Where there's smoke, THERE'S FIRE!!!!

[parris001]

First off, this forum is great in helping me keep my old Explorer up and running. It's a great truck, been through three generations of my family, and I can't just give up on her.

Wednesday I was going to work and I started getting smoke out of my vents. You know the drill, smelled like someone's wood burning stove. I panicked and pulled over and popped the hood. Nothing under there. Nothing at all. So I closed her back up and started home. Figured I'd get there because I wasn't that far away. On my trip back to the house the smoke started rolling and the smell turned very much plastic. I pulled over again and raised the hood and this time saw the fire. It was coming from down below. Between the fan motor and evaporator housing. I had a half gallon of antifreeze in the back of the truck. I snatched my battery ground off (I never keep these things tight) and doused the fire with the antifreeze. Once I knew it was out I pulled the fuse and relay for the blower motor and actually continued back to work.

My question is: it melted my evaporator housing pretty good. How hard is it to pull that half of the housing off to possibly patch it? I was considering doing a little sheetmetal or aluminum patch panel repair. But I may just pull the housing off and 'glass it.

 

[shucker1]

Parris001,

Quick thinking on putting you fire out on your rig. You did what you had to do.

Just an FYI. AntiFreeze will burn like an alcohol fire if it gets hot enough. I know this from personal experience with and engine offshore.

A turbocharger cooling line blew out and sprayed A\F all over the hot exhaust manifold and "The Fun Started"! LOL.


Santa Clause may want to bring you a fire extinguisher for Christmas.

 

[timtimtimajim]

It's kinda difficult to pull only half of the evaporator housing as some of the screws that hold the halfs together on the underside are hard to reach from any angle. You could always drop the wheel well liner to reach them.

Or you could pull the whole blower box and replace with one from the junkyard. The downside to this is you have to disconnect your evaporator from the A/C. You would have to discharge the A/C system to do that. Then recharge when done.

Either route you go you'll have to pull the air box out to give you a little more space to work. Which isn't hard at all.

 

[natenkiki2004]

If you could, get us some pictures so we know what you're dealing with. But to me it sounds like you'll have to pull the whole thing. That was not fun when I did it in mine and I was just ripping & tearing to eliminate the AC system. Personally, I'd be more concerned to find the cause of the fire rather than to repair the box. A quick temporary fix for the box would be some of that aluminum tape.

 

[parris001]

I see how the whole thing is made now. The "side" of the evaporator housing that is under the heater hose connections is just that foil covered fiberglass insulation. And it acts as a filter for incoming air on the evaporator.

I'm gonna trim up the damage as best as possible and fab up a piece of aluminum to act as more of a shield to keep more of the same type debris from falling in there in the future.

 

[timtimtimajim]

Just thought of this. Your fire could have been caused by debris inside the box. Leaves maybe. This debris could have hit the blower motor resistor and caught fire. I would recommend pulling the blower motor out and checking if there is debris inside the box and cleaning it out if needed. Just a recommendation to prevent further issues.

 

[Number4]

One half of the evaporator box can be undone from the engine bay. The other half has screws going into it from under the dash.

You should be able to get both pieces off without opening the AC system.

As mentioned, leaves etc.. can pile up on the resister and cause a fire. Also, mice tend to build nests in that exact spot as well.

 

[Arne13]

The first sticky at the top of this page addresses this issue. Arne.

 

[malohnes]

Just thought of this. Your fire could have been caused by debris inside the box. Leaves maybe. This debris could have hit the blower motor resistor and caught fire. I would recommend pulling the blower motor out and checking if there is debris inside the box and cleaning it out if needed. Just a recommendation to prevent further issues.

My first thought exactly, happened to me...

 

[malohnes]

If you could, get us some pictures so we know what you're dealing with. But to me it sounds like you'll have to pull the whole thing. That was not fun when I did it in mine and I was just ripping & tearing to eliminate the AC system. Personally, I'd be more concerned to find the cause of the fire rather than to repair the box. A quick temporary fix for the box would be some of that aluminum tape.

Aluminum tape won't last too long if you decide to tape and leave it for a while. I did that and the tape adhesive wears away with engine heat after a few months. IT leaves a messy residue afterwards that is a pain to clean. But, it should work fine in the short term.

I eliminated my A/C this way and never found a non-A/C shroud for the blower but modified the A/C version. One day I'll fix that....one of many projects to do

 

[Turdle]

Leaves and debris can work their way into the HVAC box ( blower fan) where the speed control resistor will ignite them

https://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259276&highlight=leaves+burning+smell

 

[KEN's Exploder]

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data//3914/medium/IMG_0534.jpg

Debris I removed from my blower housing and AC housing that started to burn from the fan resistor.

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data//3914/medium/IMG_0532.jpg