# '99 Maxima SE - Spontaneous car fire (with pics) WTF?



## 2972patricc (Aug 9, 2010)

Hey guys,

So (needless to say) I had a bad weekend. Let me recount what happened from the top and try to provide you with all the info I can -- my apologies if this turns into a long post.

I bought the car on July 15th 2010 from a private party (found through Craigslist). I had the car checked out by mechanics within the family and an independent shop that I have a good relationship with. Everything checked out. It was in excellent shape inside and out; not a single scratch in the leather, no dents or nicks in the body, new tires, new brakes, new front suspension, and completely stock aside from a bolt on cold air intake and a bolt on exhaust silencer.

Fast forward ~1500 miles to 8/6/2010 and I'm driving home from work, car starts stuterring, pulling way left, ABS light flashes, and finally white smoke comes up through the hood. Less than 10 minutes later the engine bay is engulfed in flames and the fire dept arrives to put the fire out. They smash the drives side window in an attempt to pop the hood using the lever, however that failed, and they quickly resorted to sawing the hood in half to put the fire out.

Here is a full album of pictures about 20 minutes after this all happend: 1999 Nissan Maxima Fire Damage Gallery

Few relevant shots

Full View









Driver's side engine bay









Driver's side front quarter panel









Hood









Now, our main theory as to why this happened was that there was some front end work done to the car and a component (linkage, bearing, or something) must have violently broke and severed a hose (brake hose could explain the ABS light), spraying fluids all over the hot engine. In the interest of full disclosure, here is the work that has been done to the car by the previous owner. ALL the work was done by a well-respected, import oriented, local shop a full cost -- it wasn't done by him, his buddy, or someone doing it on the cheap (which is why we weren't too put off by the work that was done)

12/14/09: Minor front end collision
Replaced L&R drive axles and control arms $1276 from Import Minded, Inc
03/03/10: New AC Delco battery $60 from Remy Battery
03/29/10: Replaced knock sensor, O2 sensor
Replaced front and rear brake rotors
Lubed clutch spring & other misc $1056 from Import Minded, Inc
04/15/10: Replaced front and read brake pads $105 from Import Minded, Inc
07/08/10: Replaced L lower control arm under warranty $0 from Import Minded, Inc
from work done on 12/14/09

It looks to me like there was an issue with the driver's side front suspension after they replaced it, so maybe this issue is stemming from that. Given that it was a warranty fix it wouldn't be unlikely that they cut some corners.

I'm looking for your opinions on what the hell could have caused this, and what I should do next. It's been a hell of a weekend, that's for sure...


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## 4thGenTinkerer (Nov 1, 2009)

That is one hell of a first post buddy. 
Wow, Im sorry for your loss. Looking at the pics, the hottest part of the fire appears to be on the drivers side. The hood, fender, and engine bay on the drivers side seem to indicate the fire burned the hottest in that area. I am not am expert on fires but I would think that the area which got the hottest was allowed to burn the longest, my logic being that the most burnt/melted/charred areas should be looked at first. 
A few questions.....
1) How many miles are/were on your 99?
2) Auto or standard trans? (you list it as an SE which usually are 5mt)
3) Were you enjoying a little "spirited" driving just prior to the fire?
4) Have you posted this on any other maxima/nissan sites or org's yet?
5) Did you hear/feel any scraping, crunching, squeeling, just before the first noticable smoke?

I would hope you had insurance on such a nice 99. You seem like a well educated guy, so Im going to make this explaination quite technical. 

Its really tough to tell what caused this.(like I said technical lol) There are multiple systems in that part of the engine bay which could potentially result in a fire. The most likely would be the fuel lines. They could have been removed at some point and not properly tightened back down. Thats my first guess. I think its possable that your battery could have whacked against somthing, spilling the contents of the cells onto the hot engine, this could be another source of ignition. However Im simply speculating.
I would either try to buy the car back from your insurance company and fix it, or part it out on the web. There are lots of people who would like to have some of the parts on that car. I have to say that I would have a hard time accepting the fact that a balljoint or a wheel bearing is responsible for this tragic loss. I have seen axels on supercharged and turbo maximas which have totally been snapped in half, with no resulting fire. I am still leaning towards somthing on the drivers side of you engine bay failing that in turn provided one of the three basic elements for a fire to start. 
Good Luck and Welcome to NF.com


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## 2972patricc (Aug 9, 2010)

Thanks for your reply

To answer your questions:
1) It had approximately 119,000; I bought it with 117k on it.
2) It was a 5 speed, stock clutch that still grabbed strong
3) Just the normal commute. I may have hit 75 and shifted at 4k once or twice, but it is just a 15 mile commute. I actually took the car down to St Louis (400mi one way) the weekend before with no issues and a bit more "spirited" driving 
4) I was planning on posting this to maxima.org as well, but I just didn't get around to it yesterday. I'll probably do that later tonight.

As for 5, let me give you a more detailed account.

My commute home consists of mainly right hand turns, with 3 exceptions: 1 getting out of a parking lot 2 merging onto the main road, and 3 a sharp left hander across a 4 lane road which is currently under construction and quite bumpy. This turn is a block before my house and it was directly after this turn that the car started jerking as if someone was slamming on the brakes and when it also started pulling strongly to the left. Also the ABS light began flashing. I pulled over as soon as I could which ended up being about a block past my house, due to not wanting to parallel park with this going on. This is when I saw white smoke. Things progressed for the worst from there...

The real kicker is that I only have liability... I called the insurance company and they didn't seem interested in anything at all, basically just saying "sucks to be you". I'm obviously going to push this a lot harder with them when I get some more time / information.

I'll look over what's left of the car again to see if I can determine any issues with the fuel lines. The battery area is pretty well charred, so it will be hard to determine. I'll do this in conjunction with having one of the mechanics in the family taking a look at it for their first hand opinion as well.


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