passat gone, up in flames

so this past Sunday i was down in the everglades doing some armature photography and letting my pit-bull mix blow off some steam and run around off leash. so the short story is i was heading north on sr 29 because it was faster to I-75 than staying on US-41, well i was about half way between Jerome FL and I-75 when i smelt something electrical burning a quick scan of the instrument cluster everything looked fine and i continued on because the smell dissipated just as fast as it came.
about another mile down the road the smell came back and now Marzy my dog was raising holy he77 i turned in the seat to tell her to knock it off and that's when i saw all the black smoke coming out the back of the car, now just as i turned and slammed on the brakes the dash lite up like a Christmas display.
just as i slowed the flames started coming out from under the hood against the windshield. i tried to shut the car off but no go it would not shut down i jumped out grabbed my sidearm and went for my dog the rear door would not open and she would not jump into the front seat i ran to the passenger side and thank god that door open and Marzy came flying out.
now mind you this took all of a minute and a half at best. i lost everything in the car and trunk cell phone and Nikon camera equipment about 2500 worth. but at least me and my pooch got out without a mark (except for the ones in my shorts)
i have no clue as to what could have happened. turbo failure/debris on the DPF filter or electrical short that started the fire. it took the closet fire dept. nearly 20 minutes to get there but by that time all was lost, in fact within 3 minutes you could not get near the car the pungent smoke and heat. i did try to get in the trunk to get my fire extinguisher ( i carry one in every car) but it would not open just like the back door, now that i think of it I'm damn lucky my door opened.
it took nearly 5.5 hours to get home but i finally got a uber that would let me take the dog. i doubt if I'm going to go see the car because it's nearly 3 hours away and why bother there was nothing left by the time the fire was put out.
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i have not even given a thought about a replacement yet maybe suv or pickup truck.
so in closing i'm fine Marzy is fine and GOD was watching out for me once again.

Another reason to disable the auto lock feature! Unable to turn the car off sounds like a runaway condition, but flames like that sounds like fuel sprayed on the dpf or something equally as terrible- Maybe the CV boot heatshield recall? did you notice any dripping grease around your parking area? The DPF is only inches above the passenger side inner CV and maybe it melted and slung grease onto the DPF! Was the engine idling normally? I get diesel exhaust smell threw the hvac every now and then post fix- hmm. Story> I lost my first F350 gas truck back in 1993 due to fire, they do burn up really really fast! Mine had a small hole in the tail pipes where they arched over the rear axle (and I knew this) but a hard run up the mountains melted the fuel tank changeover valve located right above this small hole and I noticed my fuel gauge in my rear tank dropping like a rock so I pulled into a small parking lot---oh and the carbureted engine backfired often, and I herd a WHOOMP and seen 20' of flames coming off of the rear tailgate and a long stretch of the lane I was in prior to pulling in to the parking lot on fire as well! As I slowed I told my girlfriend to run as soon as I stopped and she looked at me and said its snowing, why- I pointed behind me as I slowed down and she glanced back, opened the door and jumped out! Got it stopped, with flames licking my back I was able to shut er down, get my coat and keys but that's it! Fire dept took 90 minutes, burned so hot it sacked the springs and lowered itself right onto the frame- headlights stayed on for a really long time, seen threw the smoke for nearly 30 minutes until the battery exploded.

The inner door handles have a back up cable latch if electro system is dead, pull once to unlock, pull twice to open. Granted this doesn't help if you are opening from the outside.

There's nothing to help for the trunk unless you're inside and pull the emergency release.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune but glad you're all OK.

Did you have the fix done yet on your car?

my car port is spotless so nothing on the car was leaking.
the only thing i can come up with as electrical short caused the fire or i picked up some debris and they caught fire after all i was driving on dirt roads with rather tall grass growing in the middle.
as for the fix no it was not done i was holding off as long as possible.

Wow, that is not good!

My first speculation was trash accumulated around the exhaust components, and the nest caught afire.

I wonder how many miles we'll all have to drive with the fixed emissions savings to offset a full vehicle burn down.

What ever the cause, a vehicle fire should never occur. Period.

jw4free said:

Wow, that is not good!

My first speculation was trash accumulated around the exhaust components, and the nest caught afire.

I wonder how many miles we'll all have to drive with the fixed emissions savings to offset a full vehicle burn down.

What ever the cause, a vehicle fire should never occur. Period.

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Probably the case, lots of field fires around our parts due to farmers with new rigs pulling into a dry hay field with a glowing red dpf in full regin. Now even tractors have a DPF and have a warning sticker stating not to rake or bail dry hay with them.

We lost one vehicle to an electrical fire, a '77 SAAB 99 back in the day. Had it in a parking structure at a local hospital, and smoke coming out from under the hood alerted me. Got the hood open, saw that the problem was the main positive cable from the battery had shorted out, but was unable to pull the cable off the battery terminal. The car didn't become involved completely, but it toasted the main wiring looms, and so was a total loss from the insurance company's perspective. I wish I'd known then that "What ever the cause, a vehicle fire should never occur. Period." I'd have given SAAB a good talking-to....

There were some Passats that had a recall for insufficient heat shielding that could cause a fire. I know my 2012 had the recall. In fact prior to receiving the notice of the recall we had a CEL light and as my sister was taking it in it caught fire. As I remember they traced it to the exhaust overheating and catching fire. In our case we were lucky my sister pulled over when the car died on her and a passing trucker saw the fire and pulled over and put it out. Ended up costing bout $4,500 to repair the original CEL and fire damage. Unfortunately I only got $500 back from VW when the recall came out because I didn't have them look at the car prior to getting it repaired, but that's another story.

DEAD-BROKE said:

as for the fix no it was not done i was holding off as long as possible.

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Now the 10,000 question is, what will insurance give you for the troubles of the total loss.

That royally stinks!!!

740GLE said:

Now the 10,000 question is, what will insurance give you for the troubles of the total loss.
That royally stinks!!!

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funny you should bring that up, they called yesterday at 4:30pm and offered me $13,550 i told them to try again because i lost a new iPhone 1k and my Nikon D8 and assorted items that go along with it almost $4500. i know they will never give me close to that but i'm hoping to get at least 15k from them.
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i provided receipts for everything i lost.

Glad you and the pooch are ok. You might have to claim the camera and equipment on home owners.

^^^that's what I was thinking. Doubtful auto insurance would cover personal items...

tdiatlast said:

^^^that's what I was thinking. Doubtful auto insurance would cover personal items...

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If the auto carrier does not cover the items, check with your homeowner's carrier.

yikes that's a insulting offer, they know vw would have given you 20k+ right??!! Lucky for me my insurance USAA has always given me several thousands more than what I expected in my 2 total loss situations. And they gave me extra cash for all personal items in my fire described in my first post! When my civic got totaled this last December by a chick that blew threw a intersection, HER insurance (state farm) gave me $4K vs bluebook's $800 value for a 300,000 mile civic due to the fact that all identical 5 speed civics in my area were on craigslist for 3-6K and it was unrealistic to give me the silly bluebook value. The field appraiser was amazing, he noted fresh wax, flawless paint and spotted my new slotted rotors and tire+wheel combo and also noted that it had a glass smooth check engine free idle in the report! Then several days later the agent called me asking if I wanted to keep the car She said no salvage yards would accept a civic with that many miles- so I gladly accepted and hit up the pick N pull's - its already back on the road.

well just got off the phone with the ins company best they will do is $14,750 and not a penny more. i accepted the offer (it sucks i know ) but where i live it's 5.2 miles to the nearest store.
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i have a call into my home owners to see if the can cover some of the camera equipment and cell phone i lost.
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i went and looked at a few SUV over the weekend and kinda fell in love with a 2012 Toyota highland with wicked low miles (29k miles and 1 owner ) they want $17900 it's a base V6 AWD it has AC xm radio NO NAV, it is extremely clean inside and out (Carfax is clean). i gave them $100.00 to hold it till the end of the business day on Tuesday.
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so any of you folks have any experience with Toyota highlander,, i know Toyota what could go wrong.

DEAD-BROKE said:

well just got off the phone with the ins company best they will do is $14,750 and not a penny more. i accepted the offer (it sucks i know ) but where i live it's 5.2 miles to the nearest store.
.
i have a call into my home owners to see if the can cover some of the camera equipment and cell phone i lost.
.
i went and looked at a few SUV over the weekend and kinda fell in love with a 2012 Toyota highland with wicked low miles (29k miles and 1 owner ) they want $17900 it's a base V6 AWD it has AC xm radio NO NAV, it is extremely clean inside and out (Carfax is clean). i gave them $100.00 to hold it till the end of the business day on Tuesday.
.
so any of you folks have any experience with Toyota highlander,, i know Toyota what could go wrong.

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I had a 2011 4runner and prefer the real 4x4. I used this as a failover vehicle to pull a boat (had towing package). Unfortunately it got flooded but 4runner is awesome vehicle. 4.0 litre chain motor. Not sure about all of that AWD stuff that you get with the highlander. I needed the 4x4 for boat and getting thru thick stuff to get to my hog traps , and hunting spots when I didn't feel like plowing my loud duramax through the woods. I did drive a highlander and while it was nice, maybe too nice for what we were wanting an SUV for.

I bought the wife a used 2008 Highlander Hybrid Limited for $12K with 119K miles this last December. Remember 2008-12 is the XU40 and the new current XU50 came out in 2013 so the one your looking at is rather high priced due to it being the last of the older generation like mine. I get 24MPG TOPS and that's in a Hybrid , so keep that in mind- wife moved from her Passat to this and now needs to fuel up 3 times a week so the cost difference is pretty hard to swallow with Unleaded up here running $2.75 and diesel only at $2.51. I now drive her old NMS Passat and honestly cant remember the last time I filled up, and its still at 1/4 tank
Highlander drives great, Maintenance is actually fun as you can remove the oil filter without spilling a single drop...cough cough CKRA. I was able to drop the oil in the trans, axles and engine plus refill it in less time that it takes to fiddle the battery box out of my Passat lol- as for drivability ours is vastly different than the one your looking at due to mine being a Hybrid- mine has electric steering, electric brakes (terrible feeling) and no rear driveline with just a large electric motor on the rear axle.. The Highlander is much shorter than the Passat too, I gained almost a half foot of room between the garage door and the back of the rig. I would post pictures but photobucket is being silly.

not sure if linky is allowed or not, delete if not ok. This one is being sold by a couple 5 minutes away from my home and is identical to the one I bought my wife (and became available after we drove 600 miles to get hers) Fly out, pick it up- U can use my shop to change the ECVT oil before your drive home! https://portland.craigslist.org/clc/cto/d/2010-toyota-highlander-hybrid/6535840788.html

DEAD-BROKE said:

well just got off the phone with the ins company best they will do is $14,750 and not a penny more. i accepted the offer (it sucks i know ) but where i live it's 5.2 miles to the nearest store.
.
i have a call into my home owners to see if the can cover some of the camera equipment and cell phone i lost.
.
i went and looked at a few SUV over the weekend and kinda fell in love with a 2012 Toyota highland with wicked low miles (29k miles and 1 owner ) they want $17900 it's a base V6 AWD it has AC xm radio NO NAV, it is extremely clean inside and out (Carfax is clean). i gave them $100.00 to hold it till the end of the business day on Tuesday.
.
so any of you folks have any experience with Toyota highlander,, i know Toyota what could go wrong.

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Will VW give you any of the restitution money? Might be a way to make up the difference.

kjclow said:

Will VW give you any of the restitution money? Might be a way to make up the difference.

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How do you figure? OP has insurance. VWoA had nothing to do with his loss...

...unless, of course, he can prove a defect...

total loss was one of the top reasons I got my check from vw asap! The drivers around here are so bad its almost comical

well i decided to go get that highlander today if i get back before it gets dark I'll post a picture or 2.
my insurance said i can stop by the office and pick up the check and the car dealer said i can just bring them the check.

jrm said:

total loss was one of the top reasons I got my check from vw asap! The drivers around here are so bad its almost comical

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i live in Florida, people down here drive to die, the speed limit on I-75 is what ever you feel like driving, i have been in a line of 12-15 cars going 100mph in the 3 years I've been down here not once have i seen anybody pulled over for speeding, not once.
the interstate does get closed 2-3 times a week for deadly wrecks though so there's that.

tdiatlast said:

How do you figure? OP has insurance. VWoA had nothing to do with his loss...
...unless, of course, he can prove a defect...

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VW did issue a partial payment to those that lost their car due to being totaled between Sept 2015 and sometime when buy backs were announced due to the depreciated value of insurance claims.

I'm not sure that still applies here.

so i went an bought the highlander, rides nice, hauls A$$.
meh i can't load any pictures.