Almost burned down my truck this morning

Alternate title: Why everyone should have a fire extinguisher in their truck!

Got to work this morning and noticed some weird feedback coming from my subwoofer. Popping noises that seemed like interference. Figured some recent wiring had caused that, told myself I'd take a look at it later this week.

Jumped out of the truck and noticed smoke coming up from under my hood. Reached in to pop the hood, thinking I would disconnect the batteries. I had multiple breakers and fuses for everything, so I wasn't too worried. The truck itself was insulated from any of my aftermarket accessories.

Open the hood and immediately see flames down by the drivers side exhaust pipe right behind the drivers side tire. I reach in and grab my fire extinguisher and crouch down by the tire and stay it down good. I hit it from the engine bay direction as well. Fire extinguisher spent, I decided to sit there for a few and hope it didn't spark back up again. I also disconnected both batteries.



After it all cooled down I took a closer look and noticed that it was the power cable for my amplifier, more specifically the plastic fuse enclosure on it that had melted. I disconnected that from the battery and pulled it out.



I sat there for a while, worried about the truck. Eventually I worked up the courage to start the truck and drive it around the lot to park it somewhere not coated in white powder so I could crawl underneath and take a look. Truck started just fine and drove fine. Parked it a ways away from everyone else and crawled under. Moved the other side of the amp power cable up and secured it. Felt and looked around for fire damage but I couldn't see any. I found a melted zip tie in the original spot, so my guess is the heat from the exhaust melted the tie and the amp wire swung free and melted to the exhaust pipe.



Looks like the fire started after I parked (Thank God!) and only lasted for a few seconds before I put it out. Another wiring loom right next to it didn't even melt, so it was fairly contained. I'll crawl under the truck this evening and do a more thorough inspection. Maybe even bring it by the shop to get them to jack it off the floor so I can see better.

Takeaways:
1. Your wire runs can't be too secure. More tiptoes = less chance for failure.
2. Keep everything a healthy distance from the exhaust pipes. I thought I had done this.
3. Instead of using the precut wires from the kit, cut your own. The fuse should have been much closer to the battery.
4. Always keep a fire extinguisher in your vehicle. If not for yourself, for someone else!



Feel free to berate me for what I did wrong. I want to use this as a learning experience.


10 hours later update:

Boss let me leave early so I swung by my neighborhood shop and asked them if they could throw it up on a lift so I could get a clear picture of any damage. They were more that happy to. They also rinsed off all the powder, and I scrubbed the areas on the frame it hit. I've got a can of Fluid Film on the way so I can touch up those spots.

When we got the dripping truck up on the left and took a look we could clearly see where the fire happened, but luckily there wasn't any brake lines, factory wire runs, fuel lines or anything else in the area. No signs of damage, hard to see the scorch marks since everything down there is black anyways.

So I took advantage of the lift and went through all my wire runs, securing them all with a ton of zip ties. Scraped off the plastic residue from the cat and hosed everything down again.

On the way home I stopped at the hardware store and picked up a 2.5lb ABC fire extinguisher and a 2.5lb BC fire extinguisher. I'll pick up another of the 1lb tiny ones like I had this morning when they are back in stock.

I've ordered new cable, a 60amp breaker, and fluid film from Amazon. Should get here Wednesday. Until then the Aux battery will remain disconnected with all accessories turned off. I'll spend time this week or this weekend making sure everything is secure so that this doesn't happen again.

I hope everyone has learned from my mistakes with wiring, and I really hope everyone will pick up a fire extinguisher for all of their vehicles! It saved my truck this morning, and it may save yours or someone else's!

I'll update one more time once I've gotten everything hooked up and working again!

 

Be careful and change the routing of your cable. You can bring it into your cab through the firewall.

Glad you didn't lose your truck!

 

Thanks!

Not a bad idea! Mine ran along the frame rail and up into the rear of the cab through a grommet.

 

Hose off the fire extinguisher dry chemical on your truck, its corrosive.

 

Wow. Good write up and heads up, thanks.

 

Thanks for the heads up! the frame is fluid filmed so I'll have to go to the pay and spray and gently hose things off.

 

Thanks! Just trying to make some good of my near-miss.

Or hear from everyone the obvious mistakes I made. Either way is fine by me!

 

100% take care of This today the corrosive agents in the mist will eat mild steel and assuming it was a car cert extinguisher it’s designed to cut through any oils I.e. fluid film scrub the shit out of that

 

Will definitely do it tonight. I'll probably also order a small bottle of FF off Amazon to touch up where it hit. Thanks!

 

This makes me realize I need a extinguisher ASAP

 

That was my hope! If I hadn't had one my truck would probably have burned down completely... in front of my coworkers no less.

 

I did that too for my bed lights but I ran it in wire loom and wrapped that in heat reflective tape near the cats

 

same here, getting one today!

 

Whew, close call, almost turned into a parked ford simulation................

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Auto-Marine-Fire-Extinguisher/42732917

 

Congrats! You completed the "make your truck an arc welder" mod!

 

Seems like this was user error versus a general fire caused by the manufacturer.

No worries, I don’t have any aftermarket electronics or anything

 

Is there a patch for that?