wrote in message ...
On Sun, 5 Apr 2015 10:08:25 -0700, "Fred James"
wrote:

"Fred James" wrote in message

I'm stumped with this one. What do you fellers think could have cause a spark? No damage. I'm not taking a chance in my shade tree skills with this one, but have to use the car tomorrow around town until the shop opens on Monday. Meanwhile, I put a fire extinguisher and a full 2 gallon weed sprayer in the front seat just in case.

Car was cold. Drove about 3 miles at 35mph or less. Parked. Then smelled asbestos burning. Popped the hood. A 6-inch diameter section of the hood liner over the battery had burned. I mashed the few embers that were still soldering around the edges.

Can't tell for sure, but the starting point could be a 1/16 inch depression that is darker than the rest near the center. If that's was it, my first thought was a red hot piece of metal, sand, etc, that had come from a pulley. Reason I say that is one of the idler pulleys has been squealing lately. Nothing else was hot or burned. Battery was cold, terminals tight, no corrosion, no sign of shorting. Checked every wire and connection I could see and all look OK.

Only other thought is that it picked up a cigarette or something burning in the road. Although doesn't seem likely, since it would have had to have to fly up and around different ways to get there.

http://i61.tinypic.com/24f9uab.jpg
http://i61.tinypic.com/1252x60.jpg
http://i57.tinypic.com/sne0cx.jpg

Any ideas what might have caused something like this?

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I just saw this about evaporating the water out of the radiator and leaving pure glycol which he says is flammable. http://www.croberts.com/coolant.htm I did have a hose pop off and spray coolant a couple of weeks ago, but the mixture at that time was 50/50. And it sprayed toward wheel well. Since then I have been checking every day or so and everything under the hood was dry before and after the burning. Just in case, I'm going to hose down the entire engine today.

Found some good info about sources of car fires...
http://depts.washington.edu/vehfire/homepage.html

Before going nuts pulling things apart, I will clean the battery connections and do a better check of wiring and charging circuit, replace the idler pulley and and look at cleaning or replacing the hood liner.

If the idler was bad enough to cause that, the idler would have
basically come apart. If it hasn't, 9-+% chance it was not the idler.
Being above the battery I'd definitely be looking at an electrical
cause first and foremost if the idler is not very obviously overheated
and disintegrated.

Thanks, Clare. I'll keep looking but so far have not see any wiring troubles. Battery cables and connections were fine & tight -- just to be sure I pulled them off and cleaned them good.

Lots of guesses at what the hood liner is for. I always thought it was to muffle engine noise. Some folks are saying it's to help smoother engine fires. To me, it looks like a good place for oil and soot to collect and *start* a fire.