery, put a penny on top of the post, and cover the whole thing in vaseline. It works!

 

[saywhat? 5,000+ posts]

you sure you didnt hook it up wrong? lol.

 

[jjski78 10+ year member]

you sure you didnt hook it up wrong? lol.

If he hooked it up wrong there would have been instant problems. Not a few months later.

 

[saywhat? 5,000+ posts]

crazier shit has happened.

 

[chibahawk 10+ year member]

well yea im almost positive it was hooked up right.

obviously i got the main things right but I must've just picked a bad connection spot on the alt or something like that - im guessing the corrosion was something that was gradual that eventuall led to the fire?

also would I be safe driving this car? what if i disconnected the *alt - bat* wire? Id like to save some money by not calling the tow truck

 

[killahbean 10+ year member]

x2 On the bad connection. Did you properly insulate it?? Did you fuse the wire going from the alternator to the battery?? Those would be the first things I would check. Make sure there is no metal to metal contact where there shouldn't be. If there is, correct the problem and wrap the wire in electrical tape. That's about all I can think of that could cause a fire like that. Also check the whole wire for abrasions. Wire loom is your friend here!! Hope it helps, and sorry to hear about your car. Oh, and as for the corrosion, spray a little white lithium grease on the connection, or, you can do an old-timer's trick and coat it in vaseline. That also works on top post batteries. If you get that white powder on the posts of your battery, put a penny on top of the post, and cover the whole thing in vaseline. It works!

vaseline...FTW!!

 

[chibahawk 10+ year member]

also the corrosion is only on the alt-wire spot, no where else. i should still fix the corrosion?

could this also be a bad alternator? my one fear is that the mechanic would just say ok lets charge up a new alternator on this guy

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

possibly a bad alt. As far as dirvability... start er up and see if anything retarded happens again.

 

[badstang123 10+ year member]

I'm not sure I would take the chance of trying to drive it home considering there was already a fire. If I did try, however...

I would triple check all of my connections spots. I would make sure that they were in the right spot, clear from anything to arc on, and clean off any corrosion. Then start it up and try again. Just be careful.

 

[jjski78 10+ year member]

Definitely take the wire off before you attempt to restart the car. If nothing bad happens, you got about a 90% chance the wire was the problem. If you want to check if your alternator is bad, when the car is running, disconnect the positive battery cable. If the car stays running, your alternator is still working.

 

[StealthKill 10+ year member]

See 06'ers are helpful.