Is This Fire Damage?

[Blue84]

Hi Guys,

My Dad owns an L Reg/1993 Vauxhall Astra Van 1.6 Diesel which has now done 151000 miles! It's suffered from a slipping fanbelt for the past week or so, and today he was in the middle of Hackney (London) when it cut out with no warning, he put the hazards on, pulled over and tried to restart it but a load of smoke came from the engine bay! Lets it all cool down and calls the RAC to rescue him. The RAC Guy told him to disconnect the Battery as the wires were sparking when he arrived and this must've been around half an hour later or so? Not sure on the times as I wasnt there, apparently if it had been a petrol then it would've gone up in flames.

We had a look at the bay tonight and you can see clearly where some of the wiring has melted and fused together. It also looks a bit like it's been "torched" with a flame, the wiring runs from the Oil area of the engine all the way over to the passenger side where there is the fuse box. It looks to me like the wires have rubbed against something (dont know the word) which has worn away some covering around the wire and then caused them to rub together. I'm thinking there is fire damage but what do you guys think? I had fire training at work as one of the engineers showed us photo's and taught us about it too.

Here's some links to photo's, apologies for the quality..we really need a decent digital camera!

Engine Bay, look underneath where the oil filler cap is mainly..

Closer

Wiring Circled, also look to the right and up a tiny bit to see more wiring

More Wires Melted

He knows its not worth much, got a high mileage and it looks like it's met it's death but I'd welcome anyones opinions!

Cheers,

Blue

[GIDDLEPIN]

Looks like a dead short has tracked down the harness, taking the adjoining wires with it.

Depending on how far it's tracked and what wires are damaged, will determine what the cost will be, if you're lucky it might not be that bad, if not, a full harness re-wire will cost mucho!!

[Blue84]

Yeah that's what I was thinking and he knows too, just doesnt quite want to admit it yet as it's been a good van to him, the guy who does all the work on it is going to pop round tomorrow and check it out properly anyway.

It's now sitting looking all sad behind my Yaris with it's Battery disconnected and minus his tools as he's got to use his car for work now...feel sorry for him as it was his Birthday yesterday too!!

[Boro Sera]

you should have bought him a new one for his birthday.

Socks are fine, but can't carry many tools !

[Leeky]

Dont you mean the 1.7 diesel? as far as i can remember they never did a 1.6 diesel astra.

Anyway what i was going to say is i used to have one :D Very good workhorses those cars and the engines go on and on. My one had over 380k on it when it went to a new home

[Blue84]

Dont you mean the 1.7 diesel? as far as i can remember they never did a 1.6 diesel astra.

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*COUGHS* ahem, yes I did mean the 1.7!

[Leeky]

*COUGHS* ahem, yes I did mean the 1.7!

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[jaxx]

leeky your knowledge of vauxhall diesels is quite disturbing

[Blue84]

you should have bought him a new one for his birthday.

Socks are fine, but can't carry many tools !

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Ah but I got him B & Q Vouchers instead..no socks!! Had a quick look at it again when coming back from the Supermarket earlier on and the front "grill" bit looks a bit black and spotted which never was there before...

We shall see what happens anyway, thanks for the info guys