flaming 'deo of doom...

[5lab]

so.. thurs night i'm driving back from my mates house, which is about 10 miles of dual carrigeway away. as its empty, and fairly straight i decide to see what my car can do, and floor it the whole way home (its a diesel, so it turns out it cant actually do much). get home park up, and theres a bit of steam/smoke.. have a good ol sniff, smells a bit like fireworks.. i *wrongly* assume i've split a pipe somewhere and coolant is pissing out (that smells sweet, i figured maybe the car had different coolant from my old on in it). thought theres nothing much more to do and head up to bed.. about an hour later, i'm watching tv and theres a call from 'withheld number' on my phone. i'm tempted not to answer cos work always comes through as withheld (and it wouldnt be unheard of for me to be called out at this time) but answer anyway..

<?> hello, can i speak to mr lunnon please
<me, thinking 'wtf, a sales call at 2am, someones practical joking me surely> yeah, speaking, what can i do for you
<?> this is ?? from the sussex police. we've had a report that your car is on fire, the fire brigade is on their way... dont go near the car till they arrive
<me> ah. thanks.. bye

throw on jeans, a t-shirt, and some trainers, grab my keys and sprint out the door. get to the car and a rather large fire engine is sitting next to it with flashing lights. i speak briefly to one of them, open the car up and pop the bonnet - no flames visible but lots of smoke.. still smells of fireworks.. fire brigade try and work out where the smoke is coming from - appears to be under the car, by where the gearstick is. they spray an arseload of co2 down there, but a minute later and the smoke is restarted, so they get the hose out and push several gallons down into the engine bay. smoke wasnt stopping so they kept pumping, eventually it stops after they take some plastic panels off to get the water down into a better spot. a bit of diagnosis later and it turns out some insulation under the car was hanging down (has been since i got the car 6 months ago, i think when the exhaust was done it wasnt cleared up properly) and rested on the exhaust... due to my faster than normal driving, exhaust got hot, set fire to insulation which smoldered away for an hour or 2..

not sure whether theres any other damage - hope not.. will take a look later today.. guess the lesson learned is dont leave a car when theres any sort of smokey/steamy stuff coming off it. fire brigade were working on it for an hour in total, thanks to them, i guess the whole thing is ok. pretty pleased the coppas rang me too (i wouldnt have got to the car otherwise - it was parked 100 yards from my flat) - not sure how they got my number - must have cross-referenced it from when i called them (different car got nicked a while ago)...



who says speeding doesnt have a cost??

[XA04]

Ouch!, well at least you know about it and it can be sorted now, I suppose it could of being worse!