Fire? Fire! OMG FIRE!
Discussion
So, what an excellent way to start a Sunday. sitting on the M20 banking waiting for the tow truck to arrive (for the 4th time since April 05) to take me home, maybe I should have stuck with the Chimaera.
This time I think it could have been the most spectacular to date, if I hadn't been carrying an extinguisher.
It goes like this: I was driving along the M20 quite happily this morning around 8ish, on my way to Market Harborough, I'd been going about 25 mins, when the exhaust note changes, bugger, I think, dropped a cylinder, like it did before due to fouled plugs. I'll go upto the next junction and turn around and head home. Then decide, no, I'll pull onto the hard shoulder and have a quick look in case a plug leads come off. So, pull over and the car starts to fill with smoke through the handbrake gaiter!
Jump out, pull the extinguisher from the boot, and tentively lift the bonnet, ready to flood the engine bay with foam, but no fire! So I look down the side of the engine and theres flames! I crawled under the side of the car as best I could and blasted the underside with the extinguisher, not once, not twice, but three times until the flames had all extinguised, these weren't big flames but flames none the less.
I've just got home courtesy of the AA and the car is okay, I think, I'm just not sure what's happened, I think that the cat' may have collapsed and that the exhaust gasses have ignited something under the car, I'll find out later, when it stops raining and I get the axle stands out.
What this mornings incident has hilighted to me is the necessity to carry an extinguisher, as I feel that there would be little doubt that I would be typing this posting with a different outcome if I handn't had one at hand. The ironic thing is that I am in the process of plumbing in an extinguisher system, but haven't finished, and in this instance given the location of the initial flames it wouldn't have saved the car until substantially more damage had been substained.
Given that it took 3 attempts to quash the flames using a Lifeline 2.25L motorsport extinguisher, I would recommend to anyone who has a piddly little extinguisher chucks it away and buys a 'real' one.
I will be changing the 2.25L to a 4L plumbed in system with a handheld unit as well, not overkill given that my 11 month old son could have been in the car with me today.
So, please take car out there, because if the salt, ice and road conditions don't get you there's always fire!
Tim
This time I think it could have been the most spectacular to date, if I hadn't been carrying an extinguisher.
It goes like this: I was driving along the M20 quite happily this morning around 8ish, on my way to Market Harborough, I'd been going about 25 mins, when the exhaust note changes, bugger, I think, dropped a cylinder, like it did before due to fouled plugs. I'll go upto the next junction and turn around and head home. Then decide, no, I'll pull onto the hard shoulder and have a quick look in case a plug leads come off. So, pull over and the car starts to fill with smoke through the handbrake gaiter!
Jump out, pull the extinguisher from the boot, and tentively lift the bonnet, ready to flood the engine bay with foam, but no fire! So I look down the side of the engine and theres flames! I crawled under the side of the car as best I could and blasted the underside with the extinguisher, not once, not twice, but three times until the flames had all extinguised, these weren't big flames but flames none the less.
I've just got home courtesy of the AA and the car is okay, I think, I'm just not sure what's happened, I think that the cat' may have collapsed and that the exhaust gasses have ignited something under the car, I'll find out later, when it stops raining and I get the axle stands out.
What this mornings incident has hilighted to me is the necessity to carry an extinguisher, as I feel that there would be little doubt that I would be typing this posting with a different outcome if I handn't had one at hand. The ironic thing is that I am in the process of plumbing in an extinguisher system, but haven't finished, and in this instance given the location of the initial flames it wouldn't have saved the car until substantially more damage had been substained.
Given that it took 3 attempts to quash the flames using a Lifeline 2.25L motorsport extinguisher, I would recommend to anyone who has a piddly little extinguisher chucks it away and buys a 'real' one.
I will be changing the 2.25L to a 4L plumbed in system with a handheld unit as well, not overkill given that my 11 month old son could have been in the car with me today.
So, please take car out there, because if the salt, ice and road conditions don't get you there's always fire!
Tim
Yep, all empty, mainly due to the very difficult position of the fire, I suspect. I will be fitting the 2.25L in one of my other cars, after a regas, and getting a 4L system for the Cerb'
£160 is a very small price to pay for peace of mind, and a real chance of saving your car from going up in flames.
If anyone's interested here are the extinguishers: www.lifeline-fire.co.uk/fireextinguisher/electricalsystems.htm
Tim
£160 is a very small price to pay for peace of mind, and a real chance of saving your car from going up in flames.
If anyone's interested here are the extinguishers: www.lifeline-fire.co.uk/fireextinguisher/electricalsystems.htm
Tim
TT Tim said:
If anyone's interested here are the extinguishers: www.lifeline-fire.co.uk/fireextinguisher/electricalsystems.htm
Tim
lifeline-fire said:
Electric systems are activated by pressing a strategically mounted momentary push button. Using a military specification actuator to detonate the extinguisher, the actuator protracts a steel pin upon activation breaking a frangible seal in the neck of the cylinder and thus discharging the contents.
What on earth is a frangible seal
>> Edited by Cotty on Sunday 12th February 12:02
jesfirth said:
you can fit a hand held extinguisher in front of the drivers seat on the floor. it doesnt get in the way of your legs and is easily accessible. its literally 2 bolts through the fibreglass floor and make sure you mastic it underneath to stop and water getting through the holes
I agree, but what would concern me from today's experience would be that a small extinguisher may well not be enough to stop the fire, I'm sure that I would have had to stand and watch my Cerb' burn if I hadn't had the 2.25L bottle. Although having said that, perhaps the extinguisher may have functioned better if it had been discharged through the atomising nozzles, as I've already said my extinguisher was designed as a plumbed in system not as a hand-held unit, so by using it in the manner I did today the contents were discharged under a lower pressure than they might have been had the nozzels been plumbed in.
Tim
GreenV8S said:
A plumbed-in extinguisher could be a lifesaver if you're trapped in the car or the fire developes so quickly that you don't have time to stop. But a hand-held unit is much cheaper and more likely to actually put the fire out.
Peter, interesting post, and in effect exactly what I said.
The reason I've gone the plumbed in route is that I don't fancy fighting a fire in a plastic car, if the plumbed in system doesn't stop it then hey, it's only a car!
But, what I would say is, if plumbed in systems don't work why are they required in Motorsport? Couldn't the driver just jump out and get his extinguisher?
Luckily fire seems to be a fairly low occurance on this forum, but I will feel slightly more comfortable knowing that the red T-handle is only a few inches away.
I know of two people who have watched their cars melt, one a Cerb' the other an original Elan. Perhaps they would still have their cars if there had been an extinguisher system.
Anyway, this posting wasn't meant to be a debate about what extinguishers are best, it was only a heads up as to how scary it can be to see flames coming for your pride and joy.
On a lighter note, I see you're TVR Speed Champ' coordinator, hopefully see you at North Weald, I'll be the one in the slightly singed Cerb'
Tim
>> Edited by TT Tim on Sunday 12th February 14:45
Sorry to hear about the fire situation and well done on catching it just in time. Just as an aside. With a stripped out race car there are very few places where a fire can originate, so a plumbed in system with a few sensibly placed nozzles will generally do the job. Also, there are plenty of friendly marshalls around willing to discharge their extinguishers should the need arise. I would defintely recommend carrying both though.
Scott
Scott
It may be very useful to be able to put out a fire in the engine bay from the driver's seat. You can't always wait to stop, and you may be trapped in the car. But once you've stopped and got out of the car, a hand-held unit is likely to be far more effective at putting the fire out. They're also a fraction of the price of a plumbed in unit.
Can also locate a handheld extinguisher behing passenger seat attached to the grp under the rear n/s rear seat ie no flat on the floor. I was thinking of making some easy fit brackets and selling on ebay to go with an easy to find normal extinguisher.
>> Edited by gazzab on Sunday 12th February 16:48
>> Edited by gazzab on Sunday 12th February 16:48
I experienced a few puffs of smoke when one of my cats overheated. It caused the small amount of oil on the heat sheild to evaporate and cause some smoke. I changed the prop shaft seal and all was fine, oh and new cats.
Never had a problem sinse. I have a fire bottle on board, quite a big one too.
Never had a problem sinse. I have a fire bottle on board, quite a big one too.
350matt said:
What is annoying is the lack of readily available CO2 extinguishers, most places only tend to stock the useless powder types. When I last tried to put out a fire with one of these, at the end of the extinguisher I had a big mess AND a fire
Matt
that's strange, I've always found the powder versions to be vastly superior to CO2 .. go figure! At one agarge i used to work at fires used to be a not-uncommon occurance and although the powder version left a big mess they were the ones that put them out quickest. Maybe it makes a difference if you're outside with a breeze blowing or inside a calm workshop?
Glad all is ok Tim, and it sounds like you escaped without too much damage (the car passed the MOT with no probs then 
) What time was this ? I was rumbling up the M20 yesterday morning bright & early & didn't see any stranded Cerbs (would have stopped if I had, even though I was in the Volvo - I always carry a full toolkit)
Thanks Olly,
I was between J9 and J8 at 8am yesterday!
Very pleased to see that there isn't a 'Spotted Purple Cerb M20' in the spotted forum
Car looked lovely, all clean as It had been all cleaned and polished on Sat!
Yep, passed MoT no problem. Planning a go at a sprint or two this year so want to get the car running just right, Sunday was NOT a good start.
Tim
I was between J9 and J8 at 8am yesterday!
Very pleased to see that there isn't a 'Spotted Purple Cerb M20' in the spotted forum
Car looked lovely, all clean as It had been all cleaned and polished on Sat!
Yep, passed MoT no problem. Planning a go at a sprint or two this year so want to get the car running just right, Sunday was NOT a good start.
Tim
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