Focus caught fire!

[LordHaveMurci]

My OH has just called me to say her Mk1 Focus 2.0 has just caught fire.

Turns out she saw smoke, stupidly opened the bonnet & found the bonnet lining on fire, she put it out using wet tea towels so all good.

Her car has done 150k mls & has had a slight oil leak for months, passed the MoT this month & the trusted garage she used said it wasn't worth trying to find the source of the leak then fix it, the car is worth so little. I'm inclined to agree.

I'm guessing the bonnet lining is soaked in oil & the engine heat has finally been enough to ignite this? Maybe the lining was dropping slightly & touching the exhaust manifold?

I've suggested she removes the remainder of the lining & drives it the (short) distance home, I'll take a quick look tonight but thinking no lining, it can;t catch fire again! Maybe it would be worth using a strong degreaser on the engine bay too? If so, which one?

Would rather not get shot of it, will do in a flash if I think it's unsafe though - what's the PH advice?

[paintman]

Take the lining & anything else that can soak up oil off, clean up any pools & carry on.

[DrDeAtH]

Degrease and jet wash everything under bonnet

Either throw old liner away completely, or replace with a clean second hand one.

Fix oil leak

[anonymous-user]

engine oil has a high flash pint maybe getting into 50o degrees. So would have started somewhere else and then set fire to the bonnet.

Are you sure it is not a petrol leak from fuel lines etc.

[LordHaveMurci]

It scared the OH so she has booked it into our trusted garage to have a look tomorrow, They only saw it a couple of weeks ago & they know it well so probably the best people to take a look.

Will update tomorrow.