Skoda Fire

[Lit]

On Monday night my son was driving from Worcester to Chesham in his Skoda Fabia and had nearly got there when a warning light came on, 'Control System for Exhaust'. He stopped and was calling the AA when smoke started to come out of the engine and the AA told him to ring the Emergency Services because they did not deal with fires. Unfortunately they misheard him and went northbound to start with, so the fire in the engine became quite intense.

Luckily he is fine and the firemen and police managed to recover some of his belongings from the boot. (VERY smokey!)

We have had the Skoda Fabia since new and it has a full skoda service history. It had just had a service and been in for a brake pipe replacement.

The model details were Fabia 1.2, 12 V HTP Classic, Feb 2006 and had done 34,500 miles.

I have posted this partly to warn other people to watch out for a similar thing happening and also to ask if it was just one of those things or were there any warning signs in what happened?

Many thanks

Lit

[phantomlurker]

Blimey That's not cool, glad to hear your son got out ok etc.

Does seem a rarity, I don't recall many people on here with similar stories - I m suprised no-one else has commented on this yet!

I don't really have any knowledge on this, but to give others a clue - did the fire brigade give any info on the location or what was on fire?

Good luck with the insurers - don't accept their first offer!

PL

[Lit]

Thank you for your reply.

My son is only 20 and is a little shaken by it all but coping very well. The firemen were still dousing the engine down, after getting his belongings out of the boot and then the police took him to the nearest Service Station, so he didn't get a chance to ask them anything.

Direct Line have given him a Corsa for 2 weeks and are sending an an engineer to assess the damage and try to work out the cause. I shall report back when I know anything more.

My son and daughter both learnt to drive in the Fabia and we had not had many problems with it, so I think it was probably just one of those things.

I have looked on line at some prices for similar age and mileage ready for the fight with the insurers!

Many thanks

Lit

[st3f4n]

Well atleast your lads ok... Be intresting to find out what the actual cause of the fire was

[mark.r.cullen]

There was someone on here not so long back who had a small fire. A driving instructor I believe. I think it turned out to be something to do with the big fans behind the radiator and was easily sorted, but I don't think it managed to progress in to a blazing inferno!

Interested to know the cause.

[Sonner]

Glad to hear your son is okay, i hope it doesn't put him off Skoda's for life.

my best friends dads owned a 1998 peugeot 406 1.8 from new and put a total of 212,000 miles on it. about 4 months ago a week after he came back from a driving holiday in europe he had a fire under in the engine bay, but thankfully still had his fire extinguisher in the back of his car.... so he was alright in the end. he did sell the car a week later after he couldn't find the cause of the fire....

not a nice thing to do really, passing on a potentially dangerous car to someone else... but then again it was his least favourite stepson his sold it too!!! hehe.

same here, please let us know if a cause is discovered...

[Lit]

Thank you all for your kind comments.

I will let you know what the engineer's report says (still waiting! Luckily my husband rang them on Wednesday and they realised no one had logged the car into the system! It is now).

It is good to know that there was not anything really obvious that we had missed.

I do not think my son is put off Skodas for life, just the immediate future. He does like Yetis but they are too expensive. We are test driving some cars this weekend when he comes home from work We are hoping to be able to help him get a Fiesta or Corsa?

Regards

Lit

[anewman]

Scary. I believe fires are usually electrical. I'm not sure it's a good idea to attempt to fight an engine-bay fire yourself as when you open the bonnet you feed it oxygen, and it can flare out towards you.

[TriggerFish]

A few RX-8 owners has have reports of the cat failing and if not catching fire, getting incredibly hot and smoking/ making the cabin uncomfortably hot could be that? Anyway, he's safe - beyond that everything is of secondary importance.

What age Corsa/Fiesta? If it's a Corsa C (00-06 or 07)- I'd say nooooo! based on several friends, and my sisters ownership. I learnt to drive in a Fiesta (2004/5 plate I think), and it's a much nicer car. If it's the new shaped Corsa, I'd still steer away. I learnt in one of those briefly too - didn't like it. The bigger issue we've found with them though is that the seats collapse on the base, side bolster (the bit the outside of the thigh rests against), and you end up sitting on a long, sharp bar which is really painful. The seats also seem a lot less padded too and generally uncomfy.

[Tech1e]

Glad your son is ok, I did hear about the fire as I work at the dealer where the pipe was replaced (although I myself didn't work on the car).

Would be interested naturally in the cause if they are at all able to figure it out although this is doubtful.

If you haven't already I would contact customer services, they take this kind of thing very seriously, we ourselves or indeed and dealer wouldn't be able to touch the car now as a burnt vehicle is hazardous but they would want to know the cause if possible just incase there is a safety issue.

[Lit]

Thank you again for all your advice and comments.

The engineer is seeing the Skoda on Monday, so I will report back as soon as we hear from Direct Line. The frustrating thing is that despite the fact that it was not Harv’s fault that his car caught fire, it will be treated as a 'blame' claim when it comes to his renewal because there was no one else to claim the loss against and his premium will probably be really high! Ah well, the important thing is that he is OK.

Ian did call in at the Skoda garage to let them know and they were very nice and want to know if they ever find what the problem was.

We are HOPING to help Harv buy a new car. Cost and reliability are very important. He does a lot of travelling and we thought that he can get exactly what he wants and them keep it for ages. Insurance is going to be a huge factor and we will have to check before we buy anything. We have been looking at 1.2 Fiesta and Corsas. He is test driving both on Sunday before he heads back to Chesham. The Fiesta does seem to be the better car but on a purely fickle front, I prefer the look of the Corsa.

Let you know what the engineer's report says.

Many thanks

Lit

[TriggerFish]

I can't comment on the Fiesta, but a fair few friends have had camshaft failures on the 1.2 Corsas. Something to do with infrequent oil changes I believe.

[Mrnorm]

Glad nobody was hurt! I might buy a fire extinguisher for my 2006 1.2 HTP Classic now :p

[Fabia DMG]

not nice to read story like this, but glad your son is ok. Hope nothing like that does happen an my 04 Fabia 1.2 12V HTP Comfort. I may thing about the fire extinguisher for my furby. Buy him another Fabia they are very good been with mine in Slovakia and back to UK without any problem.

[Lit]

I did not want you to think me really rude.

I have not forgotten to post the engineer's report but the insurance company are HOPELESS.

Despite many reminders they seem incapable of sending us a copy! They say it is in the post.

I want to get it right, so I am waiting for a copy to quote from.

Apologies for the delay. I will post results ASAP.

[Lit]

The famous engineer's report finally came!

Unfortunately, due to the severe fire damage he could not find out the cause and it would need us to pay for a forensic report (which we cannot afford) to determine the cause. Because there is no one to claim against, Harvey is going to have to pay so we are very worried about his insurance renewal in the new year, especially as a 20 year old male! Ah well … it could have been ALOT worse.

I have been thinking about the comments posted. There are swings and roundabouts for having a fire extinguisher. I am glad he didn't because he might have felt he had to try and had a fire ball come at him as he lifted the bonnet. Also, I think it is a good idea to try to keep stuff in the boot. I am still amazed by how much stuff we could clean-up and still worked (computer, camera etc ), thanks to the firemen.

He went for the Fiesta in the end and is enjoying the bluetooth! The only one in red that they could get quickly had it, so he is VERY happy!

Thank you for all your kind comments. I hope nobody else has it happen and good luck with your Fabias. We do miss ours but Harvey needed a change for a bit to get his confidence back.

[Tinbin]

Glad he's back on the road. My Fabia fire didn't cause so much damage, but was AFAIK unique to date.

The turbo blew on the motorway, but engine ran on after I stopped. Very quickly red hot oil was being sprayed out of the exhaust, which ignited turning my VRS into a £12k big red flame-thrower! The engine stopped and the oil burnt off, and apart from the obvious turbo/intercooler/cat/exhaust damage, only the rear bumper suffered (bit of a meltdown!). All fixed under warranty thankfully, and no-one hurt.

I've still got the car 3 years later, hasn't put me off at all since it was completely freak.

Good luck with the Fiesta :-)

[Lit]

Well this is what has happened over the past weeks.

We had paid extra towards the last 2 Fabia services, because the next 1 was going to be quite expensive. Obviously, we do not need it now , so the local Skoda garage have refunded £200 of the £299 cost on instructions of Skoda head office.

The insurance quote has come through and is over £2,500 which seems hard when the when the write off was not my son's fault.

Thank you again for all your kind comments.

Merry Christmas

[Phil-E]

Very kind of the garage to refund some of the costs!!

Unfortunately that is the nature of insurance and it would have been a lot worse without insurance!

Shame it can't be determined what the cause was though... it will forever be a mystery...

Glad he's back on the road. My Fabia fire didn't cause so much damage, but was AFAIK unique to date.

The turbo blew on the motorway, but engine ran on after I stopped. Very quickly red hot oil was being sprayed out of the exhaust, which ignited turning my VRS into a £12k big red flame-thrower! The engine stopped and the oil burnt off, and apart from the obvious turbo/intercooler/cat/exhaust damage, only the rear bumper suffered (bit of a meltdown!). All fixed under warranty thankfully, and no-one hurt.

I've still got the car 3 years later, hasn't put me off at all since it was completely freak.

Good luck with the Fiesta :-)

Is that known as a "runwaway" engine? I've seen some videos on youtube of them with some pretty impressive sights and ammounts of smoke! The general concensous is to engage a high gear with the brakes applied and try and stall the engine. Sounds slightly different in your case though with the flames out the exhaust! lol

Phil

[anewman]

Have to wonder if it would have been cheaper not to claim in the long run.

[TriggerFish]

I've worked out I can write off either of my cars into a tree or something, and it's going to be cheaper in the long run to replace like-for-like off my own back than go the insurance route. (Not sure if getting older will change that, but that's how it stands at 20.)

Only issue with that is though you need the money up front to buy another car outright, or be willing to take credit which I'm not.

Edited 9 December, 2011 by TriggerFish

[Bertjindal]

My 2007 skoda fabia vrs se mk1 went up in flames on Sunday whilst parked on the drive following a short drive .it had a full service history and low mileage 49000 miles .the fire appears to have started in the anterior engine compartment and nearly set my garage on fire!

Bert

[mogwye]

I thought Direct Line were advertising their car Insurance, that in the event of a write off they sourced and supplied a 'like for like', was this not offered ?

 

DB.

[Alexandru]

I'm sorry to hear your story .. but I'm glad everybody is fine.

 

Ontopic:

 

'It had just had a service and been in for a brake pipe replacement.'  As far as I know, the brake fluid is flammable .. just saying ..

[WaveyDavey]

I thought Direct Line were advertising their car Insurance, that in the event of a write off they sourced and supplied a 'like for like', was this not offered ?

 

DB.

 

 

This topic is from nearly 3 years ago.... I don't think Direct Line offered that facility back then did they???