chrism

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

**** happens. I wouldn't call B.S. on this.

ken-x8

I don't doubt that her car spontaneously burned. That happens. My brother had that happen to a Ford Fiesta. (No big loss there.) Smoker, history of not being all that careful with his butts, but the fire department declared the Fiesta fire to be electrical. And cars with no defects go up when the catalyst sets a pile of leaves on fire. This is the right season for that.

Citing that lame Yahoo question board and a tort lawyer's web site are the flaky parts. I presume she's pretty traumatized by the loss, and is searching for anything she can to figure it out...or something.

Ken

terrypk1

weird. i have been stuff on rx8s for like 2 years since i had the car. this is the FIRST ELECTRICAL FIRE. i have ever seen in my life. i am just going to say sorry. i think you were a bit unlucky.

swoope

iTrader: (5)

pics?


beers

swoope

iTrader: (5)

holy fish??? wtf is that about..

beers

Razz1

Ja, post some pics.

It's only a 500 deductable. And those sites you visted are BS.

kartweb

Sorry to hear about the fire. It's not been very common with the RX8. Anytime you've got hundreds of switches and wires that somewhere connect to a battery you've got a potential for a meltdown. Could have even been the result of critter damage for that matter. Rodents have been known to chew insulation on wires for example.

Hope you get a decent settlement.

Oh and don't let some of the folks here give you any added grief.

Krankor

I would be most curious to know on what they base the assertion that it was caused by an electrical fire. If the gas tank caught it and the whole car went boom, then I am deeply skeptical of anyone's ability to snap-judge that it was electrical, based on what bits survived. But maybe I'm just ignorant.

chrism

reason for my bs meter is there is allot more to this story not being told.....its vague as hell just like te reason for the fire......and something as this can actually hurt the cars rep if some one searches the internet for issues and comes across this unfounded thread.....lets get the real truth out!....until then you can feel free to call me an ******* or douche but im calling you liar....sorry

coll

i second what chrism said. i would think at least you could post some pics of it. your kinda going around the question ppl are asking you around here to help you out. there is alot of ppl on this forum that have been around for a very long time and this has never happened before. like stated above i dont want my 8 to have a bad reputation.

SureShot

For sure, an electrical file is nearly impossible. All the high current circuits are protected by fuses & breakers.

My first question is were there any symtoms before the fire? Any unusual smells? Hot plastic? fuel?

Second question: Any signs of vandalism?

arosenkrans

I am not a smoker. Would you call BS on your daughter? My dad lives out of town, and I am out of luck. I did all the recalls. I bought the car used, but I don't think there are any extra additions to the electrical system. I came on here for support. I will post pics as soon as I can get a digital camera! Maybe it was a freak accident. I parked on 3" of ice (thanks to a MO snow/ice storm and an apt complex that didn't plow the parking spots, so the theory of parking on something compustible is out. I dont know anything about the electrical system.

The fire dept thought it was fuel related because of the gas smell. But then the way the aftermath looked, and the way the electrical system looked, the actual report states electrical fire. And no foul play was reported.

Maybe the car was still hot. No temp lights were on though when it was parked. Freak thing of the car???? Yes. I realize that there are no other reports of this, which I am glad. I actually came on to the website to see if there were, and I am sorry I did it. You all made me feel very unwelcome. I will get this resolved, by myself, thanks. And there is no need to respond to this anymore. I don't have time to be called a "BS"er. That is irritating, because this is my dream car, I don't smoke, and all I did was drive the damn car. It's been in the shop a lot lately, and maybe I just got a lemon. I am resolved to think that.

Thanks for all the support (sarcasm) Please don't post anymore. I will do one more on Thursday (hopefully!) with pics. That's when my ex's camera (which I lost in the breakup) will be available. I just have been going through a lot,and a car fire was the last thing that I needed. No, lack of support is what I needed. I will give you "proof" of one incident as soon as I can.

zoned

Not sure how much support we can give you. As everyone has said this is the 1st RX-8 that has ever been mentioned as death by electrical fire. I know every 8 owner on here feels your pain. You have to understand, we get a lot of putdowns from random posters on here, so when we see a "The 8 is prone to electrical fires" thread there is going to be some backlash.
I am terribly sorry for your loss, if i lost my car it would be like losing a member of my family.
There are many great posters and tons of great information on this site, we'll help out in any way we can.

labutler

arosenkrans.... sorry to hear about your car. from a fellow female 8 driver who's lurked around this site for about 2 years, don't get upset about the response here. I've decided that the average age here is 12 or less and the average IQ is even lower. it can be somewhat entertaining if you're in the right mood.

next time, post a picture of a naked lady, talk about gettin' drunk and laid by a bitch with big **** and then ask your question. It will also help to misspell common words (like "HOLY CARP" as posted somewhere above).

Want an intelligent conversation about your fire? Go to Edmunds.com and post your question there. a guy with the username pathstar knows more about the rotary than anyone I've ever encountered.

missinmahseven

Sorry on your loss. However, the majority of the posters on this thread got it right: the Rx-8 is not known for going up in smoke.

You mentioned this was a 2004 car. Bought used?

Did the prior owner (or yourself) had some electrical gizmos installed? LCD TVs, playstations, etc etc? How about modified audio systems, etc?

I'm willing to bet a badly-done "mod" did you in. It's entirely thinkable that some "expert" wired stuff up with no regards for proper electrical design -- hooking things up without fuses, without regards to proper cable routings, etc.

So please excuse the curtness of some of the posts -- but many questions still remain unanswered. We simply don't know what was done to your car before you got it, or after you got it. All it takes is one badly done electrical mod, and one misfortunate set of circumstances (door rubbing on a wire, etc) to torch a car.

This past Friday, here in South Florida, an Explorer burnt to the ground, and took 5 other cars with it -- in a parkinglot. Cause of fire? Badly done "entertainment system" in the car. Or so said the paper (sun sentinel).

arosenkrans

Nothing was installed - no electrical mods. I will update you later as the investigation is still pending.

SureShot

I used to drive an RX-7. They had a fuel rail pulse damper that could leak after ~15 years. If you smelled a fuel leak & didn't fix it it could catch fire, and then only if the engine was running.

We should know if the RX-8's have that problem by ~2020.

Insurance saves the day..

jeffe19007

First my condolences on your loss. I would be spitting mad too.

I have seen electrical fires and they usually come down to shorts, either through age, and I think a 2004 RX-8 misses that, or bad wiring changes as suggested.

The RX-8 depends pretty heavily on it's electronics and they seem to be pretty rubust in general.

It you asked about specific weaknesses, we could name them, but they come up short of fire.

The only fire related recall I am aware of was the gas tank (potential) problem. I would think winter weather would offset that risk even if it was not done as it was heat related.

Unless you spent a lot of time idling in traffic before the fire?

Otherwise, this car's electrical system seems pretty sound. But as mentioned, stuff happens.

No prior accidents or repairs to this car? Electrical damage from accidents is seldom replaced or estimated unless obvious.

XRX8X

some times i find it hard to accept the facts w/out the pictures or data or even film to back up a story or event.it's sad in this day and time we don't think before we act.a bad relationship or even someone you don't know who don't like what other people have could have set her up for whatever reason we don't have a clue about.UNTILL IT HAPPENS TO YOU WILL YOU SEE THE LIGHT!!!!!back off and wait for the results.nobody should jump the gun and think they know it all. imo only i feel there is more to see than what has been told by others .like i said be cool and wait to see what comes up next.this is to close to call for now!!! i have been hit at a red light two times(no injuries)and my car has been keyed so if anything has happened to your rx8 that did not **** you off when it happened be it your fault or not it still has a meaning and affect to you that no one else can feel but you!

Cartoonz

Just a thought--ice is a poor conductor of electricity (if it's free of salt). If the air was extremely dry and you were sitting on 3" of ice the car would have become a Faraday cage, retaining any static electrical charge that would have built up. Normally the tires are designed to discharge electricity (they are slightly conductive for anyone with the interest in dragging out an ohm meter and checking resistance.) If the car was hot and melted the ice and finally made a ground connection abruptly, say along a dripping exhaust line under the gas tank....

faboom!

Or the rats chewing wires thing works too.

Winfree

First of all - the loss of an 8 is something that hurts deep - we are with you and hope that you had some sort of comprehensive insurance

Second - fires seem to be a rare event - now the Fire guys would not know 8s and would treat this like a piston car - some concepts would be good some not so good - but lets think about this:

8s don't usually have electric fires, they can get hot, but usually in hot, not cold weather...

Cold day with snow - gas could ignite if it got hot enough but you would have to get the air fuel mix right - and you are not apt to have a lot of gas fumes forming...So the car must of been really burning before the gas tank got involved.. the car melts down and explodes but there was a still a smell of unburned gas in the air.

I hope you don't have a stalker boyfriend or an X that really hates you because this 'smells' more like a fire started with a little gasoline accelerant and not all of it got burned up - some must have ended up in the snow where it would still off gas and make a nose detectable fume....

For real insights contact Rotary God and Otherside

turborotor

I've seen RX-7s, Mercedes and brand new Corvettes just catch on fire right on the freeways. You can't just say that rx8 have bad electrical system. I think each manufacture has a few lemons and on of them is bound to catches fire do to some defect. This was one.

I hope you get insurance money for the car and go get another rx-8.

Winfree

Abbid and I both got to enjoy rodent problems See his threads or the Granny blog for some horror stories - but even with me hosting a rat that died in my airconditioner, the damage he did, other than olfactory, was to the firewall, with nibbles on the break fluid container and battery cover - all of which insurance replaced - nothing electrical...

Now your fire may have occured just as the fire department said - but it would be a very unusual event (Unlike a Ford Pinto) - and that worries us more because we hate it when something happens to someones 8 and we don't understand it! Even in a crash these cars do not usually explode or burst into flames.....

Again, please post what your insurance covered and your efforts to replace it.