Car Caught on Fire, any ideas?

[bmwgirl740]

My sister has a 1998 GTP 4 door Grand Prix. Two nights ago after she got home, the car caught on fire. It burned the whole engine up and burned through the firewall back to the front doors. Luckily the fire department was able to control the fire before it burned the whole car up.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? The motor is mush, so we cannot tell what started the fire. Any advice will help, thanks!

[richtazz]

There aren't any known issues that could have lead to the fire, but a cracked/leaking fuel system would be my guess.

[jimmyv-21]

ditto richtazz- buddy of mine had a dodge neon that burnt up on the side of the road- gas dripping onto exhaust...but his car blew eventually blew up. i am thinking it sounds like electrical here. if gas is making the fire, it will usually trace back to the source, eventually the gas tank, but this is not always true. maybe a bad injector????

[wylie]

Be glad you weren't asleep with the car parked in the garage.
.
.

[gpman58]

i have heard that if you have a bad battery, nitrogen gas will collect around the top and any sort of spark could set it off the blast would be sort of big but not big enough to burn the entire car up

[regalfriend]

Once when i was putting oil in the crankcase i missed a little and spilled some on the exhaust..It was summer and the engine was roasting hot...the oil immediatly burst in to flames...i was able to put it out before it caused any damage. Unfortunatly the car would be considered totaled, since the damage will excede the value of the car...one good thing to do would be to get another GTP and use this one as a parts car