I work on an industrial estate in Salisbury. On Monday drove to work in the Fiesta convertible. Just got in to short bit of road where my jobs Unit is and the car stopped. All of a sudden I saw what i thought was steam coming out of bonnet. Opened it and was confronted with Air cleaner on fire, One of work mates had been outside unit having a smoke saw what was going on and rushed over with extinguisher and put it out pronto...
As luck would have it damage was limited to burnt/melted airbox/cleaner,,,,, charred HT leads/dist. cap, and fuel hose, and copious quantities of horrible smelling plastic melted over engine....
Bonnet was smokey but no paint damage ,,,,
As I work at auto factors the car was quigkly repaired ... and air filter housing was sourced from my shed of treaures..
If I had not been so close to work ... and if my workmate (now nicknamed Fireman Neil) had not been so quick thinking the result could easily have been much worse.
Probable cause ... backfire into air cleaner???
