fire extinguisher

[FTD]

Originally Posted by djomlas

FTD,
what the hell, what do you mean you wouldn't want to put it out?
in my old car some wire for loose and grounded itself and i got a fire under the hood, thank god there was a fire extinguisher at hand and i put it out before it had a chance to burn anything else.
just had to replace that one wire...why would you let your car burn down is beyond me, or you may not like/enjoy your car enough

If it was a small do-nothing fire that I could put out without much calamity, like a little something in the front boot, I would put it out. But anything coming from the engine - I would rather my insurance bought me a new car than deal with bits and pieces of burned parts and extinguisher fluid crud, and contention over what should have been replaced and wasn't, and over time discovering yet another thing that was damaged but not noticed, etc., etc.

[efahl]

Originally Posted by FTD

If it was a small do-nothing fire that I could put out without much calamity, like a little something in the front boot, I would put it out. But anything coming from the engine - I would rather my insurance bought me a new car than deal with bits and pieces of burned parts and extinguisher fluid crud, and contention over what should have been replaced and wasn't, and over time discovering yet another thing that was damaged but not noticed, etc., etc.

Yeah, but some of us have so many mods to the car that the insurance company is sure to come up short no matter how "generous" they might feel.

I've got the BK-2030 mount with a 2.5 Halon bottle on the front of the passenger seat, bolted to the anti-sub belt bar on the bottom of the seat (don't know if it will work with stock seats). I use the quick release straps that came with the extinguisher (Pegasus, $125 or something) and they work just fine.

Make sure the fire bottle is big enough for the task. Smaller than 2.5 lbs of Halon is minimum for any real fire, and the Halon replacements (Halotron and friends) need to have about twice as much to be equally effective, so a 5 lb bottle of those.

[nola911]

I forgot about this thread and just saw it pop back up.

Regarding an engine bay fire, by the time you raise the top to the service position, take out the storage box, and open the cover, your car is either gone or the fire is out. In my case, I hope it is gone. Yeah, I love my car, but after having two totaled vehicles, I like starting over with a wad of cash even better.

Also, I have never had to argue about prices of mods, so I would like to see it burn if its is a large fire.

If it is a small fire, I will take my shirt off and smother it.

[Kirk]

I can understand FTD's point of view. The engine is what's most likely to have a fire and by the time you detect it you may just want to let it burn! This actually happened to someone I know who will go nameless here. His 911 started to burn and by the time he had smoke pouring out of the vents it was pretty bad. He let it burn a bit before extinguishing it just to make sure it was gone. Sometimes it's really better to total the car than to try and repair it. This guy now drives a nice 911TT. I'm not sure it's really insurance fraud if you hesitate to interceed and mitigate any damage, but obviously this is a bit of a moral dilema still.

With the Boxster an engine fire would be even tougher as there's no good way to get access to the engine, ESPECIALLY if the car is on FIRE!!! Still I'm in the market for an extinguisher too. I've got one mounted in my crappy Honda, why not my Porsche then? If nothing else you might want to help someone else with a fire in their car!

[efahl]

Originally Posted by Kirk

The engine is what's most likely to have a fire and by the time you detect it you may just want to let it burn!

Hmm, I would wager that more than half of the car fires in newish vehicles are a result if shoddy aftermarket sound system installations and occur inside the dash.