On the way home last night
I followed, for a brief time, a VW Westphalia which appeared to be on fire. It’s owner was adequately obsessed with grooming his ratty skullet that I could not get his attention.
The part on fire appeared to be the engine. Plenty of smoke coming out, and it would be completely consistent with a crankshaft seal, blowing, as it was, out from under the muffler.
The odd flicker of flame was the disconcerting part.
At least the fuel tank is not close to the engine. Hope he made it home OK.
I recall a time, when I was a youth, that I pulled up behind a Ford Torino at a traffic light. From under the car, up towards the engine, the telltale flickering of flames.
I got out, walked up to his window, and told him his car was on fire. He told me to do something physically impossible to myself.
The light went green, and I followed him from a distance till the flames got entrenched enough even an idiot of that magnitude could not ignore them.
I honked as I passed.
In my mirror, before it was lost to sight, I could see his engine compartment fully involved.
I laughed for days.
No good deed, as it were, goes unpunished, yes?
Older Vdub’s were prone to fire up when the fuel line clamp on the output side of the fuel pump loosened up. This little mishap would result in the engine shuting down and fuel spraying over the hot engine. If the driver didn’t shut off the ignition(because he didn’t realize what had happened and was hoping that the engine would restart before he coasted to a stop on the interstate), electrical sparks in the presence of vaporized fuel would eventually result in smoke and flame working its way up from behind the rear seat.
This would be visible to the driver via the rear-view mirror if he was paying attention and give the driver a second clue that something had gone seriously amiss in the engine compartment.
Que music for frantic pull-over, several vehicles pulling off behind and drivers jumping out with fire extinquishers(thank G–)…
I once waved down a woman in a Ford SUV who had dense smoke coming out of the engine – her A/C compressor had frozen up, and the belt was smoking. No fire. Lucky for her it wasn’t a serpentine belt – she was able to drive with that belt cut out.
I’ve got a ’91 Vanagon – not the camper, but the same drive train. There are several weak points in the fuel lines, including a plastic (!) fitting that runs through a hole in sheet metal at the front of the engine compartment. This can snap clean off – and then you have 65 PSI gasoline squirting right next to bare exhaust pipes.
I’ve replaced all the plastic fittings and hoses in mine, but still had a fire – VW, in their wisdom, put a 50-amp fuse in the main line to the air conditioner. When the clutch on the compressor shorted out, the wiring in the back overheated and caught the interior plastic trim on fire. Had to pull over and evacuate the family and pets on the interstate. Luckily, the fire burned through the high-pressure hose running to the evaporator – and the freon release put out the fire.
The A/C now has a 5-amp fuse in that circuit…
The trouble is, most people tend to ignore it when someone pulls up to them yelling that something is wrong with their car, since that is a common car jacking tactic. I’ve had times when I tried pointing out at gas stations and ATM’s “Hey your back wheel is tilted and ready to break off” or “You know your transfer pipe is dangling and ready to shoot up through the floor if you snag it on a rail?” only to get a look of panic and a person fleeing from me.
Hopefully the inhabitants were able to escape the VW before it went up. But when I think Westphalia, I think of the grand-daddy of the Element, the vehicle that passed the element Bu down through its genes to that new vehicle. Man was that an ugly camper.
I’ve got a ’72 Westy. Shortly after I bought it, one of the copper fuel lines going to one of the (crappy) dual Solex carbs vibrated out while driving around. Merrily pumping pressurized gasoline onto a hot Kettering-ignited lump of magnesium is exciting, especially when the vehicle contains Spitz dogs and a hyperactive kid.
Fortunately, the worst of the damage was resolved by replacing the bulk of the wiring harness back there and new plug wires. A single two-barrel Weber made short work of trying to keep two one-barrels in synch and helped flame-proof it for the future.