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tvatavuk

Yesterday my P4 suddenly died out after normal breaking at red traffic light.
Warning lights were little odd, but nothing special, so I turned off igniton.
Lights turned off, brand new MP3 CD player stoped working (as it should), and all of a sudden 0.5 sec later same warrning lights turned ON with KEY in OFF position!!!! (oh my GOD, Fire is immanent thought went through my mind ) this isn't good. Shocked

My long time girl said, there is smoke coming out, I looked in side car in front of me and didn't see anything (a year ago it was speeedo that smoked a bit) and then looked at engine since it is rather oily this days, but I couldn't see anything in that first 2 secs so I said where, where I don't see it.
And all of a sudden smoke become thicker, and it was coming from above my feet, I've ordered her to get out of car (unfortunately for her this is her second time car is in fire, first time it was in 1997 on day before Christmas, when Renault 4 developed a leak in fuel filter and fuel come in touch with starter which provided spark, luckily I was then at some business area made of wooden shacks, and people there knew what to do in case of fire, so they turned it off sooner then it would be turned off if I was inside of firemen's station), I opened my door and got out to looking from where is smoke coming and how to stop it.
I have no time to take out battery main wires, and no equipment to do it, and I had to have my eyes on the smoke, so I opened fuse box.
As smoke continued to get thicker every second, I started to pull out relays close to wheel, but smoke started to be even thicker and there was no time to pull out all of them, not to say all of fuses in fuse box.
I figured it has to be one of two relays behind wheel, of ignition connector that should be unplugged, so I tried and burned nicely my left thumb, when I touched hot connector with it.
Ok nothing I can do there, few audio and other equipment cables I moved form there didn't gave any result, so I open my storage area and taken 2kg fire extinguisher bottle , waited to see if fire will develop. I really hope that 2kg will be enough or my beloved P4 along with brand new expensive MP3 player will burn/explode.
I taken key out (I don’t have spare) of ignition lock and sec later I could see fire flames inside key hole, just before I've done it, smoke tripled all of a sudden and I inhaled it unfortunately, pure POISON.
At that time it was obvious that it is time to use extinguisher (for the first time in my life), and after a few coughs to get rid of pure poison in my lounges, I pressed it shortly, well until my eyes, mouth and lounges were full of fire extinguisher dust this time.
Ok that wasn't so smart move, I'll try from a little further away, and you have to hold it pressed for it to work (nice to know, hope I'll never need to use that knowledge again).
Great no more smoke no more fire (and as I see it too much carcinogenic substances in lounges ) front half of car totally covered with dust but I can see backlight on pedals created by sparks.
At that point I remembered that I have a spanner and set of extensions for it at back of my car and I could start removing wires from battery, but I know that I need normal key for it and spanner is not good, and I have keep my eye on spark in case that I turns in fire again (did I mention that my car is running on LPG and I don't want fire anything near it).
I decide to unscrew all wires from batter I could (= 2) with spanner, luckily for me first one was THE ONE, and sparking stopped.
While I was doing it a car driver which stopped on red light asked me if it was audio amplifier that caused it?
At that point, a man living in the house on that crossing gets out of it and asks is I need something, I said a key tool would be nice, he taken a look said that I need size 10 and he went back into house, I could hear 15m away a rumble as that man searched for right one, and he brought me 3.
On next light he even pushed me through that very dangerous (it is one of national death/black spots) crossroad, I was worried because I couldn't get my key into key hole, and if lock locks steering wheel I couldn’t tow it, but steering wheel lock probably melted, because wheel was turning without problem I thanked him shouting dozen of meters away form my car while parking it at bus stop .
I never had any problems with ignition lock, but it decided it was time to do some damage. Fire extinguisher was 5 years old and needed testing by law, and I was wondering and I still am, is it cheaper to make all tests prescribed by law or to buy new one in store in my country.
I also needed to vacuum my car, and deep clean both of front seats, good thing I didn’t done that past week end. Smile

At the end of day I have a ton of paint dust which I inhaled during working hours while sanding walls and seeling + Poisonous fumes + extinguisher dust, it would be probbaly wise to start paying for extra medical care.
My P4 is in front of my house, smelling badly and with dusty inside (probably same got into CD), and I'm thanking to GOD that it didn't burn whole.

And what about Maintenance & Repairs, well maintain your ignition locks (I don't know how) and keep at leas 1kg fire ext. bottle nearby in case it decides to add a little flame to your life.
Repair well, problem is that at moment I'am doing for next two weeks two jobs, so I don't know when I'll repair it.

But I suspect that it will be be easier to replace lock from car and change door locks then get rid of burned wire isolation smell from my P4.

Maybe it did this to me because last 10 days I'm thinking of buying 155 Q4 Embarassed

.

Tino
_________________
Tino Vatavuk
Little black dress which replaced Alfa Romeo 33 S 16v Permanent 4 GMo

Scott Sander · Posted: Tue May 20, 2003 11:35 pm Post subject:

Tino,

Sorry to hear about the car. Hope you can fix it.

Last week on the way to work I saw a fairly new Audi with a plume of smoke coming from underneath the bonnet. The hazard lights were blinking, but you saw them slowly die as the electrics burnt out.

I had thought about changing the battery terminals to ones that don't need a spanner to undo them. Now I'm convinced.
_________________
Scott Sander
'91 Alfa 33 Boxer 16V Monza - Awesome
http://www.sanderfamily.com

Admin · Posted: Tue May 20, 2003 11:43 pm Post subject:

Ouch Tino

Sorry to hear about that. Hope you get it sorted out soon. Probably best to pull the dashboard off and check all the wiring in there

All the best

Keith

Gary UK · Posted: Tue May 20, 2003 11:56 pm Post subject:

But

Can you not claim on the insurance and keep the car (they will take the writeoff value of your P4 away from the settlement they offer) Question

ChrisC · Alfa Sprint Joined: 13 Mar 2003 Posts: 152 Location: Frome

That sounds painful. How toasted is the wiring loom?
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Alfa Sprint QV - Gone to a better home and in happier health for it
Silver Lancia Beta HPE Volumex - under restoration

ricardo · Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 4:56 am Post subject: DON'T ABANDON YOUR ALFAS

BILL · Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 5:20 pm Post subject:

You're lucky man.It could have been worst.
Happend to me once in an old (63?)VAUXHALL, all the wires melted but it was simple tochange them by myself.And yes they are very sensitive when you think of other cars.Like christin (the movie).I have a 1976 JULIA
NOVA 1600 and when i was searching for the 33 i own now ,started to have a problem every single Km i drove.so now she rests in my backyard
and comes out every Sunday for a quick drive around the block and rests again.Damn i love that car.

tvatavuk · Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 5:54 pm Post subject:

Well,
new original AR replacement lock is almost cheap 50 Euros , and comes with two keys, problem with it is that it has only 3 wires, while all 33s I know have 4. So electrician will have a lot of job fitting it.

Used one from scrap yard costs some 20 Euros and has 4 wires, but it is used ie it can go up in smoke as mine did any moment Sad

I don't know condition of anything around it, because I still didn't have time to look, so it may not be all the last bits and pieces I need to buy/replace.

2 Scott, Keith and all others Thanks.
2 Gary UK, I use only basic car accident respons. insurance, that what youre talking about it here called Kasko, and is 1/5th of street price of my car, so I don't have it.
2 Ricardo 12 ARs, you re some kind of car dealer besides runing them on track?
2 BILL Julia Nova that is rare car.

Tino
_________________
Tino Vatavuk
Little black dress which replaced Alfa Romeo 33 S 16v Permanent 4 GMo

Sergio · Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 11:22 pm Post subject:

Hi Tino

Good luck fixing your car:)
Hope it's back on the road soon.

Best Wishes

Sérgio

Nikola · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 1:25 pm Post subject: Should I worry too?

Hi Tino,

Realy sorry for your trouble. I did not visit the list for quite a time. I wonder should I worry too, since I am thinking of 155 Q4 too, however seems now it is just a dream.

I got an urgent question, at least I think it is urgent.

I hear tapping from the first, right cilynder/head regarding drivers position. Also, the connection between intake and the rubber seal is oily.

Also, I noticed some oil consumption, compared to none before but I can not estimate how much, frankly I did not check the oil level for a while.

Do you have any idea, I've been thinking of everything so it makes me completely confused.

Thanks in advance,

Nikola

James Granger · Alfa 33 Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Posts: 302

Sounds scary Tino!! Once had a similar experience in my mums old 156. The CD player read CD ERROR, and started to smoke. I was scared shitless, but managed to pull it out of the car. The CD player has since been refurbished by Philips, and is now used in the 33. Hope it doesn't go up in flames... Wink

Yvon · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 11:04 pm Post subject:

Hello Nikola,

Take a long screwdriver, put it on suspect part and your hear on the screwdriver. You should clearly hear where noise is coming from.

You can replace the screwdriver buy a hose (put a screw within the hose on the engine side) go everywhere on engine, put the screw in contact with injector, head, etc ... and listen to the other side of hose.

Hope this can help,
Ciao
Yvon

Hamish Brown · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 1:09 am Post subject: FIRE

Sounds like you had a bit of Bad luck mate but dam lucky to have a fire extinguisher with you and the main thing is every one is safe. The dry powder and chemical powder extinguishers are bad news in confind spaces and as you said very poisionous. Best of luck fixing her up.

tvatavuk · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 9:29 am Post subject: Re: FIRE

Reason for fire was:
Green wire that gives + to the ignition coil has shorted on engine, near temp sensor, so it drained power through ignition key (bloody wire is one of few in car that has direct + without fuse), unfortunatly for me it melted
ignition key lock, its connector, and a dozen of wires all the way from + pole main point from engine through to key ignition and back again to the engine, melting main engine wire loom connector and again wires up to the place where was power dainage on engine.
_________________
Tino Vatavuk
Little black dress which replaced Alfa Romeo 33 S 16v Permanent 4 GMo