My 2010 XLT F250 68K miles caught fire last night. Just pulled in from a weekend lake trip and was unloading when the engine compartment went up in flames. Only indication that anything was wrong was battery light came on about 2 hours or so before while I was heading back home. One year old Optima Batteries so I didn't worry to much about it at the time. Wont know the exact cause until insurance gets done with it (hopefully) but I will share this with everyone when I do know. If I wasn't outside when it happened it could have taken the house too. Firemen called a total loss (most likely). I just want to know HOW HOW HOW can this happen?? I'm devastated!!
I would say Alternator went..... Mine lit up 2 winters ago.
Battery light came on kept driving ran into a store real quick with truck running came out to smoke coming out of the hood
Grabbed the extinguisher from behind my seat and got it out before any damage occurred
Yes they cut the cables on both. FD also tried to put in neutral to get it further from the house in case it decided to reignite. It wouldn't go out of park leading them to believe the linkage fried as well. It's still sitting in the driveway. Getting my custom wheels, tires and fifth wheel bars off before insurance takes it. Brother in Law, who happens to know EVERYTHING (we all have one on those in the family right?) is sure it was the turbo that got hot and started a wire or plastic on fire. Damn shame for this to happen. My handsome big boy is dead at such young age!
My 6.4 caught fire on me last year due to one of the idler pulleys seizing up... the friction caught the belt on fire... luckily I was able to extenguish it before any major damage happened!
My burnt truck is STILL in the driveway!! I don't know what is worse.... having your truck catch fire or dealing with insurance company. Not sure if I can list the name of my insurance company but they are reputable. To curb my depression I went out and bought a 2011 F250 Kings Ranch this Friday. Same color with more bells and whistles. A year newer with a bit more miles but I REALLY like it. Sunday night... ENGINE LIGHTS ON!! Can I catch a break??? Taking it back to dealer this morning to insist on repair or handing the keys back to them. I feel I may have jumped the gun anyhow.. I try to stay positive but past experiences with insurance have rub me raw!! I fear they will claim the truck repairable or worse.... give me less than my payoff.
Any thoughts on buying salvage title and selling usable parts??
My 2008's alt. fried on me and took out the two batteries. A little smoke leaked out through the hood when I was on the highway at a toll booth, then all the dash lights came on and I pulled over immediately and found a good spot to park cause I knew it was gonna get towed. I should have left it in neutral but I didn't and I left it in park. Because I had no power the tow truck guy couldn't put it in neutral and had to crawl underneath and pop the pin and then put it in neutral so he could pull it up on the flat bed. Lesson learned, loosing power (battery) put the truck in neutral before shutting her down.
Luckily no fire, dealer replaced the alt and two batteries under warranty. Truck had about 85k on it at the time.
What's with the 6.4's? Ive been away from them for a little bit but when I had mine they were the shat. Big power with the usual add ons. Recently I've heard they have a terrible issue with a little water in the HPFP goes boom. Total distruction. What's the deal? I loved my 6.4.
Still no word on cause of the fire and most likely will not get an answer (according to the insurance investigators). It sure would put my mind at rest if I knew. Especially since I just bought another Super Duty. Have to say the insurance company gave me about 4K over KBB excellent condition estimate.
That sucks, but at least you got a new one, and insurance gave you a fair payout. What was the issue with the check engine light on the new truck?
Lessons learned:
1) Carry a fire extinguisher in all of your vehicles
2) Stop and investigate when you get a battery light (or any other caution light)
3) Optima batteries are overrated. A local place had them on sale one time for a really good price, so I got three (one for each of my vehicles at the time). None of them lasted more than 2 years.
Engine light on new truck was the DEF pump going out which they say is typical at 75K miles. Whether that is true or not I got it replaced at no charge.
Thanks for the Lessons Learned!!
I've never had any issues with my Optima's but do hear a lot of complaints from others.
I only buy OEM Motorcraft batteries straight from my dealership. They cost me $130 each. I took my old batteries back for the core charge and got $30 back.
It's not worth it to me to buy any cheaper batteries at all. The ones at autozone are around $10 less last I checked, and thats the cheap ones. If you get the fancy autozone ones they are more than OEM, and not as good IMO
I may have had other work done at the time, but it was 2 years ago and I remember walking out $500 lighter.. either way, they work great. My point was, the alternator almost caught my truck on fire. I'll leave my repair bill out next time.
I bought Optima's and I too was about $500 lighter. I believe you get what you pay for so didn't mind the cost for a good set of batteries!! Seems to me if the battery light comes on it is most likely a warning to grab a fire extinguisher. I will have one in my new truck today!! Thank you for sharing your experience.
I had my secondary alternator freeze up, luckily it didn't catch fire but it put so much drag on the engine I couldn't get it to start after I shut it off. It seems the factory alternators may be an issue in these trucks, i've heard of multiple fires and multiple that have locked up.
Also, I have 2 Diehard Platinum (Relabeled Odysseys) batteries in my truck that ran about $220 each, something like 950 CCA and 1350 CA, truck spins up significantly faster than with the old stock batteries. Ive had them for about 5 years/80K miles without a hitch. AGM batteries are hard to beat for performance and durability, but they don't come cheap. Sadly they dont sell Diehard Platinums anymore. That being said, Ive never had good luck with Optimas either. I had one in a lexus ls400 for about 2.5/3 years before it gave out, I expected more for the money. Hell the Interstate batteries at Costco have a 3yr free replacement and they are way cheaper than Optimas
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