Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches South Central Possibly another contour bites the dust....

On my way to school today with my bro (he was driving) doing 70 or so the car was driving fine when he said that the engine light started to flash, the car lost power steering, brakes started going out, car lost all power and began to stop quickly (much quicker than if he had used the brakes, no screaching of the brakes either). Crazy big flames started coming out from the front tires area and huge flames covering the entire rear, so much smoke that we couldnt really see ahead or behind us. The flames died out after 7 or so seconds and during the entire time (i guess) oil was leaking out onto the ground and right front tire beacuse there were oily tire marks for around 30 feet. We got out of the car right after we managed to get it to the side of the highway (cabin was full of smoke) and let the car chill for a little bit before opening the hood to air it out and look for problems, but found none except that oil was leaking from the bottom of the engine who knows where.

I have a friend that works at a ford dealership coming by to check it out and then off to a mechanic for estimates.

Any ideas about what caused it or why there were huge flames going higher than the trunk (my bro could see them in the rear view mirror)? BTW, the rear bumper is completely messed up from the flames (looks like it started cracking and melting in some places) and part of the trunk is also fire damaged.

If it costs too much to get the car fixed, ill probably start parting it out or selling it as a whole.

thanks

-ivan

The first thing is to figure out what started the fire. There are several factors that could have caused this.

One scenario I can think of is audio equipment might have grounded itself to the chassis causing a wire(s) to get red hot. These wires touched a hose that contained either oil, tranny, steering, or brake fluids. That hot wire then ignited the fluid sending flames out the back (that is how the air flows through the engine bay normally)

If you need a silver frost rear bumper, I can sell one to you really cheap (non-SVT)

Was there any recent work done to the car?
What year?
What engine/tranny combo?

Damn. That sucks Ivan. That's so weird. I wonder if had anything to do with the exhaust being bad. I remember that you told me that something was wrong with the brakes, but could't figure it out. I remember when I drove it that one day it made that weird noise when you brake. Maybe I could stop by and take a look at it sometime.
I hope it doesn't cost too much to fix it. Our family's local mechanic does good work for a cheaper price. Let me know if you want a hook up.

Buy a Honda.

The car is a 2000 se auto 2.5l (black). The brake noise went away the day before the "incident", but i dont think that the brakes had anything to do with the oil spilling (i doubt it was brake fluid that was leaking since the hoses all seemed fine). The thing that confuses me is why there were huge flames comming out the rear of the car.

My audio equipment, if you can call it that, is just a cd player that i hardwired into the car with proper grounding, thats it (sadly).

The ford guy is comming on friday to do a quick check of it, ill probably get it towed to one of the local shops that i trust the most (or take your advice george).


-ivan

Oh yea, the only "recent" work was getting the ac repaired (only the tube where the schrader (sp) valve is and oilchange/ps fluid flush/tranny fluid flush.

-ivan

it sounds like u blew the engine or maybe even it could have backfired through the intake and blew out part of the lower intake mainifold but what ever it its it soulds expensive and on a side note at least the fire went out. too bad you didn't have it on video, i'll bet it was spectacular.

I got word back from the shop and apparently there is a nice hole in the block, dont know if something hit it or something internal, but im sure something hard musta hit it. I dont have the money to fix it since i just got an altima so its probably going to the junker in a few days.

-ivan

No more Contour. That really sux Ivan. You should sell those gray leather seats and the CSVT E1 wheels.