The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Thanks for all the nice comments, hopefully the insurance will get sorted soon, I did have a fire extinguisher in the car but the fire took hold so quick I decided to bale out and live another day .

mahony wrote: ↑Wed Mar 09, 2022 3:55 pm Thanks for all the nice comments, hopefully the insurance will get sorted soon, I did have a fire extinguisher in the car but the fire took hold so quick I decided to bale out and live another day .

Sensible, it isn't worth your life for a car. Attempting to fight a fire in an environment with fuel lines and engine oil is just too risky.

Have you formulated a plan yet; do you retain the salvage, or do you have to buy it back? I hear 9% of the settlement is the normal cost if the latter.

Is it rebuildable or would the fire have distorted it?

Not 100% sure yet Alun, underbonnet was completely burnt out and I think the front panel became distorted with the intense heat and the fire also reached the bulkhead where the air vents melted and all the items in the glovebox too, I think I'm gonna let them keep it, I will not be getting another classic as if I'm really honest I never really used the Sprint from one month to the next , I've been documenting all my spares today and will possibly put them on sale here 1st before Ebay .

Really sad to see.
Glad as everyone else, no one
was hurt. Wishing you a good outcome.
There are lots of clever people within our community who may be able to bring your car back to life.
Good luck and best wishes.

Dave

That's worse than I'd imagined (hoped?). Burned plastics and rubbers are nasty things to handle too. When they wrote off my Interceptor it was specifically Cat A due to the extent the fire had affected everything, but the upside of that was an agreed value payout within days of the assessment...bitter sweetness all the same.

Maybe the salvage would be of interest to others if you don't take it up?

Gutted for you. But as all have said at least you escaped and nobody was hurt.

I’ve everything crossed for you in regard to a easy and fair insurance claim.

My money says that started in the vicinity of the rear carb, the only metal part melted appears to be the rear float chamber lid.

Whilst it's pretty nasty, I reckon that'd be repairable well within the £12k valuation. Assuming one didn't insist on all brand new parts There's a high possibility the engine is fine and only the peripherals suffered.

I've heard a lot about fire extinguishers here, whilst i'm not against carrying them (always have one in the car myself) prevention is better than cure. This tragedy is a prime example of the need to stay on top of fuel hose condition and making sure you only use ethanol compatible hose. I had a brand new non ethanol compatible hose disintegrate in less than a year, fortunately at the back of the car and only 20 yards from home, so no harm done (except to my self esteem) Now i'm pretty paranoid about it!

Glad you escaped unhurt, metal can always be fixed, people can't!

Steve

Carledo wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 12:55 am My money says that started in the vicinity of the rear carb, the only metal part melted appears to be the rear float chamber lid.

Whilst it's pretty nasty, I reckon that'd be repairable well within the £12k valuation. Assuming one didn't insist on all brand new parts There's a high possibility the engine is fine and only the peripherals suffered.

I've heard a lot about fire extinguishers here, whilst i'm not against carrying them (always have one in the car myself) prevention is better than cure. This tragedy is a prime example of the need to stay on top of fuel hose condition and making sure you only use ethanol compatible hose. I had a brand new non ethanol compatible hose disintegrate in less than a year, fortunately at the back of the car and only 20 yards from home, so no harm done (except to my self esteem) Now i'm pretty paranoid about it!

Glad you escaped unhurt, metal can always be fixed, people can't!

Steve

The other possibility is a stuck needle valve or sunk float. I was amazed how much fuel could pour out when that happened.

cleverusername wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 11:46 pm

Carledo wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 12:55 am My money says that started in the vicinity of the rear carb, the only metal part melted appears to be the rear float chamber lid.

Whilst it's pretty nasty, I reckon that'd be repairable well within the £12k valuation. Assuming one didn't insist on all brand new parts There's a high possibility the engine is fine and only the peripherals suffered.

I've heard a lot about fire extinguishers here, whilst i'm not against carrying them (always have one in the car myself) prevention is better than cure. This tragedy is a prime example of the need to stay on top of fuel hose condition and making sure you only use ethanol compatible hose. I had a brand new non ethanol compatible hose disintegrate in less than a year, fortunately at the back of the car and only 20 yards from home, so no harm done (except to my self esteem) Now i'm pretty paranoid about it!

Glad you escaped unhurt, metal can always be fixed, people can't!

Steve

The other possibility is a stuck needle valve or sunk float. I was amazed how much fuel could pour out when that happened.

With all due respect, whilst do accept that possibility, it's much less likely to result in a fire, for 2 reasons, first, pressure, there's very little pressure behind an overflow leak (for whatever reason) what leaks out mainly goes in only one direction - down onto the road. Which brings me to reason 2, direction. If you have the factory overflow pipes in place this reduces the risk to very low indeed, but even if you don't have them, the fuel is not gonna hit anything important on it's way down. A hot block is not hot enough to ignite petrol, you need a spark for that.

Now consider, for arguments sake, that the little rubber pipe into the rear carb has a pinhole split in it. The fuel here IS under pressure, not much admittedly, between 1.5 and 6 psi, but still much more than at the overflow. Assume that the hole is in the most likely spot on the outside of the curve. This is going to spray fuel under pressure up onto the inside of the bonnet and inwards towards - guess what - the distributor! The burn patterns on the bonnet seem to corroborate this theory!

Steve

Really sorry to see this.
Just as an aside - it had not had a new pattern fuel pump recently by any chance?

matt of the vivas wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 12:09 pm Really sorry to see this.
Just as an aside - it had not had a new pattern fuel pump recently by any chance?

Thanks, no new fuel pump fitted .

thats a real shame and sad news but everyones alive which is important...its horrible when cars go up in flames,never had a car do that to me,but other people i know have....good time for all weekend drivers and pension plans to check fuel line,rubber hoses,and wiring,etc

certainly is FLAMEnco red

One question might be what actually ignited the fuel. I did have a fire under the bonnet once when one of the headlight wire joints touched the frame, ie, direct short. The entire wiring harness melted. I had to pull it out and rebuild it from scratch. That was 30 years ago, and it has worked fine since. I am now very particular about making sure that all joints are fully covered.

While we assume it was petrol that caught alight, I have had instances of petrol running out of the charcoal canister when the carburettor float had failed. Very lucky not to have a fire I suspect.

As for fire extinguishers, in this case I am not sure it would have been safe. Opening the bonnet would have provided more oxygen to the fire which would have flared up and perhaps badly burned the person who opened it.

And yes, it is certainly time to check all those fuel hoses.

Insurance paid out last week and the full amount, car was declared a total loss .