Power steering caused fire :(
Power steering caused fire :(
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R1 Indy

Original Poster:

4,509 posts

213 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
[pic]http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb89/matt_webb/888E2931-E9B7-4AE6-AA9F-C0051B847556.jpg[\pic]

Heard a big pop, and smoke was everywhere , popped the bonnet and the manifold was on fire!!

Managed to get extinguished reasonably quick, which hopefully will save things.

It looks like the power steering at fault as steering column in covered in all, and deffinatly not engine oil on the ground.

A bit of wiring is melted as well as a complete mess from the extinguisher.

Firstly anyone heard of this happening before?

Is the brief fire likely to have done any damage to the engine etc?

Car is an S2000.



Edited by R1 Indy on Friday 5th December 14:25

andburg

8,745 posts

199 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
never heard of it...

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/06/22/bmw-recalls-x5-...

but it appears BMW acknowledge it can happen

Krikkit

27,938 posts

211 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
I thought the S2000 was EPAS? Does it even have any fluid to spill?

Horrible anyway, sorry to hear that. frown

soad

34,696 posts

206 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all

NateWM

1,743 posts

209 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Krikkit said:
I thought the S2000 was EPAS? Does it even have any fluid to spill?

Horrible anyway, sorry to hear that. frown
It is electric, so something else caused this fire.

R1 Indy

Original Poster:

4,509 posts

213 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
NateWM said:
It is electric, so something else caused this fire.
The RAC guy mentioned it's an electric motor, then sealed fluid in the rack??

Can't think where else fluid could come from as I'm sure it's not engine oil. And the rack is covered.

Pie with sauce

83 posts

143 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
NateWM said:
It is electric, so something else caused this fire.
Electrics often causes fires. Perhaps it was the electric power steering?


feef

5,209 posts

213 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Some cars use ElectroHydraulic, but the S2000 is just electric I believe


If not engine oil, then brake fluid?

thatdude

2,660 posts

157 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
If you are unsure, check lings honda as they have a parts fiche which may help determine if the EPAS does contain fluid somewhere

glycol-ether based brake fluids are flammable but not easily; a hot exhaust manifold might cause some fire.

Any small oil leaks at all from e.g. rocker cover?

Any fuel line leaks at all?

Many potential causes

R1 Indy

Original Poster:

4,509 posts

213 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
feef said:
Some cars use ElectroHydraulic, but the S2000 is just electric I believe


If not engine oil, then brake fluid?
I think you may be right, just checked the brake cylinder, it's nearly empty!

The brake reservoir is also next to the manifold.

I'm now feeling rather lucky I didn't loose the brakes!!!!


Hopefully if it was this the steering rack is ok.

scarble

5,277 posts

187 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Yikes! Sorry for your loss.
Never heard of something like this.
If you can get in touch with someone competent from Honda they might like to take a look and figure out what happened?

Badgerboy

1,794 posts

222 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Jump on the sk2i.com forums and they will help you suss it out. Sounds like your master cylinder let go in a big way!

R1 Indy

Original Poster:

4,509 posts

213 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Cheers I will get someone to have a good look over the braking system and find out what's happened.

First thing though, I'm going to have to clean out all the fire extinguisher powder.

What's the best way of cleaning this out? Will water just make it a bigger mess?

TheLurker

1,589 posts

226 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
I thought I recognised that engine bay! Hope you got back OK and didn't have too long to wait in the cold.

R1 Indy

Original Poster:

4,509 posts

213 months

Sunday 7th December 2014
quotequote all
Cheers, yes finally got recovered just after 5pm, 5 hours after calling!!

Anyway I have managed to hose the engine bay down to remove all the extinguisher powder etc.

I think I have located the actual fire issue, I noticed the oil filter had become loose!!

It must have been a complete coincident that I suffered a brake fluid leak at the same time? Or the fire caused it?

But it seems I had lost 2 litres of oil, as I have put 2L in which has taken it back up to the max mark.

I am hoping no engine damage has occurred, I'm sure it did not loose pressure, as I did not see the pressure light, there was still oil in the filter ect.

I have tried starting the engine, it sounded as smooth as ever, but only started for a few second as manifold still covered in oil etc!


The main damage appears to be to the Vtec solenoid and wiring.



As you can see the oil pressure sensor has been completely melted off along with the wiring!

I can get a whole new Vtec unit off eBay for just over £100 so I think I will go for that, then figure out the wiring!

Then I need to find a way to degrees the engine. Does anyone have a product they reccomend?

Then look at the brakes.

I feel I may have got away with a lot less than could have potentially happened, and will just have to pray no engine damage has occurred.


mikey k

13,074 posts

246 months

Sunday 7th December 2014
quotequote all
have a look around on here
http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/forum/25-uk-ireland-s200...

Thats very very rare (I'm on 5th S2k on 13 years)
Defo looks more like a partial oil fire from some where around the vtec solenoid or oil filter.

Steering is fully electric so unlikely to have come from there.

Edited by mikey k on Sunday 7th December 18:38