Ranger starter causes fire?

[87anger]

Just now I saw on the local news a gen1 Ranger caused a fire at a gas station. They said the starter engaged by itself and it ran into the side of the store and caught on fire.....................WTF!?!
Is that even possible? Facts: the front of the Ranger was burnt and it somehow moved from a parking space over a concrete parking block and hit the building.
Your thoughts?

 

[Buckmaster14]

My thoughts.... truck was left in gear, parking brake failed, and the engine, running at a high idle, drove over the parking block into the store... The impact, caused the battery to rupture, and the acids from the battery ignited on the hot engine causing the fire in the front of the vehicle.

Hell, i have no idea! lol

 

[luke]

ghosts

 

[87anger]

My thoughts.... truck was left in gear, parking brake failed, and the engine, running at a high idle, drove over the parking block into the store... The impact, caused the battery to rupture, and the acids from the battery ignited on the hot engine causing the fire in the front of the vehicle.

Hell, i have no idea! lol

Haha ya that makes sense. When I saw it I didnt know whether to laugh, cry at the destruction of the ranger, or call the guy to see if hed sell me parts

 

[97RangerXLT]

this is actually an issue with Ford in the 80's (and some 70's). I have seen the aftermath of a mid 80's Crown vic do just that when i was in college. it was parked, and it started up and poppedinto gear and hit the car in front of it and caught fire.

My grandpa has had two different Ford diesel tractors do that to him, one nearly burned the barn down.

Haven't heard of it happening on newer cars that have a brake interlock on them tho.

AJ

 

[det107]

.....I saw on the local news a gen1 Ranger caused a fire at a gas station. They said the starter engaged by itself and it ran into the side of the store and........ Your thoughts?

Most recently while it was parked at my 2nd job, I was asked why did I park my truck on a hill (shale & 55-60 degree angle) ?? I got my keys & ran out to parking lot, saw the Ranger upright !! I assumed it was hit/push by a Semi, but no dents/marks could be found.
I could smell a very strong odor of brushes burnt & decided that the starter went haywire.....
The part rebuilder (it was a reman @ local) blames it on oil leak seeping inside the starter.....WTF ??? What an insult & he refused to do an exchange or a refund. Now I know why nobody likes him-

 

[CheapRanger]

I talked someone out of putting an aftermarket remote start on a stick shift. They never used their parking brake, and didn't think that a car in gear would go once started.

While other options may have happened, my mind is picturing someone modding the vehicle and that happening, due to laziness.

 

[pjtoledo]

way back in the days of crappy carburators an engine could "diesel" after it was shut off. some times they would drive themselves across parking lots. I haven't seen a car do that since the early '70s.


Perry

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The starter on a gen 1 is dead, there is no power to it to do anything with. Something has to fail farther up the line for the starter to engage.

Either the relay on the fender or the keyswitch would do it.

My 2.8 had a rough ring gear, the extra drag on the starter would stick the relay so it couldn't disengage and the starter would stay running until I jerked off the battery cable. I would get a couple years out of a relay and then it would like to do that a couple times until I threw another relay at it.

 

[87anger]

Wow it seems this problem is more common than I thought. Ill be sure to face the truck away from the house so it cant hurt my truck.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Wow it seems this problem is more common than I thought. Ill be sure to face the truck away from the house so it cant hurt my truck.

Just leave it in neutral with the parking brake on if it bothers you.

IMO it is a pretty freak deal, I wouldn't lose much sleep over it.

Mine would only do it when I was actually cranking it, it would start but the starter would stay engaged which would somehow stall the engine and then continue to crank it.

 

[87anger]

Just leave it in neutral with the parking brake on if it bothers you.

IMO it is a pretty freak deal, I wouldn't lose much sleep over it.

Mine would only do it when I was actually cranking it, it would start but the starter would stay engaged which would somehow stall the engine and then continue to crank it.

Nah not worried but I just leave it in N wit no P-brake.(and hope wind dont get too strong.)I have seen many 80s fords with this problem including 2.9 b2s and rangers, and also a 302 efi Full size bronco. Most of the time its a Faulty ignition switch, solenoid or the starter itself. But the full size I mentioned replaced key cylinder, solenoid ,starter, ign switch, everything and still did it. He just put a push button and said fk it. works great! Hooray for redneck engineering. Who needs one a dem fancy edjumacations?

 

[fireguy12117]

i can tell, from personal experience, that an el-cheapo remote car starter can wreak havoc. i didnt learn my lesson the first time when one failed and spun the starter until it disintegrated. it managed to basically melt the starter but somehow not the truck. so fast forward bit, how cool would it be to remote start my DD with a stick? i just got done cleaning up, forgot i left it in gear, and wanted to test the range of the remote. i press the button from my garage and was pleased to hear the motor pop to life. and then rather shocked when the truck went fly past the house. fortunately the neighbor wasn't home and i had a clear path for the truck to go before i could kill the motor. and since i still hadn't learned my lesson, i managed to sort of repeat the process, accidently hitting the start button while parked in a public parking lot a couple years later. so the 2.5 can and will start a truck in gear and send it down the road, and cheap starters can and will fail. ive since pulled the whole POS and wont bother with them anymore.

 

[CHKNFKR]

There is a simple solution to this. Don't park your truck in gear and use the parking brake.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

 

[doorgunner]

I was working undr my truck--had my hands between the radiator & the steel fan(now electric)....I heard a CLICK...then I heard the lectric fuel pump come on.....yanked my hands out past the fan blades/tie-rods exceptionally fast....-v-v-v-v-v-v-vv-vroooooooom(good thang it's an A/T!!!)-

seems that I leaned on the remote-start key-fob that was in my pants pocket....now I put my keys on the dash when workin on the truck