We had a similar thing with a transit van at work, where it caught fire with no obvious signs. The fitters reckon that there was a hole in the piston, which was drawing oil into the cylinder which was then drawn down the exhaust to the CAT which in turn caught fire. The lads said that it was running like a bag of sh1te prior to it happening (which you'd expect with a hole in the piston) so I would say the missus would have known something was wrong when she took it to the shops! Just a theory...oh and the van was a 12 plate with 60k on the clock.

Maybe some of the £7,000 ones with such low mileage and full dealer history.

+1 if the insurance begin to haggle , which of course will happen.

Shame to hear about this, the bang would lead me to think of something exploding rather than a steady fire gradually getting bigger and bigger. But what is there to explode, especially after only such a short trip , therefore a relatively cold engine, and such a time stood still cooling down .

At least no one was hurt!

JRJG

Plastic bag picked up from road while driving maybe?

Had a few customers complain about bags on the exhaust, they just melt and smell bad haha.

Could of had a receipt left in the bottom though

Well my car nearly went up in smoke on Monday morning, all JUST because of the bit of wire to the driver side door card courtesy light.

Was driving to work and the car just filled with smoke in about 20 seconds, pulled over, over the kerb and onto a field - engine / lights off and jump out. Saw a wee flame going on in the door card so I blew into the opening where the courtesy light is, and it put the flame out!!! Gave it 10 mins, tried my best to separate the wires, and drove the bugger home with the lights off (was bright enough by then) so not to put any voltage through the courtesy light wires. Disconnected the battery, then back in the S2000 to work.

Mental!!

The courtesy light unit is at fault here as it was loose and fell into the door card and obviously made a circuit / shorted on the metal frame of the door.

I've not checked yet, but I am assuming the fuse in the fuse box is wrong and too higher rating - or VAG have specified the wrong ampage for the job.

I've taken the door card off and the wire has smouldered all the way up to the hinge joint leaving exposed wire - so this is out of my hands and going to an auto-electrician tomorrow.

Moral of the story is, electrical fires happen easily and can happened gradually or very quickly.

I was incredibly lucky I reacted as I did, if I just left that flame to carry on, everything around it would have caught. Cars are flammable things and it's not necessarily to do with the fuel. It's the fabrics, rubbers and plastics.

I know I'm investing in fire extinguishers for both of my cars now though.

Thanks for all your posts the fire caused most damage to the engine compartment the battery compartment and cylinder heads and all the wiring. The bonnet buckled in the heat and the fire brigade probably made it worse the fire spread to the interior affecting the passenger compartment front first the rear of car has the lightest damage..I know that I will have a fight with the insurance company who will try to fob me off with too little but looking on the web vrs se Fabias with the same mileage as mine are fetching in excess of 6500.i think that an electrical cause is our best guess still find it hard to believe that smouldering wires can so quickly trash a deisel car.

lol this post is hot.

Was there a conclusion to this?

Well the car ended up for sale on copart.

What?!

It looks a wreck!

Got s link?

What?!

It looks a wreck!

Got s link?

It sold by the looks of it. Can't find it.