Car fire possibly caused by an electronic rust protection device

[brogers Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close brogers]

Dear folk,

an interesting experience this morning.

A friends 2 year old car caught fire in the driveway today.... whilst parked and no one had driven it for 12 hrs.

It appears that the fire started in the electronic rust protection device installed at time of purchase. The damage was confined to the rust protection unit, wiring, bonnett, plastic trim etc..... Still, it is likely to be a few thousand dollars of damage. A quick thinking neighbour extinguished the fire with a garden hose before the flames got very big. Fortunately my daughter smelled something burning in the driveway and immediatley called the fire brigade and the neighbour heard her calling ...(from next door....get the pciture...) I think she is still shaking....thank goodness she wasn't driving it or she would have had a complete nervous breakdown.

Well, now the fun starts....dealer says "we didn't install the unit", the subcontactor who installed the unit at time of purchase on behalf of dealer says "we installed it correctly but it should have been inspected annually".....and the insurance company says "that will be $450 excess thankyou".....for an electronic rust unit installed at time of purchase of a new car from the dealer!!!....mmmmm I'll keep you posted as to the outcome.

I can't tell the brand of the rust unit as its has literally become a "black box"....but it just serves as a warning to everyone, electrical modifications can potentially fail or short and catch fire.....had the car been in the garage and unseen by my daughter the car, the house and who knows what may now be another fire statistic......

[LeighW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LeighW]

This can happen with any after market electronic equipment, ie radios/DC DC chargers/Inverters etc.

Cheers

LeighW

[VXWesty Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close VXWesty]

It's an interesting scenario. For an electronic device to get hot enough to start a fire it must have drawn some serious current, at which point the fuse should have blown well before. Perhaps bad fuse... Or none at all???

[tassie tiger Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close tassie tiger]

Probably no one to blame. Stuff happens. Great to see you are covered.

[LeighW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LeighW]

It's an interesting scenario. For an electronic device to get hot enough to start a fire it must have drawn some serious current, at which point the fuse should have blown well before. Perhaps bad fuse... Or none at all???

Actually no, it wouldn't take much current at all for an electronic component to get
hot enough to set fire to plastic etc.

[brogers Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close brogers]

Probably no one to blame. Stuff happens. Great to see you are covered.

Covered by comprehensive insurance yes indeed, but...BUT....will the cover extend to this incident...the arguements have started as to who is responsible.......I'll keep you posted, but the company responsible for installing the electronic rust protection is inspecting the car today...

Its interesting to note that the vehicle owner thought that they were getting a "genuine" device installed by the vehicle manufacturer when they agreed to the electronic rust protecion option at time of purchase...and hence believed until yesterday that the device (and hence responsibility for the fire repair) was covered by the vehicle manufacturers warranty...it was installed by a third party through the dealer, it is obviously not a "genuine" vehicle manufacturers device and is covered by a very different warranty....lets see what happens....and so far as I can see I can't find an in-line fuse to the device.....mmmmm

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Perhaps bad fuse... Or none at all???

Nows the time for anyone with an ERP device to check for an inline fuse... Not having seen one up close, do these devices have built in inline protection?

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

The one that was fitted to my beaten up old Rodeo from new has an inline fuse. The cable feeding the unit is very small and couldn't deliver much current.

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

And now he will get rust where the paint burnt away in the fire! Who will cover that?

[rally1 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rally1]

Thats not the first time i have seen that' i work for a dealership and the manufacture sent a warning to all its
dealers about that same thing happening .Moral to the story be carefull what aftermarket products are put on and
make sure they are put on properly.

[brogers Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close brogers]

Its confirmed... the origin of the fire was indeed the electronic rust protection device, installed WITHOUT a fuse anywhere along the positive connection to the battery terminal....it has started whilst the car was parked in light rain, and ignited some plastic and rubber trim (new firewall and windscreen sill trim), a small area of the bonnett was blistered (ful bonnett respray) , it blackened the corner of the windscreen (muust be replaced due to exposure to heat) and the passanger side wiper blade rubber (new wiper arm and balde) ......this is certainly NOT the first car fire initiated by an electronic rust protection device....and the insurance assessor advises had my daughter actualy have used the dry chemical powder extinguisher under the bonnett (instead of the neighbour using the hose), the car would have been (quote) "written off" as it would have been unrepairable, as the dry powder eventually causes permanent damage/corrosion to the wiring and electronics etc......an in-line fuse in a car has nothing to do with protecting the actual device it is connected to, it is put here to "protect the vehicle wiring and to prevent a car fire" should a fault somewhere cause an overcurrent/overheating of the wiring...so make sure that any accessory connected to your battery has an in-line fuse...even if it is installed by a so called "expert"....however the owner of the vehicle in question will never use electronic rust protection again...and neither will I.

[Richoson Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Richoson]

Be interesting to find out the opinion of the Surf Life Saving Society and the Qld Ambulance Brigade as they have been using these for many years and as I have a close friend in the "Ambos" he swears by the products.

Shody workmanship is not the product fault.

See ya on the tracks, Richo.

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

I am dubious about the benefit provided by these systems. My Rodeo has numerous bumps and knocks and anywhere that the base metal has been exposed it has turned black. Not exactly preventing rust but actually forming magnetite rather than haematite. The former is more stable and unless cracked or removed stops the rusting going further but still not quite what I thought was supposed to be the outcome.

Anyway as Richo says poor installation doesn't mean the product is at fault.

By way of example I removed my Bluetongue IV compressor over Christmas in the process of fitting an ARB twin compressor unit to the Prado (still in process unfortunately). The BT IV is going under the bonnet of the Rodeo. When I bought the Prado the extra cost to fit the bar, snorkel, suspension, dual battery, compressor etc was peanuts. I normally do all this myself because I reckon my workmanship is better than most but I had I had no time and as I said the cost was minimal so I had if fitted by one of the usual outlets. The auxiliary wiring was not neat and instead of a separate fuse block there were in line fuses with multiple wires attached to the auxiliary. Didn't worry too much and I was always going to get around to tidy it up. Changing the compressor was the perfect opportunity so I unbolted all the electrical connectors off the battery, unbolted the compressor and untangled the wiring. When I traced the compressor wiring there was no relay and the wires to the compressor were about 3mm2 if I was lucky. The switch was almost knackered and it is rated for 40A. Needless to say the wires were burnt and melted together. Fuse was fine. So that saved me 15 cents. This whole install was also a potential fire, the lack of continuous use was the only saviour. I am surprised even then that the wiring lasted as it did because last year I used the BT to pump up four rough terrain forklift tyres to 55 bar from about 15 bar so it got a solid workout. The moral to this is the same, make sure the install is up to the quality of the bits you are installing! I am putting in a 12 outlet fuse box where the BT compressor once was and running 6 B&S from the battery terminals to that. With the exception of the compressor and fridge ALL auxiliaries will feed out of there. Neatly.

Michael