Whilst making the maiden voyage down to a friends house to set the toe on my Challenge Jetta I noticed some smoke coming from the rear of the car. I pulled over and the car was on fire right above the muffler. Yes, fire. I didn't think to throw the extinguisher into the car with me. So, we won't be making it to the Challenge this year. I'm thinking of scrapping the car over the next 4 days, it has now tried to kill me twice and I don't want to see if it succeeds on the third attempt.
My Challenge entry is up for grabs I guess. We can't justify the expense of coming down from DC without a car.
I'll post pics shortly.
Bruce
SVreX
SuperDork
10/1/08 7:28 p.m.
Crud.
I'm glad you're OK.
Come anyway- looks like Team Spectator is going to be quite imposing!
Bring some pics and you will be a good candidate for most spectacular failure!
GVX19
New Reader
10/1/08 7:33 p.m.
You dont need a car to come down. Just bring some photos, and or the carkus.
We actually considered bringing it down and pushing it through the concourse. But, I think we're gonna pass this year. The money was gonna be tight for us anyway. I'm gonna find the right body and swap all the parts over. It was full of holes. We want to come but this is a real downer after the push we've made over the last 3 weeks. What's worse is that I found a nice Jetta coupe today that's got better parts and is waaaay nicer than the car we've been humping to polish and it was only $1600. I could've saved all the effort and just bought that and came. That's what I'm dealing with is all the aches and pains, cut up hands, last minute do overs, etc. Seems like such a waste. I'm old enough to know when to get out.
Best we can guess is that the car was running really lean, lots of back firing and the exhaust got hot enough to catch the undercoating on fire. It was a slow fire as there wasn't much fuel to burn. Brakes, wheels, heck, even the exhaust look ok. Most of my work was in the suspension.
I've learned a lot with this car/build. I'm better prepared than last time and my time management is improving. I'm going to buy the right car next time. My wife never wanted me to buy this one, I forced it. I will never do that again. You live and learn.
B
Yeah, come on down. It's still a fun party.
I know we're missing a good time. I'm gonna start looking for the next Challenge car. I'm gonna need the next 4 days to recover from this one. I wish it would've at least caught on fire down there, maybe I could've gotten a trophy.
Go down and partty eny-way. My wife would be mad as hell if I at least go down.
How did it just catch fire like that? 
I'm just speculating on how it kicked off. I tried to make sure that I cleaned any brake fluid, grease, solvent, off before I started it up. The rear brakes had been leaking when we first bled them, I don't know if maybe some brake fluid had squirted over in the area of the muffler and I missed it.
Put some fuel in it and get your arse down there! You can make it from DC to Florida in, uh, 6 hours, right? It is a race car!
GVX19
New Reader
10/2/08 9:41 a.m.
It still looks better than my car.
You Can Do It!
Come on down the money is spent, no refunds!
It probably will run but the gas tank got melted a bit and leaks now. I'd also have to troubleshoot the poor running and I'm no expert with CIS-E fuel injection. I'm shot.
NO PARKING!
Should have got a ticket too LOL
Dr Hess beat me 2 it.
That'll buff right out.
Git your butt down there
just a little after burn from the hidden turbo right?
I didn't notice the no parking sign! That makes the picks even better.
Looks like the makings of the next Allstate TV ad...
MOst spectacular failure GRMMY goes to
Leave it as-is. You should get bonus points in the concours. Even more because it was a night fire.
put in a new gas tank, i doubt anyone would care about the expense in this case (unless you win), and check the wireing and GO!
Funny you said that. My Challenge partner just stopped by and we started thinking about the gas tank in the parts car I bought for the motor.
Apparently, a gas tank from Mk3 car fits... had to cut the connectors off and match that up since the pumps weren't interchangeable but got the wiring hooked up. Got the pump working, however the car won't start now. I'm not sure if the pump has enough pressure to run the CIS system.
UPDATE: We just needed to pull the intake line off the fuel distributor and get the fuel moving I guess because after we did that it started right up.
