Brown pants moment

[NoobCannon]

was driving the coupe thru town today on the way to a friends went over a speed hump and when i came off the other side the car filled with smoke coming thru the dash and vents and pouring outta the bonnett!!!! crapped myself turnd the car off and jumped out and left it. went back a cou8ple of mins later because the smoke seemed to be dying down only to find that a water pipe from the thermostat to the rad had came off and emptied its contents allover the mani and downpipe.

oh how embarrassed was i i

[Vard66]

Embarrassed, but sensible. One of my friends owned a VW Polo Saloon, which started to smell of fuel and smoke the other day. He stopped, opened the door and his legs were bathed in flames. The entirety of the car is still sitting on the corner of Hackpen hill on the way into West Swindon, merely a burnt out shell. He's rather hacked off, as his 360 was in the boot of the car at the time, too.

The moment my car started to smell of smoke, I'd be out in a flash, too, so I don't blame you.

[Semproxion]

I was faced with a situation as work where a customers car was smoking from under the bonnet whilst parked literally a foot away from the building. Whilst the owner ran about panicking (as some of our female staff). I calmly picked the nearest Co2 extinguisher and shoved the nozzle in the front grill and triggered it till empty.

Fire service were called and I got a commendation from them and my boss for my calm approach and decisive action.

Personally I just couldn't be arsed with clearing up after if the fire took hold

I have a mini-extinguisher in my car and I will try (probably in vain) to save my car if it isn't seemingly too dangerous. I've had some basic firefighting training in the past and hopefully it shall be my new job in the next few weeks.

[fergy7197]

same happened ro mine overtaking an old fella in a fiat panda

i think he nearly crashed as i was leaving a massive trail of steam lol

[mike50001]

reminds me of my fiat panda that topped itself.

air filter + manifold = fire.

the engine in them is caleld the "fire" engine, but i didnt think because of that.

never got out as fast when the smoke an flames come from under hte bonnet

[mg-richard]

this happened to my golf about 10 minutes after i parked it up!

was in my grans kitchen thought it was going to go up in flames!
still i know now the difference between steam and smoke but back then i didnt!

[PJW]

As a trained firefighter i would say that opening the bonnet would be the worst thing to do if you were faced with smoke, obviously not steam although it can be hard to differentiate in a time of panic. If you can see smoke, theres usually fire. Supplying the worlds issue of oxygen by opening the bonnet will mean the end of your car. Firstly see if you have a direct route into the bay through your grille, sometimes you will just hit the radiator and get yourself coated in co2 - you would have to end up popping the bonnet, and unloading a c02 into the bay as mentioned above - or you could put full lock on and go up through the wheel arch.

Car extingushers are about £20 and well worth a go in my opinion, c02 ones are the better option. You can get the AFFF ones (aqueous film forming foam) however if you trigger it on the engine bay, it will go everywhere and wont do your engine much good if it goes in the inlet. At least co2 disperses well into the atmosphere and starves the fire too.


The only fire ive had was in a scenic. I was driving along and every time i pressed the brake the hron went off. After smoke started coming from the steering column. Luckily i pulled over and killed the engine, and it stopped. I had the wife and two kids in the back. Was a shorted wire from the horn button.

[Chris_200]

Justifiable response - it would only need to be embarrasing if you were screaming like a girl and waving your arms wildly as you ran from the car

Mate had full on flames from the front of his MX5 dashboard...makes me think that an extinguisher would be a useful addition to the car!!