B&W Photo Contest - A Car After It's On Fire
Electrical fire...at a gas station. Don't think for a minute that anyone stopped fueling their cars while mine was...ON FIRE :).
Got it extinguished only after I pulled the cable from the electrical fan whose controller had short circuited and went up in flames.
I always liked that hood open just sitting there pic. Below is a more detailed shot.
I really like B & W photos.
Sorry to hear about you'r fire man. How bad was the damage?
Surprisingly wasn't too bad, I literally just had the electric auxiliary fan replaced, hooked everything up again and it ran like a charm. Incredibly the drivebelts and other components weren't damaged by the fire. The only other failure was the battery. Before the fan died and burned it repeatedly kept running after the engine was shut off because the circuit board was malfunctioning (a prelude to the fire which I only later found out) and that drained the battery more than once which ultimately killed it for good.
That said it was the factory batt so it lived for 20 years and 300.000kms which isn't bad. I later read that when this car was still being produced this design error in the fan circuit board which didn't have a cut out that prevents it from catching fire resulted in countless E46s burning out completely after owner's had parked it and left. BMW's comment back in the day was "the auxiliary fan design error can lead to a fatal failure which in the worst case can lead to fire in the engine bay and potentially total damage if the power is not immediately cut from the fan." - yeah thanks for the heads up :).
Wth thats kinda crazy. For all the greatness bmw did between the 80 90 and 2000's with cars I must say some of the failure points are just pathetic. Did they offer a solution for the fan issue? I'm so greatful to hear about this and how it happens I'll know what to do if my fan ever stays on. Still sorry to hear about your fire though glad it wasnt all that bad.
Yeah I got to agree with that. It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide on one hand pure packaging genius and on the other some really messed up failure points. The EWS system comparable to GM's VATS system is another such point though not exclusive to BMW. That said most of the failure points are very well documented and understood and can be easily and cheaply prevented. I just didn't take care of that fan immediately and then it just went its way.
If you ever hear the fan running after shutoff and you have a 6 cylinder petrol engine you know it's broken and can replace it. There's more than enough time to do it if you know what to look for.
I'm glad as well...still enjoying the car even though it's in for a major service right now. Looking forward to getting it back :).