My Car Caught On Fire!!!

[zepherman]

They dont seem to have the right smilie to express seething anger.


I was at the local cruise spot tonight and afterward on the way home I had a bit of car trouble.

Half way home i started to smell a funny smell. Then i noticed that the voltage meter in the dash had dropped and the red battery light in the center of the gauge cluster had turned on. I kept driving thinking that my alternator had gone out (ive had problems with it before). Then i smelled something horrible BURNING PLASTIC, it smelled like insulation was roasting somewhere. I hit the breaks and cut off onto a side street. I killed the motor and noticed a whisp of smoke from the crack between the hood and fender. I grabbed my fire extinguisher and popped the hood. To my horror and amazement there were flames coming from just behind my alternator. I then put the extinguisher to good use. I was pretty dark outside and i didnt have my flashlight. I had to wait for a friend to show up with a light. It looks like the harness that plugs into the alternaor is melted and the insulation has been burned off several of the wires behind the alternator. I pulled the belt off of the car to keep the alternator from spinning and disconnected a wiring harness that went to two wires that were burned but werent wired into the alternator. The car started so i got it back on the road got, it up to speed, and turned off the ignition. I coasted that last 4 or 5 miles home doing this to keep the car from over-heating. I would have just left the car in a parking lot or something but for some reason the passenger window won't roll up now. The drivers window works fine but the passenger side won't. I found this odd because the wires affected in the fire didnt seem to have anything to do with anything but the alternator and two wires that run between the evaporator thing and a metal tube that runs under the coolant tube that the egr plate is plumbed into. I have no idea what these wires are for. Anyway, by this time i was so mad that i couldnt see straight. Then when i was walking away from the car to go inside i noticed that coolant was leaking frome somewhere on the drivers side of the radiator. I didnt even bother to investigate, just too pissed off. I will post tomorrow with what i can see in the daylight. I will probably need a little help in the next couple days so i would just like to say thanks in advance.