Engine caught fire - car totaled, has this happenned to anyone else?

[[email protected]]

Hello -

Today My dad was driving his 98' 528 on the highway and the engine started smoking and burst into fire. Fortunately he was able to pull off the higheway before the fire spread to the interior.

The fire spread inside the car and long story short - the car is totaled. Two rear tires, the trunk and the spare are about the only parts unharmed. The car had not even hit 100K yet. Has anyone heard of this or had it happen to them? It just doesn't make any sense to me. This car has routine maintenance and was in perfect shape. What a shame - but we were very lucky that he got out in time....

 

[Big Daddy]

Never heard of a problem like this. The fire department should be able to locate the source pretty easily.

 

[bahnstormer]

wow that is intense...sorry to hear that and no this is the first time i've heard anything
even resembling this

 

[Nataku]

See them alot on american cars. I once saw this minivan pulled over with smoke coming out of the engine. within 5 minutes the car was ablaze. this prompted me to buy one of those kitchen extinguishers from Home depot. About 6 month later the car parked next to mine caught fire. I was in a Restaurant eating dinner facing the lot. I ran to the lot and pulled out the extinguisher and put out the fire. For $10 you can save someones live or at least save yourself a lot of grief.

 

[[email protected]]

I just saw footage of it tonight, it actually made the news in Milwaukee (must have been a slow night). Flames were about 15 feet high at its peak - the entire ramp was shut down. Really is amazing to see it. So far they have not figured out the cause.