rasheed
Well-Known Member
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A cautionary tale. Well yesterday I was off again on one of my cross country trails. Going fast over loose surfaces, trying to average 80kmh so going up to 120 - 130 and lots of use of the gears to keep in the power band. Car was flying, in its element really. No noises, aircon ice cold, engine temp normal. Then smoke started filling the cabin, pulled up fast, opened the bonnet and could see flames, basically under the driver's footwell (looking down the gap between the manifold and all the brake bits, behind the steering linkages). Very very very luckily I'd pulled up in front of a shop (in the middle of nowhere) where the assistant had the quick reflexes to rush over with an extinguisher and we put it out in a sec. I was shaking I tell you because quite frankly, I don't carry an extinguisher and if I hadn't stopped exactly where I had nothing would have stopped those flames from spreading and consuming the car.
Here's what happened. The heat shields on the underbody just over the cats are basically a cardboard base material overlayed with glass wool and covered in a kind of metal foil. I don't know what conditions yours' are in but I had noticed that the foil was discoloured on mine and had gotten brittle. Clearly my driving had knocked one loose and it was hanging down, touching the cat. The foil was sufficiently heat damaged to crumble off, the glass wool didn't ignite but melted and smouldered and the cardboard base eventually ignited.
So please check your heat shields and think about keeping an extinguisher. To end the story on a happy note I let the car cool down, got under, yanked off the remains of the heat shield and carefully checked everything else and found absolutely no damage, not even to the plastic air breather hoses from the gearbox that go above there. Drove the car back without incident after having run the engine for an hour in front of the shop, extinguisher in hand. Just another day of P38s!
Here's what happened. The heat shields on the underbody just over the cats are basically a cardboard base material overlayed with glass wool and covered in a kind of metal foil. I don't know what conditions yours' are in but I had noticed that the foil was discoloured on mine and had gotten brittle. Clearly my driving had knocked one loose and it was hanging down, touching the cat. The foil was sufficiently heat damaged to crumble off, the glass wool didn't ignite but melted and smouldered and the cardboard base eventually ignited.
So please check your heat shields and think about keeping an extinguisher. To end the story on a happy note I let the car cool down, got under, yanked off the remains of the heat shield and carefully checked everything else and found absolutely no damage, not even to the plastic air breather hoses from the gearbox that go above there. Drove the car back without incident after having run the engine for an hour in front of the shop, extinguisher in hand. Just another day of P38s!
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