Return of the Pinto?

[4.0blue98]

I was on the beltway going clockwise around Baltimore toward Towson and saw a large boxtruck burning on the other side. This is like 4 lanes in each direction. Just as we were about to go by, it "exploded". I really think it was a brake issue and caught a tire on fire. Very interesting. Almost wet myself... almost.

I think most of the vehicle I've seen burning are imports for some reason. I do remember a mid 90s exploder though.

 

[Uncle Gump]

There is a bunch of traffic moving through Chicago... I see a couple three car fires a year on the sides of the tollway. Just few weeks ago I had to pull over to let emergency vehicles by and I could see a fire burning off in the distance. This was through the farmland portion of my commute. They blocked the road before I got through and I could see what appeared to be an older Jeep Cherokee on fire a couple hundred feet into a cut corn field.

 

[19Walt93]

I've seen a couple VW busses burn but I didn't have to tow them. The engines ran hot on a good day and a long drive at highway speeds is a bad day for them. The heat would cause oil leaks which dripped on the hot exhaust, once it started burning the magnesium block would burn white hot and eventually the engine would fall onto the pavement. Being a foreign vehicle, those fires weren't newsworthy, either. When you hear guys my age say they wish they still had their old beetle or bus, they don't want that POS back, they want to be 17 with a new license and stoned again.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I built one VW I'd like to have back... and it has nothing to do with being 17 again.

 

[RangerNumber3]

My 76 Pinto Wagon. Put 230,000 miles on it and then traded it in on my first Ranger.

 

[cbxer55]

Atleast on the old pinto it was just gas burning, not whatever EV batterys are filled with

Pinto
P = Put
I = In
N = Nickle
T= To
O = Operate

 

[sooperxtool]

Since we're talking about vehicle fires...

Saw one of the biggest fires I've seen in person in SLC, it was an RV. Massive flames. I'd estimate them to be about 30 ft high.

Pretty sad story, it was basically the home of a vet and he had just picked it up from the repair shop. I hope he won a lawsuit.

 

[Ranger850]

I don't think a lot of Tallahassee car fires are due to mechanical issues. We have some vindictive baby mamma's around here.
A good buddy of mine was messing with a Barfly from his local watering hole. She had an X that wouldn't go away. After a few weeks of her staying the night and a few threats from the X, My buddy woke up to his Dodge Dakota en fuego?. The investigators said they could find NO PROOF of arson, but couldn't rule it out either. We researched and not too many cases of Dakota's suffering automatic truck combustion.

 

[8thTon]

I don't think a lot of Tallahassee car fires are due to mechanical issues. We have some vindictive baby mamma's around here.
A good buddy of mine was messing with a Barfly from his local watering hole. She had an X that wouldn't go away. After a few weeks of her staying the night and a few threats from the X, My buddy woke up to his Dodge Dakota en fuego?. The investigators said they could find NO PROOF of arson, but couldn't rule it out either. We researched and not too many cases of Dakota's suffering automatic truck combustion.

A Dodge truck? Perhaps it just rusted so fast the chemical reaction lit it on fire!

 

[Dirtman]

The only car fire I was ever a part of was a ranger...

my friends 89 ranger 2.9 caught fire 3 times while we were driving home.

First fire erupted in the engine bay and we pulled over and put it out with beer.

Second fire was 2 miles down the road and it was dripping globs of napalm behind us before we noticed, stopped at a house and had them call 911 while we put it out with the hose. It went out and we waited 30 minutes for the fire department. No one showed so we said "I wonder if itll still start?". It did so we left.

Third fire was about half a mile down the road. This was the grand finale. Flames from the hood and under the truck so big we couldn't get near it. Nothing we could do. Fire department showed up and said "uhhhh weren't you just on fire on Phillip's ave?" We shrugged. As the truck literally burnt to the ground. It even melted the asphalt under it.

When it was out we started walking home and the cop goes. "Whoa where the hell do you think your going!". And we said uhhh home... he said no you need to get that melted piece of crap off the road. We were just gonna abandon it lol.

 

[Ranger850]

A Dodge truck? Perhaps it just rusted so fast the chemical reaction lit it on fire!

Perhaps. It was a nice Dakota with a 318 v8. He even had the cool RT rims on it. Nothing was mechanically wrong, except the "Dodge" part of it.

 

[8thTon]

The only car fire I was ever a part of was a ranger...

my friends 89 ranger 2.9 caught fire 3 times while we were driving home.

First fire erupted in the engine bay and we pulled over and put it out with beer.

Second fire was 2 miles down the road and it was dripping globs of napalm behind us before we noticed, stopped at a house and had them call 911 while we put it out with the hose. It went out and we waited 30 minutes for the fire department. No one showed so we said "I wonder if itll still start?". It did so we left.

Third fire was about half a mile down the road. This was the grand finale. Flames from the hood and under the truck so big we couldn't get near it. Nothing we could do. Fire department showed up and said "uhhhh weren't you just on fire on Phillip's ave?" We shrugged. As the truck literally burnt to the ground. It even melted the asphalt under it.

When it was out we started walking home and the cop goes. "Whoa where the hell do you think your going!". And we said uhhh home... he said no you need to get that melted piece of crap off the road. We were just gonna abandon it lol.

Did he let you drive it home?

 

[Dirtman]

No. It was a 2.9 so a refused out of concern for my safety.

 

[8thTon]

My 76 Pinto Wagon. Put 230,000 miles on it and then traded it in on my first Ranger.
View attachment 37979

I'd drive that!

 

[rusty ol ranger]

No. It was a 2.9 so a refused out of concern for my safety.

The damn thing survived a fire twice and stayed alive. Id say thats pretty damn resiliant.

The 74 camaro that i had burn was nasty. It was a nice alabama car i actually traded a civic for. It was john deere green but rust free and looked good, but was probably the slowest camaro id ever drivin (my 78 F350 with a warmed up 400/4sp ate it to 60) it had a 350 i was pretty sure was worn out and i spent more time working on it then driving it.

Either way i was comin home one day about 10 mi from the house, turned the corner it acted like it was choking out so i hammered it, it quit. I got out and smoke was coming from under the hood. 45 seconds later it was engulfed. We *think* the fuel line coming out of the pump blew apart and it pumped fuel right onto the hot header.

The 79 ford F150 i had go up was creepy and sad to watch. It had sat in the barn over the winter cause the rear end (4wd) was completly shot.

Either way i pulled it out of the barn and let it idle. It was smoking but it always smoked (351M).

Took it up the driveway out on the road to turn it around and pull it back in, it stalled, so i cranked it and seen smoke from the battery area. Thought i cooked a cable, hopped out, popped the hood to find a decent little fire on the back of the engine. Sprinted 30 yards to the garage grabbed an extingusher, hit the fire, it went out but literslly sprung right back up. It got more intense so i called the fire dept.

In the 20 minutes it took them to show up the fire spread into the cab, the lights stared flashing, horn started blowing, it started cranking, like it was literally dieing a painful death and yelling for help. It then busted the windows and caught the plastic bedliner and melted it then went out.

The most fun part was explaining to the volunteer fireman (who was also a state trooper i knew) why i had an untagged, uninsured truck with no title on fire in the middle of the road. He said if i could have it off the road in 5 minutes he wouldnt pursue it. So i fired up my old 78 F350 and drug it back into the yard, put it on craigslist, and sold it for 500 bucks.

I paid 200 for it to use as an offroad beater.