2010 Prius Caught Fire

What services were done at 90k miles?

 

This has my attention as well. I always park mine inside the carport and my house is ALL wood [ rustic cabin in the woods design ] and would hit the ground behind a car fire. I am ''in the woods'' and a volunteer FD could not get here in time to save my place.

 

Average seems to be about 200,000 vehicle fires per year in US, with the vast majority _not_ being related to accidents. Can't seem to find a good number for how much vehicle age factors into that though. Most common locations are residential street, driveway or parking area. Most common causes are electrical or mechanical failures or malfunctions.

http://www.nfpa.org/~/media/Files/Research/NFPA%20reports/Vehicles/osautomobilefires.pdf

Sorry for your loss OP, glad everyone is ok!

 

The inverter looks intact.

Not using a block heater? There was a member here with a BH related fire, the power cord had a short, or at least that wa suspected.

Just guessing for your case: some electrical short, caused a small fire, which ruptured a fuel line, causing bigger fire.

 

This one is tough to speculate on, but there are some heavy-duty electrical conductors under the hood. If you didn't mod it and did your maintenance, I'd say you are in the clear.

 

Please tell me you didn't mod the headlights to HID. They would throw all the blame right back at you...

Glad no one was hurt... Sorry about the car, too.

 

Maybe take a look at your 90K service invoice, see what specifically they did, in case anything varied from the scheduled maintenance. Nothing in scheduled maintenance looks to be plausible cause. It looks the fire might be centered in the intake manifold zone, just in front of the engine, which seems plausible, with the fuel injectors and lines.

BTW, I'm just up the road from you, similar climate.

 

Could be anything. Cars of all manufacturers do that. A friend on Vancouver Island lost the garage and part of the house due to a GM car fire.

Lets see:
Wife left it in "ready"?
Parked over leaves?
Vandal?
And of course, just a plain old failure exacerbated by the above, but not requiring them.
Coolant is flammable. A coolant leak can drop it directly on the cats.
I wouldn't expect fuel to be involved. It is stored in the fuel tank in the back. Coolant however is stored in the front. So even if the pumps are off it can burn up the car.

Glad you didn't loose the house.

 

Hey, our attached garage went up in flames, some time before we bought, many years back. Wasn't disclosed in the real estate blurb for the place, guess not a selling feature, lol. It was all patched up, but I noticed a little charring in a few corners at the door into the house, and around the hatch to the garage attic. And a neighbour mentioned. Assume a vehicle went up, the slab looks a little discoloured on one side.

 

Wow but at least it didn't take your house and your family is safe.
I am waiting to hear what is found as well.

 

no one hurt thank gawd. i wonder what Toyota will conclude caused it ,,,, any chance mice building a nest or feral cats climbing up into the engine to keep warm caused it ???? (we often have feral cat problem here in Hawaii)

 

It certainly looks like the heat was concentrated on the passenger side of the engine bay toward the bottom, as the steel bumper on that side looks to be gone. It is interesting too that the inverter, which is mostly aluminum I believe, is quite intact which would also seem to indicate the temps were lower on the drivers side. I guess that doesn't necessarily mean that's where it started though, it could just be where there was the most "fuel" once it got going.

 

Glad all OK ..... Cars burn very hot .. you are lucky that nothing too flammable on the house at that location. And no other cars ... I lost the house and three cars .....

Just so you know ... I was informed that small animal nests .... built in fall as the weather turns are a big cause of fires in cars?

 

Glad it didn't take your home with it.

 

Can't seem to view the video. Says its in 'Safety Mode"....glad that you and your family are okay and the house was spared.

Do you have insurance for the car and house under the same provider?

 

Wow so glad all are OK.
I don't think we've had any similar past reports, so this is unique to Prius Chat (whether or not it's unique to Toyota is a different story).
I am having a little trouble comprehending what would fuel such a fire.
There are the tires, and engine oil...gaso yes but that's in the back tank.
Since your guarantee is 100k miles, one would think there would be an assumption of electric origin and coverage of car.

 

There's gonna be some gas in the engine bay.