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Expert: - 11/9/2011


Question
It catches fire underneath near the middle. There is grease near the starter. Can the starter have caused the fire?

Answer
Hello,

You really have not given me`any information to give you an answer. Year would be important for one thing. You say it catches fire or it caught fire? Underneath the middle of what? The car? The engine? Is this a fire with flames? Does it quit when you turn the ignition off?
The starter cannot technically start a fire, put the positive battery cable leading to it can be an ignition source due to positive to ground or a starter that fails inside, but can a starter set a car on fire? No.
A overheated catalytic converter can. A broken fuel line spraying on combustibles and puddling on a hot exhaust manifold can ignite an engine. Leaking oil onto a hot exhaust manifold can cause a fire, but these things are above the bottom of the car except for the cat.

You say there is grease near the starter. That does not sound right. Possibly accumulated oil?

Please see what you can do to be more specific. I am a vehicle fire instructor. Vehicle fires are not the same animal as a structure fire, but it is more common than not to see guys that are very good house fire guys guessing on vehicle fires.

A vehicle has got limited ignition sources. All it has is battery power and engine heat. What difference though from structure fires are many, lots of fuel load in hydro carbons such as plastics.

If you have a picture that may support your question please attach.

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Rob Painter

Expertise

Alarm system questions cannot be answered on this forum. These systems are not what I can answer. Without being physically at the vehicle and not knowing what kind of electrical service has been done on the vehicle, there is no possible way to give an accurate answer over the internet. My expertise is in Ignition/key based anti-theft systems. These issues include GM VATS (resistor chip in key blade) PASSLOCK (MRD)-ignition lock rotation based, no special ignition key and the PKIII Transponder (computer chip in key) systems. These systems are not alarm based and are integral with the starting of the engine. This is why I cannot diagnose alarm problems without physically looking at the vehicle: Alarm systems are a completely different annimal than ignition key/lock based anti-theft system. Many alarm questions come from vehicles 10 years old, and since older, many hands that had been involved over the years.I am an expert in all GM factory (ignition/key based)systems. Alarm system questions pose to many situations beyond my knowledge as to what has been done to the vehicle over the years. Some guy may have actually wired the stereo into the alarm system. Who knows? Over my past 30 years in vehicle wiring repair, I have seen unbelievable wiring disaters done by guys that consider themselves "mechanics." I have seen stereos and alarms intalled using surgical tape. I have seen modules burn up, un-fused circuits, wiring jambed between the doors and even lamp cord used for a starter kill. To answer alarm questions over the internet without examining the vehicle is like asking; What does it take to remove a dent?

Experience

Education/Credentials-ASE certified. 11 years with a GM dealer and 17 years with a repair facility dealing with only the repair of theft recovered vehicles.

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