HI all

Drivivng around today, and my stereo stops/starts. So i turn it off and i can hear a sparking kind of noise from the boot.

Now i am extra careful about not earthing out the battery, but when the painter put the bat back in he didnt tighen the bar that holds the bat in and it jammed itself in a position across the terminals, causing the bracket thingys to heat up and catc fire.

So when i pull over and race to the boot, all this smoke piles out, and there is this tiny little fire next to the bat. So i smother it, and grab an insulated screwdriver from the toolbox and force the bar of the terminals.

Very scary, and made me put the fire extinguiser in the car.

ryan

PS: no damage done to the car

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Ryan Filippi
Minis In The Gong
[email protected]
www.minisinthegong.com.au

Good


Good

Now go SKUTA your painter.

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Metal to burn, sparks to fly...

You are so bloody lucky...
Get thee an insulated battery cover (even a bit of carpet), before the jack/wheelbrace/assorted Mini parts in boot short it out and do the same...
Next time, you may not be so lucky.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

yeah doc, i normaly have it very well coverd, but because i only got the car back from the painter last week he was last to put it back in, so i blame him. Would of loved to see his face if it ruined his paint work.

Ryan

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Ryan Filippi
Minis In The Gong
[email protected]
www.minisinthegong.com.au

Lucky you hadn't painted the boot yet. Glad your o.k.!

A mate of mine had a loose fuel tank slide onto the battery once, "whole car gone" burnt to a crisp.

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Take it easy, & if it's easy take it twice!!

That's exactly why i don't carry a jack, wheelbrace or spare wheel in my mini.



I had an empty petrol can in the boot for about 5min of a journey before i got to thinking it was a bad idea and pulled over and put it in the cabin. I can't believe that the battery is so exposed from the factory.

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- Simon -

Well originally they had a pre-digested cardboard cover with a rubber strap to hold it, and a rubber mat over that.
Coopers were more upmarket, the got a bootboard, woo hoo..

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Just another reason to make a nice boot floor, or make some brackets to fix the jack and things solidly into the boot......

Forget the jack...... just have a couple spare bricks in the boot instead

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs

Wow talk about lucky... Maybe you should go and buy a lottery ticket .

But glad to hear that you and your Mini are ok....

But as Doc said here is what they orginally looked liked inside the boot area just incase you are interested...



As you can also see from Granny's boot all tools and the jack were kept in a nice and secure plastic bag too.

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Opinions expressed by me are of my opinion only and are copyrighted to Kinkabell Corporation? 2006.

I love looking at Granny, she's so cute.

Doogie

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I won Hay once, here's the pic to prove it..


Hay, it's not about the car, it's not about the venue, it's about the people that come here. Peter Dwyer, Mayor of Hay NSW.

Awww thanks Doogie ....

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Opinions expressed by me are of my opinion only and are copyrighted to Kinkabell Corporation? 2006.

Happened to me with my first mini, driving along and the car started missing and carrying on, looking in the mirror I saw alot of black smoke and figured engine trouble.

Problem was, the smoke was inside the car

I jumped out and pulled off the battery terminal (actually to this day i don't really tighten the negative, now i remember why) not knowing the battery lead was the cause, I just thought fuel+electrical fire=bigger fire

What happened was the + lead going through the boot floor was cut and welded to the body. Had to get my dad to bring some tools etc to do roadside repair.

A mate had a similar experience to you except his was a shovel (on an apple orchard) and the battery exploded, good paint stripper the old battery acid!

Cheers

Daniel

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Videos - Turbocharged A-Series on Dyno & at Wakefield
Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

That was lucky. Ryan you can buy a after market battery cover of ebay and strap, i bought one a while back and a fire extinguiser. Looking forward to seeing your car.

Glad everythings ok.
Steve

Imagine my horror when during a spirited drive through the hilld I could suddenly smell raw fuel. Jumped out and found a cm of petrol sloshing around in the tyre well after the breather of the new fuel cell had come lose and petrol was being foced out on the corners. A spark from something in the boot would have been an instant BBQ.

Pretty scarry heh.......happened to me years ago when I had a VW kombi - incidently, you know what kombi stands for??? Class and Style

Anyway...the battery on those is kept in place with a metal strap that will only stop the battery if the kombi lands on its roof (????) but doesn't stop any forwards/backwards movement. So. potential to short out and cause a fire is pretty big.

Glad you and your car are safe though.

Cheers

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Rod
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v607/Rodney/