My dad built a volkswagen beetle "baha" several years ago. It has always run really good. My brother borrowed it last week and while driving it, apparently it started on fire. He had to tow it home. It was suggested to me that because it had a possible crack in the distributer cap, it could have started on fire because of that. Does anyone have any suggestions on whether that could have caused it to catch fire? If not, what do you suppose think could have caused that? It was not a huge flaming fire, just a tiny bit of flames I guess.
2006-06-09 08:17:15 · 4 answers · asked by jenkjur 3 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Car Makes ➔ Volkswagen
It's possible that a cracked distributor cap could arc externally (especially when wet) to the carb and start a fire. But IMHO, more likely a wire chaffed trough and short circuited, especially if there were any power wires that were not fused. I feel if it had been a fuel fire, there probably wouldn't be much left. But again, that's just my opinion.
2006-06-09 08:31:55 · answer #1 · answered by lugnutz59 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You can't have fire with out fuel amd since the fuel lines and the card both go over the distributer cap look for leaks. If gas is hitting the cap you will get fire.
2006-06-09 23:50:20 · answer #2 · answered by uthockey32 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A cracked cap ALONE wouldn't cause a fire. There would have to be a fuel leak too.
My guess is a fuel leak combined with a severly hot engine (due to your brother trying to "hot rod" a 40HP car)
2006-06-09 22:41:12 · answer #3 · answered by Trump 2020 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
most likely a broken fuel line or a broken diaphragm in the fuel pump
2006-06-09 15:32:09 · answer #4 · answered by bobmorris1055 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋