Geeeeez.

 

Holy shit

 

Oh my lord. Was the top up or down when this happened? Just out of curiosity.

 

man that sucks bigtime!

contact a lawyr and have him negociate directly with a news station. you may get a few bucks on the side for your "story".

the gas station endangered the public and will probably get megafined.

the insurance co. will get paid by the gas station owner.

your car is officially totaled.

it looked like a great car, until it self-combusted that is!

now you will get to shop around for it's replacement. you weren't hurt and thats the good news, after all.

 

Wow, but I would spend some time figuring out what happened as this is not normal.
And I think you have a lot more work cut out for you then you think you have to fix that mess as the whole harness and god only knows what else is toast.
If they total it, take money and see how much they want to buy it back.

 

nooo!!! Dude, not cool!

Whats gonna happen now?

 

Damn, thats horrible. I like the wheels though

 

was this a new york or rhode island station?

ill buy those wheels...

 

It's officially lawyer consulting time... You saved the day by getting the car away from the pump.

<Gets up, puts fire extinguisher on grocery list for this afternoon>

 

Will be talking to the insurance company more tomorrow...going to take some pics of the gas station... and we'll see what happens.

As for the car- I took lots of pics and insurance said it would be okay for me to start cleaning some of the big stuff out- it does look alot better with most of the chemicals cleaned up. After further examination, it looks as though the fire started at a bundle of about 8 wires near the brake light switch- these were the only wires that got toasted as far as I can see. The fire left all those big thick main wiring harnesses untouched. Most of the flames/fire were from the plastic vents catching and melting. The fire cleared a 5" diameter hole up to the top of the dash... all this being plastic vents and pieces that burned. Car will certainly need a steam clean and all the little crevices cleaned out as the fire ext. chem makes a big mess.

Its true that theres a good chance insurance will total the car as they probably don't want to deal with it - but I'll be fixing it - And yes - very important to find definite cause so it doesn't happen again. I'm thinking it just needs a dash, windshield, instrument cluster, and various ducts and plastic pieces. Again fire was very contained and didn't take out much wiring at all. But of course you never know what else was damaged thats connected on the other end of the wires...- although I did get the battery unhooked immediately at the first sign of smoke... And since I just got finished successfully wiring up a 97' motor from japan in my friends 85'RWD corolla by piecing together harnesses from 3 different motors (quite an ordeal) - I think I can deal with the wiring no prob.

It was in NY saabkid - I think even if I was shopping for another car I'd get pretty much the same thing, maybe a 99' 9-3 Convertible with T5 - and I'd probably keep the wheels and much of my stuff to transfer over. But, I have very high hopes of being able to fix this.

Top was down when it happened

 

Man that really sux big time. This may interest you.
http://www.drivemecrazy.com/

 

i'm curious, why are you so gung ho on keepin this car?

 

That's outrageous! I can't believe you were just pumping and it went up. Wow. That's a great story.
Keep us up on it. I'm really interested what particularly triggered the flame up.
oh, and that's a crazy sketchy gas station too. weird.

 

Honestly want to keep the car because before the fire it was really just the way I wanted it (& its my first car). Since I've gotten it I've replaced alot of wear stuff, clutch, headgasket, brakes, exhaust, etc...and even though the pics make it look horrible- Getting the parts it needs used and fixing it myself really won't be to bad I don't think.

I know most of you are probably thinking that I shouldn't even bother messing with this fire damaged car.

But we'll see what happens...

 

Honestly want to keep the car because before the fire it was really just the way I wanted it (& its my first car). Since I've gotten it I've replaced alot of wear stuff, clutch, headgasket, brakes, exhaust, etc...and even though the pics make it look horrible- Getting the parts it needs used and fixing it myself really won't be to bad I don't think.

I know most of you are probably thinking that I shouldn't even bother messing with this fire damaged car.
But we'll see what happens...

Not me . I bought 2 cars with dash fire a while ago. Easiest thing to repair. That job will take you about 2 days work to be done right and to get rid of the electric fire smell. Then take her to replace the windshield at a professional. That's what I did. A dash is the cheapest part to buy since nobody replaces them .

Where are you located?

 

damn man... wow... any after market wiring done before the fire that could have caused this? Seems odd that stock wires would have done this unless a fused had been messed with.

Anyway, must be fire day because we almost lost a tractor to a electrical fire. Had some added wiring to run a equipment monitor and it shorted out and wasnt fused, my father burnt his hand ripping it off before the whole thing went up.

 

Exactly what I was thinking hkayssi, I mean when people part out their saabs usually theres not to much of a market for the dash and ducting - that stuff usually doesn't god bad/ it can't unless you have a fire or something - so it can be had on the cheap. (Just saw a dash go on ebay for $45 shipped with no bidders) And to the insurance company it just looks like a big mess not worth fixing. But for the DIY'er...

As far as aftermarket stuff - Nothing in the area of the fire really. I have an aftermarket radio, subwoofer and Satellite radio all which I installed but all the wiring for that is still in good shape and functional. - The amp volume control wire (my amp has a little volume control that sits in the dash) did get burned down to the wire but I believe that was just because it was in the zone of impact...

I wish I had had my nut driver and torx handy (in the trunk) and I would have ripped the lower dash out and the offending wires before they could have caused this much damage...but I put my money on taking the connector off the battery instead.- Although if I hadn't have done that as the wiring had shorted it could have caused even more problems/fires.

Fire extinguisher is going to ride along with me for now on... I actually kept one in the car for awhile in hope of maybe being able to help someone else out some day- I think I put that one in my boat though

 

holy shit that's amazing in the bad way....

 

Yikes.

 

What a mess!!! I think the ire extinguisher did more damage than the fire! Hope your custom gauge install in the headlight switch didn't contribute. Once you determine the cause, it would be good to let us all know so we can ensure no sequel.

Best of luck....looks like a very nice car.

 

Nope, the car starts and runs just fine and that little boost gauge still works fine, along with the radio and sub that I put in. The brake light switch is completely melted & disconnected along with the wiring going to it?- thats the only place electrical I could see where it could have started - that took out the OBDII port as well. The only thing not working is part of the dash cluster. So with some cleanup (prob will pull seats out and use steam cleaner) and junkyard parts I should be back in business. Gotta see what the insurance adjuster says first before I do much else...

 

Whoa. That looks like fun.

What parts do you need exactly? (I'm parting a '95 900 right now)

 

do you have any pre-fire pics?

 

i have a 95 900set i am parting too let me know if you need parts.

Edit: It's not so much that the damage can't be fixed it the burt smell that you will never get rid off that is going to bug you.

 

ahh fire from under the dash, happened on my sisters 87 900 8v faulty wiring under the dash, there was a recall but we didnt get it.. sucks

 

Anyway, when the fire was out, still smoldering a little I unscrewed the bottom dash panel...The fire dept. arrived and attempted to pry the positive terminal off the battery...but just ended up bending it and left?? (I had the right socket handy when I took of the negative when the fire started) - they had a 6 foot crow bar.

Good ol kitty litter squad... lol