Total loss... 🤦🏼‍♂️ Engine bay fire burned down my Bronco

[broncobase1]

Yes, more likely a mechically loose fuel line connection, a rubbed / abraded leak in the fuel line, a short between two uninsulated wires, a bad battery, etc.

I agree, but it doesn't have to be uninsulated wires. A short anywere in the circuit can cause the wires to become red hot and melt the insulation . I've seen this before, and is the reason proper fusing is important. The fuse needs to be sized not only for load but the wire guage, so it blows before wires overheat.

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[KRoyal080]

They can definietly come up with a probable cause, of course.

Hopefully they do! I'd love to know. Especially since I'm most likely dropping another 65k on a new one... and if and when they do, I'll definitely pass along that information.

 

[swooshdave]

Can't rule out the possibility of echo terroism. I had a guy on a bicycle have a melt down when I was at a stoplight. I didn't do anything to set him off, he just started screaming insults and f-bombs because I was driving a Bronco. Unfortunately its the world we live in, there isn't anything these whackos won't do.

I hope you ran them over. The world doesn't need someone like that expelling CO2.

 

[stickshifthappy]

Can't rule out the possibility of echo terroism. I had a guy on a bicycle have a melt down when I was at a stoplight. I didn't do anything to set him off, he just started screaming insults and f-bombs because I was driving a Bronco. Unfortunately its the world we live in, there isn't anything these whackos won't do.

keeping a super soaker squirt gun filled with sheep urine can really come in handy in those types of encounters. Just sayin'.

 

[Tex]

Ohio actually... 75 south between mile markers 151 and 152

No way, is that the one just south of Findlay? In 2021 I called the Hancock county sheriff's office to report a car fire that had just started on the north side. It looked like it was a 90's era red Ford Exploder from what I could see of it.

The fuse needs to be sized not only for load but the wire guage, so it blows before wires overheat.

That's certainly good advice. From an electrical engineering standpoint, fuses are meant for wire protection only, not component protection, and should be sized for wire gauge. You can run smaller fuses than necessary, as it will still be protecting the wire, but not the other way around. If you have a properly fused wire and the fuse is too small for what you want to run on that wire(i.e., a 60A air compressor on a 40A fused wire), then your load is excessive for that circuit and shouldn't be used. You can run whatever you want on that wire as long as it's below that limit. An example would be using the Aux 1 switch to run a single .4A rock light...that 20A fuse is absolutely not going to protect the rock light, and it won't make the light draw more than .4A, but it will prevent the wire supplying it from burning up if a short happens.

Component protection should be integrated with the component itself, like fuses on a stereo amp (and really, the fuses on the amp are to protect its own internal wiring). You still want to run a fused wire to the amp, but that fuse is meant for the wire, not the amp. Same reason why a 12V power port has a spot in the fuse block and then whatever you use it for will generally have a little fuse of its own in the plug itself, to protect the smaller gauge wires going to whatever it powers. It is acceptable to run a fuse that's smaller than what would be called for in that particular wire gauge, in order to add some protection to an unprotected component downstream. The wire is still protected, but now you have some semblance of protection for the component too. Generally this is only done if the wire is already present and is being repurposed for a smaller job, as there are no advantages to having oversized and under-utilized wire, but plenty of small disadvantages. Fuses rarely protect components from overcurrent/overload anyway, as it's usually the component failing that causes a fuse to blow. Components only draw what they need to work, you can't really "force" them to take more current by replacing their 5A fuse with a 100A fuse, they only take more current when they're in the process of failing or have already failed. So, it really goes back to the idea that fuses are meant for wire protection and not component protection.

 

[Brian803]

Glad you are ok, and sorry about the loss. Not sure if this was a coincidence or not, but when I was viewing the pictures earlier I got the following advertisement beneath it. Talk about targeted advertising!

 

[KRoyal080]

Glad you are ok, and sorry about the loss. Not sure if this was a coincidence or not, but when I was viewing the pictures earlier I got the following advertisement beneath it. Talk about targeted advertising!

Lol that's great!

 

[Lil Red Broncette]

Flammable "software glitch", that's a new one.

You ever heard of a HCF instruction?

That aside.....can't I place my bet on a long shot if I want?

As someone who does embedded software like all the things operating in the Bronco I am quite unimpressed. It looks like it was pushed to the barely good enough stage and could use some serious polishing.

There is certainly plenty that the software controls that given the right circumstance could torch a Bronco. I'll admit such is more likely achieved by malicious software than a glitch. As a potential it isn't ruled out.

 

[North7]

You ever heard of a HCF instruction?

That aside.....can't I place my bet on a long shot if I want?

As someone who does embedded software like all the things operating in the Bronco I am quite unimpressed. It looks like it was pushed to the barely good enough stage and could use some serious polishing.

There is certainly plenty that the software controls that given the right circumstance could torch a Bronco. I'll admit such is more likely achieved by malicious software than a glitch. As a potential it isn't ruled out.

Yes, I'm very familiar with embedded code, every system I've worked on has some. As a systems engineer my job is to understand cause and effect of all integrated systems. None of the common automotive sub-sytems have software failure modes that cause rubbing / abrading, loosen a fuel line fastner, open a fuel valve on a hot engine, switch in a short circuit, set the battery to self destruct, etc.

The Bronco is not a Hollywood prop from Fast & Furious that may have some of these imaginary devices.

Most likley the root cause failure mode that lead to the fire is mechanical in nature, electrical overload or a failed battery.

I 100% agree with you that the Bronco looks like it was pushed to the barely good enough stage and could use some serious polishing

 

[stickshifthappy]

You ever heard of a HCF instruction?

That aside.....can't I place my bet on a long shot if I want?

As someone who does embedded software like all the things operating in the Bronco I am quite unimpressed. It looks like it was pushed to the barely good enough stage and could use some serious polishing.

There is certainly plenty that the software controls that given the right circumstance could torch a Bronco. I'll admit such is more likely achieved by malicious software than a glitch. As a potential it isn't ruled out.

Soooo you for or agin’ the software sta the fire conspiracy ??

 

[TX-Dennis]

Holy stuff. That sux. Hope you're insurance is to notch.

 

[Sooner]

Gotcha, yeah that'd be a great way for BD to give back to their customers.



So tell me, what part of this did you not read?

"It would have to be a rather large heat source with a direct path to the leak, such as a leak spraying directly onto a turbo or manifold, but again, with as rapidly as coolant will quench those components, they would have to be running (relatively hard, at that) in order to maintain that autoignition temperature long enough for it to develop a fire. It's certainly possible for a coolant leak to start a fire when you're driving, but I'm not so certain that would be the case with a vehicle that was actively cooling off"

Cats aren't small engines that cool off quickly either, they would certainly qualify as a rather large heat source, running or otherwise. A little turbo on a 2.7L engine that wasn't running, no, not so much. Seems like whoever you were working with needed a better maintenance program or more competent fire prevention measures too, hopefully you've moved on to greener pastures. I was a lease operator for a field that had a lot of Ajax compressors, and seeing how they maintained their equipment, I wasn't there for very long.

Argue all you want, I’ll believe what I have seen with my own eye’s. It’s not the coolant that burns them down but when the coolant fire causes a fuel line to fail. It was a design flaw with the 3516ULB not a lack of maintaince. All of these dry manifold engines are being converted to wet manifold to prevent this from happening. BTW nothing will kill an AJAX damn old two strokes just keep going!

 

[Lil Red Broncette]

Yes, I'm very familiar with embedded code, every system I've worked on has some. As a systems engineer my job is to understand cause and effect of all integrated systems. None of the common automotive sub-sytems have software failure modes that cause rubbing / abrading, loosen a fuel line fastner, open a fuel valve on a hot engine, switch in a short circuit, set the battery to self destruct, etc.

The Bronco is not a Hollywood prop from Fast & Furious that may have some of these imaginary devices.

Most likley the root cause failure mode that lead to the fire is mechanical in nature, electrical overload or a failed battery.

I 100% agree with you that the Bronco looks like it was pushed to the barely good enough stage and could use some serious polishing

I am not going with the odds, I am going with the long shot. Not the most likely.

Anyway from what I know of these systems, I put it as even odds that software could cause this sort of event.

 

[Brian’sBronco]

keeping a super soaker squirt gun filled with sheep urine can really come in handy in those types of encounters. Just sayin'.

In the midst of all this speculation of what caused the fire we have this gem. Do I want to know how you come about enough sheep urine to fill a Super Soaker? And does it have to be sheep urine or can I use what’s available, like my own? Ya just never know what you’re going to read on that forum.

 

[Rex21c]

Typically the darker or more discolored areas are signs of either starting points for fires, or where there was a different type of fuel or accelerant, in this pic you can see the glovebox area and the driver side close to the firewall are the blackest which is also where our accessory cables are for the AUX switches. Also the passenger side aux cap above the windshield I think has a cable too. All three areas are burnt to a crisp more than the surrounding areas

Just a guess but it looks like their was either an incorrect wiring job done to the AUX switches, or the powered runs shorted or grounded out. Just noticed what could have been pod lights that mount close to the side mirrors and the passenger side of the windshield A pillar is more discolored than the drivers side, which does not have an AUX cable.

but just a guess based my my few years of being a fire fighter and just happening to know where the aux cables are, which the fire investigator or fire fighters wouldn’t know if they didn’t have a bronco or didn’t check wiring schematics. Which honestly is the insurance guys job since there were no deaths.

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