01 Bora Fire

Dermo123

On Sat morning last VW Bora had a good coat of frost on it so I turned on the engine and turned on the rear window demister and went back into the house for a few minutes to heat up a bit of water for the windscreen.
Went I came out again I initially thought there was a lot of steam coming from the drivers door mirror only to realise it was smoke.:eek:

When I took a closer look there was flame behind the mirror glass in the plastic mirror housing. Straight away I turned off the engine and blew out the flames.

The mirror was too hot to touch but when it cooled off I removed the glass to find the black plastic backing on the glass itself all melted in the area where the wires are plugged in. The mirror glass did not break and the housing itself seems undamaged. The motor for the mirror still works OK.

Has anyone else ever come across this situation before?
The car is well out of warranty but should I inform VW about it anyway?
Why did a fuse not stop this situation occuring?

From what I can tell the element in the glass must have failed as the wires going to the mirror are not burned or melted.

prospect

You should have bought an french car.

Big Nelly

Whats the problem? you wanted the mirror defrosted and it was defrosted???:p

crosstownk

Its possible that some debris got caught behind the mirror glass and was consequently burnt by the heater element behind the mirror.

You should get it looked at, and in the meantime remove the fuse for the heated mirrors.

Big Nelly

crosstownk wrote:

Its possible that some debris got caught behind the mirror glass and was consequently burnt by the heater element behind the mirror.

You should get it looked at, and in the meantime remove the fuse for the heated mirrors.

Thats is one way I could get rid of that bloody spider thats living in my Passat mirror!!!

Gary ITR

Big Nelly wrote:

Thats is one way I could get rid of that bloody spider thats living in my Passat mirror!!!

Maybe it was the spider that lit the fire:p

Dermo123

prospect wrote:

You should have bought an french car.

Yes the situation would have been a lot more serious, probably fire brigade and insurance claim to follow...............

layke

The frost could have caused the plastic insulation to wiring to crack which in turn caused the fire. Tbh i'd bring it to a fire station and ask a pro to find out what caused it to combust so it doesn't happen again.

Anan1

Dermo123 wrote:

Yes the situation would have been a lot more serious, probably fire brigade and insurance claim to follow...............

Are you German?:)

Dermo123

layke wrote:

The frost could have caused the plastic insulation to wiring to crack which in turn caused the fire. Tbh i'd bring it to a fire station and ask a pro to find out what caused it to combust so it doesn't happen again.

The frost probably had something to do with it allright. But you would imagine that the heated mirrors fuse would have blown before it got to flames. I checked the fuse and it is the correct 10A and intact. Surely more than 10A was flowing for that much heat to be generated?

Anyway I am not that much concerned about it to be bothering the fire services etc but would VW be interseted in knowing about components that are a fire hazzard in their vehicles?

crosstownk

Dermo123 wrote:

The frost probably had something to do with it allright. But you would imagine that the heated mirrors fuse would have blown before it got to flames. I checked the fuse and it is the correct 10A and intact. Surely more than 10A was flowing for that much heat to be generated?

It all dependes on what went on fire - a small glowing ember (debris, spider, insulation, whatever) that is heated by the element could easily produce a flame - especially if a small breeze was present to help the flame on its way.

A car cigarette lighter can have a fuse as low as 15A and is a pure short circuit. So even if it was a short circuit its possible that it could still cause a fire.

Kimbot

THats madness!! Could have been a spider web that caught and started it!!