The surf is dead. Again.

[Rob5464]

It has suffered a fire last night. The battery seems to have exploded I don't know if that caused the original fire. I only found out when I came home this evening as I parked it down the road the night before because the starter packed in.

Everything plastic on the one side of the engine bay has melted.

[yoshie]

Insurance total loss maybe. Buy it back and fix it.

Got your pm I won't bother sending the sliders.

[Rob5464]

Cheers. It will be a total loss with all that wiring wrecked. It depends what they offer. I don't know what to do with it yet.

[andyverran]

Cheers. It will be a total loss with all that wiring wrecked. It depends what they offer. I don't know what to do with it yet.

that must be gutting...

may look worse than it actually is though....consider buying from the insurer and stripping out the melted bit, get an idea of how bad it is...if it's banjaxed break the good bits, if you have time and inclination, you'll easily get your cash back spent on the buy back.

can't help but wonder if the starter fault caused the fire...

good luck to ya.

[markjd]

I've known starters to cause that sort of thing. Know all Royal Mail vans have a mega fuse on the the starter feed for this reason.
No help to you now sorry

[Shadyadie]

If you do buy it back to repair, remember to wear gloves when stripping the burnt plastic and rubber, as fire can often release carcinogenics that can be absorbed through the skin

[andyverran]

If you do buy it back to repair, remember to wear gloves when stripping the burnt plastic and rubber, as fire can often release carcinogenics that can be absorbed through the skin

Good advice, same when dealing with oil, especially waste oil.

[Rob5464]

Cheers for that. Especially with battery acid everywhere. Going to call them tomorrow then decide what to do when they report back.

Some daylight pictures.

[Albannach]

What happened to the battery hold down bracket?

[shokenore]

What happened to the battery hold down bracket?

Melted?

[Rob5464]

Indeed. Like a crisp packet on a gas ring.

[MWS]

There looks like some additional wiring under there, Rob. Is there any chance that an unprotected live wire has got trapped and shorted out ?

[Rob5464]

All the wiring I have put in is cable tied together and the only bar wire was on the terminal. All fused in the engine bay. I have some new terminals but never got around to putting them on.

I have been suffering a few issues that point towards the alternator recently.

[andyverran]

Looking at those pics the battery seems to be the hot bit....

how old was that battery?

Could it be that the starter was drawing several hundred amps, or a dead short, and cooked the battery....

I've seen a few explode under load, though they were part of a data centre UPS system and drawing 400A at the time, the plates melted of the group bars, you never saw 4 guys duck so fast!

[Sancho]

I'm guessing an intermittent short that became consistent.