Well folks I'm sorry to report that there is one less xj-s on the road as of tonight. Some may remember an issue I was having with my car a while back which involved a relay pack in the engine bay intermittently smoking. Tonight while I was warming up the car in the driveway about to leave (it's freezing here), I looked out my window to see flames coming up from around the hood.

I ran out and turned off the car but much to my dismay, even with the key out of the ignition the car continued to run.. and burn.. and make a terrible screeching/grinding noise which I have no clue as to what it was and will not soon forget. flames were spreading and engulfing the right side of the engine bay whilst I had no idea how I was going to get the thing to shut down..

I grabbed my fire extinguisher and emptied it on the engine. The fire was out.. momentarily.. after it reignited I knew my only hope was to kill this engine (mind you the car was "turned off" this whole time as the engine continued to run) Frantically I undid one of the battery terminals and this finally ended the approximately 5 minute ordeal which felt like hours.

As it was/is pitch black I have no idea how bad the damage is under all the fire retardant. I don't know what the hell happened or what I'm going to do but I was so sick from all the burning fumes/retardant/stress that I'm not going to even go and look at it till morning.

Sorry, this is my venting all my anxiety and disappointment because from what I could see, she's going to be out of service for a very, very long time.

 

Really sorry to hear about the fire, at least no-one was hurt.

 

BUGGA.

At least you did not get burned/hurt.

Very sad day when one goes up after so much care from any owner. One of our PreHE took 3 months to sort after such an event, and it is stressful.

I will go look through your posts and see if I can identify the relay you were talking about.

 

Terrible news.

At least no injuries and just as well you decided to warm it up in the driveway and not in the garage.

Graham

 

another V12 down the drain.

 

Really sorry to hear this, as the others have said at least no one was hurt, the car can be fixed or replaced.

 

Ouch...that is always been one of my fears even though I replaced most of my wiring. I keep a fire extinguisher under the drivers seat and tools in the trunk to disconnect the battery.
Sorry to hear it happened, but maybe you can repair it and make all those upgrades you've ever considered!

 

Thank you to everyone for your concern. I have taken a closer look today and it looks like the source of the fire was the 2 relays next to the starter relay.

The grinding noise was the starter motor coming on and trying to engage while the engine was running as a result of the starter relay melting down and massive shorting of the whole electrical system. I assume this is also what allowed the ignition and injection circuits to remain live even when I turned the car off. My terror when the engine wouldn't shut off.. now that took years off my life especially considering it had a full tank of gas!

It looks like I'm going to need quite a few hoses, lots of wire, and the whole ECU harness. Somehow I got a 12v short to ground in the ECU harness which resulted in fires at those relays and in the trunk and it spread from there. The ECU harness is a big block of plastic and metal now. It's destroyed. luckily I have a parts car to get the harness from. I may however use the one out of my parts car as a guide to make my own because even that one seems a bit crispy. the most damaged wires were the ground wires. As if they were feeding the 12v to ground. This has me baffled.. Hopefully I will have more details in the coming days as I begin this long arduous process of rewiring..

Thoughts on the ground wires feeding 12v to ground?

thanks,
Lou

 

Now if I even touch the positive terminal to the battery, sparks fly at the battery, the starter tries to crank, and the fire tries to re ignite in the engine bay..

 

At this point I wouldn't even attempt to start it. The possibility of re-igniting it and catching a leaky gas line is quite high. My suggestion would be to rip ALL the wiring out including the ECU and start from scratch using high temp wire and soldered connections.

 

The only real reason I even dared to connect to battery was to roll up the windows! I really need to figure out a way to roll them up.

The car is 28 years old. With that in mind and being aware of my slightly obsessive personality, The car is probably going to end up with all new wiring.. at least when it comes to the engine.

And while I'm at it I might as well do the injector harness and injectors, and while I'm at that I might as well send the intake manifolds to AJ6 engineering, and while I'm at that I might as well get the cam covers repainted, and since the fire ruined to paint on the hood I guess it's finally time to get her repainted.. AHHH it's never going to end!!!

 

Look at it this way, when you're done, you will have eliminated 99% of the problems these cars have anyway!

 

Very good point. Wiring is the one thing that is my skill set, it might even turn out to be slightly therapeutic! I always thought of this car as a rolling restoration, this will just get it closer to my final goal in mind.

Until she's back up and running, I'm stuck with my other car.. (boo hoo) :-)

 

Safest way now is to remove the door trims, and supply +ve and -ve direct to teh window motor wires to get those windows.

Using any of the cars circuit to do this will re-BBQ the car.

The motors have a red and a black wire, unplug the car loom at the motor, just sort out which one needs +ve to raise the window.

 

ive got some spare V12 parts i would be willing to donate to help you get up and running.

unfortunately, ive sold most of the things you need at this point, but let me know if you want something. just cover me shipping.

 

Don't forget to file an insurance claim.

Sometimes people get so caught up planning the repairs, they forget that there is insurance coverage that can go towards funding the upgrades. Of course, you will have to fight to get the car back as salvage on the total loss.

Great source for teflon wiring and other odds and sods:

aircraftspruce.com .. order the paper catalog for free. It's the size of a *big* phone book. It's like a Christmas wishbook for car guys.

 

I know the feeling. Watching your car burn and running around in 100% frantic mode with 5000 things going on in your head, it's brutal. Mine was on fire in May. I replaced wiring and everything else that goes with fire restoration. Took 4 weeks. I have been driving it almost daily since late June, flawlessly. I took her off the road Oct 1, she's now sleeping under her blankets till next spring. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

 

True about the therapeutic thing.

I've been involved in repairing some engine bay fire damage over the years. Of course no two are quite the same but once you get all the burned parts off and everything cleaned up so you can see what you're dealing with it usually isn't all that bad. Only if the fire has migrated into the dashboard do things get really labor intensive.

Having a parts donor car nearby is a big plus so you can see how things are supposed to go back together.

Cheers
DD

 

I used to lace amplifier harnesses for Arthur Radford in my gap year.
A well laced harness is a thing of great beauty and most therapeutic work.
Good luck with the rebuild.

 

Hi Lou

So sorry to hear about another BBQ'd XJS :-(

At least no one was injured and you saved the car.

After my Marelli cat fire (same as MrTalkRadio) I left the car alone for about a week..... but eventually I came round.... I remembered why I had bought a V12 XJS in the first place (childhood dream) and with the moral support of this forum I got back on the road again. As Doug said, fire damage, as well as crash damage never looks as bad once you've removed the burnt/bent bits..........

I've done the fuel injection harness myself and most of the engine sensor wiring and I actually enjoyed doing it.

I've said it before but for some reason there cars get under your skin.

Get back on the horse as soon as you can !!

PS : Where are you in CA ? (I'm in the Bay Area)