Hi all, I haven't posted in a long time; this is largely due to the fact that my yellow 4 has been performing and running perfectly. After the past few years, my 4 has helped me move student accommodations four times and done multiple 500-mile roundtrips with no problems whatsoever; snow, sun, and occasionally being laid up for a month or two without starting. My little 4 has been as reliable as can be. My lack of posting is a result of simply having nothing to report. I have now done just over 20,000 miles since restoring the vehicle 5ish years ago!
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However, in late October, after moving back home from university and a routine service, I had a fire start under the bonnet
. After meeting a friend at the pub, my car died at a set of traffic lights—much like I had pulled the choke out completely. At which point black smoke plummed from the bonnet, and the paint started bubbling up. I shut off the ignition and rolled the vehicle to a safe spot. In the space of about 20 seconds, I lifted the bonnet, which caused the flames to nearly take off my eyebrows as they rose about 4 feet in the air, with no way to extinguish them. Fortunately, at this moment, an elderly lady pulled up the side road and stopped. I ran and asked if she had any water. Thanking my lucky stars, she was carrying a 2-litre flask of cold water! I doused the flames and put the fire out. I will never be able to thank her enough!!
To shorten a long story, the lady drove off after offering me a lift. I went into the neighbouring kebab shop to ask for more water to put out the smouldering and glowing rubber hoses. The billowing smoke actually set someone's home smoke alarm off
. Fortunately, to my eye, the damage did not seem too severe: the loom was still intact, and the fuel pipe was charred but had not burnt through; even my air horns hadn't melted. Unfortunately, what ensued was a 4-HOUR WAIT to have the car recovered half a mile up to my home, as I had no way other than to abandon my car. Of course this had to happen at midnight when all shops are shut, on a very cold night at that. So after assessing the damage and finally finding an extortionate recovery service after literal hours on the phone to useless recovery services, we finally got the car home at 04:00, after 4 hours sitting in the freezing cold staring at my burnt pride and joy!
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Note: the lifted paint in pic1. The camera flash in the second picture does the visual a favour; it looked worse in person. Also note the brand new air filter now waterlogged and melted.
Me and my dad (Mr. Renospeed), with helpful assistance from
@Cornish4 , trailered the car down to Devon to assess and repair the damage. Luckily, the first predictions were correct, and the main damage was the bonnet. The wiring loom, important hoses, and cables were thankfully intact. There was no water ingress into the combustion chambers either.
We stripped the carburettor in situ and found that the float ''bridge'' had broken, thus causing the float to drop and the bowl to fill with petrol, and under pressure, spray fuel out of the carburettor seals, like an overflowing toilet cistern. Pure bad luck! So, the repair was in actuality quite simple—replace the float bridge, fuel pipe, breather hoses, air filter, windscreen washer hose, and vacuum advance tube. Additionally, the oil temperature sensor needed replacing; even though there was no visual damage, the warning light was stuck on. Despite the tip of the air box being charred like a flame thrower, the internals of the carburettor and inner-wings were un-affected.
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Note: the broken float bridge and how the bonnet brace took most of the impact from the fire, saving more of the paint and stopping the bonnet from warping.
As a temporary measure to preserve the bonnet, I sanded smooth the damaged area, and then we applied red oxide and colour-match yellow paint. This will remain until the new year, when the bonnet can be fully resprayed. We also gave the engine a coolant refresh and gave the engine bay a good clean. The paint isn't perfect, but it will make do until a better job can be done. The plan is to tackle the paint work on the bonnet and air box and replace both nearside wheel bearings as they have begun to grumble.
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Moral of the story... well... when your mind is telling you a couple of days before disaster that ''you should really get a fire extinguisher just in case'', TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS!
In seriousness, however, both me and my 4 were extremely fortunate that this fire happened in the way that it did. Had the scenario been different, my car may not have survived and I might have been injured. And that thanks to strangers and friends, I was able to avoid disaster.
My car is back up and running, performing just as well as it always has! I have ordered a fire extinguisher; more updates shall follow...
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, and the second when in a petrol station giving me some eye rolls from onlookers - luckily the spring was able to be bent around the hole enough to get home and replace it.
