Last night i had a minor fire in the engine bay of my Dolly. Luckily, i got to it before any serious damage was done, but it could have been much worse. Could i please suggest all Dolomite owners take a look at their heater motors in the passenger side rear corner of the engine bay. On the bottom of the motor is a resistor that is switched in and out to give a slow and fast speed. Sandwiched behind it is a piece of fibre board - basically thick card. I think the original purpose of this was to stop you burning your hand on the resistor, and im sure it was treated at the factory to give it some heat proof capabilities, but after 40 years soaking up oil its now a nasty little fire risk.
Remains of mine after the fire:
I suggest strongly that this piece of card is removed, and you replace it with something similar in shape made of something that won't burn - i used thin Stainless Steel as i had some left over from a modelling project, but you could use mild steel or alloy. Anything that will act as a heat sink basically. And grommit the wires where they go through the new plate...
I will definitely check mine out. My 1500HL dolly caught fire before it was 3 years old. Mud had built up behind the front valance stretching the sidelight wires when it dried out. Eventually these chafed against the metal valance causing a short and a fire to break out further up the wiring loom while the vehicle was stationary and parked on sidelamps. Being in the car at the time, at night with the engine switched off when this occured, was frightening as smoke gushed from the parcel shelf area, the hazards came on, the horn began to blare, and everything happened at once as the wires fused together.
I was lucky in that I carried tools in the boot and was able to get a battery terminal spannered off using the light from the flames, and then managed to extinguish the fire.
It cost me £150 in 1981 to have a new wiring loom fitted. When I bought my next car (a sprint) the first thing I did was to fit in-line fuses to the sidelamps. Was this a freak one off? I'll never know, but it happened and it was terrifying.
Makes me think
My heater blower has been disconnected for about 3years now because there was smoke coming from it!!
Never knew why as I hadn't messed with the wiring , maybe it was the same cause.
alangraham wrote:I will definitely check mine out. My 1500HL dolly caught fire before it was 3 years old. Mud had built up behind the front valance stretching the sidelight wires when it dried out. Eventually these chafed against the metal valance causing a short and a fire to break out further up the wiring loom while the vehicle was stationary and parked on sidelamps. Being in the car at the time, at night with the engine switched off when this occured, was frightening as smoke gushed from the parcel shelf area, the hazards came on, the horn began to blare, and everything happened at once as the wires fused together.
I was lucky in that I carried tools in the boot and was able to get a battery terminal spannered off using the light from the flames, and then managed to extinguish the fire.
It cost me £150 in 1981 to have a new wiring loom fitted. When I bought my next car (a sprint) the first thing I did was to fit in-line fuses to the sidelamps. Was this a freak one off? I'll never know, but it happened and it was terrifying.
That is the reason I seperately fused all the headlights. Fuse is much cheaper than a car.
