A friend of mine's girlfriend's rx8 caught fire today while driving to the dealer for some routine maintenance. She said the car started smoking from under the hood so she pulled over and when she stopped and got out, it caught fire. The dealer said something about there being fuel leaking into the exhaust for awhile now and it finally lit. Any idea on what happened here? There aren't really that many threads on engine fires...

 

Fuel leak? That prob the fuel rail connector?? Did she have new engine? Damn we need to find out if these things are failing from heat stress. Im just gonna order a new one anyway cause I got original on 2nd eng.

Also maybe something with the seal like some residue might open a small leak if the seal is not perfectly clean inside out both sides? (speculation).

 

He's from Ottawa, Ontario so I doubt it is heat stress. I would like to hear a little about the service history of the car. Even if you are the second owner, you can go to a dealership and have the history downloaded from Mazda.

 

Yeah it's warm here..but not HOT...I'm trying to get some more info from my friend and i'll update you guys ASAP. It was a 2005 low mileage (50 000 km so just over 30 000 miles) on its first engine. From what I can tell, it was a short drive to the dealer, its a dealer maintained car. What's even weirder is that a dealership's service department was open ON A SATURDAY???

 

The hose probably is subject to heat cause of proximity to the engine, the engine cover and what not. Cycles is the issue not an excess of temp. Cycles cause material stress, polymers can become brittle. The old plastics mazda used to use after about 6 years, 100 miles all kind of stuff would just snap.

 

lol thats not uncommon i know a couple that are open on sat, just not very long. she never smelled the fuel leak? kinda strange as its a pretty strong odor...

 

So the official verdict is that a cylinder was not firing, causing unburnt gas to accumulate in the cat and ruin the O2 sensor...according to the dealership

 

and it didnt register a misfire code?

 

We don't have cylinders, but we know what you mean.
Part I am confused about is how this actually caused the fire and didn't throw a CEL long before that could've happened??? This is just as Doc asked below.

On the few times where I have heard this happening, it has been after an engine change where they reused the fuel hose just as others have said.
Think we need more info from this dealer.......ask him where the fire started and exactly how if you don't mind.

I can only really remember one possible case where the clogged CAT actually caused a fire.............if I even truly remember that instance.

 

Gotta love those cylinders on the RX8 and their ability to misfire. :P

We do have some documented cases of clogged cats leading to car fires...but you should have had some sort of warning. Either you would have had a CEL for running fuel rich or you would have gagged on the nasty smell coming up through the floor of the car.

 

I guess is time for me to buy a fire extinguisher.

 

damn that a scary thought

 

You got it. All RX owners should carry a fire extinguisher.

Spend a little more $$$ and get the Halon (the currently approved variety) unit. If you put out an engine fire with a "conventional" extinguisher, you will likely do more damage than the fire. Summit Racing has the Halon extinguishers and I'm sure others do as well.

 

Just a regular marine extinguisher is fine for most folks it won't screw up anything if it's washed off properly.

 

Your getting paranoid.

A fire extinguisher needs to be bolted down otherwise it acts like a missle and will kill you in an accident.

 

and please don't do like these dumbasses and put it on the a pillar so you can smash face into it. put it someplace that no one will get hurt on it, like in the trunk. not in the cabin where someones gonna get effed up by it.

 

yeah "cylinder" is what the service tech said...sad considering that it was a mazda dealership...but yeah no CEL...he was going in for an oil change...but yeah I would've asked some more questions if I were the owner...btw the car is back on the road. My friend really exaggerated...just a small fire

 

More details please!

What caused it?

Was it truly a fire, or just smoke?

What did they do to fix it?

I guess we can assume it wasn't the fuel line then.

 

Maybe a coil is totally fried and fuel was getting down in exhaust?