PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

A friend of a friend posted these pictures on facebook of her car. Supposedly she had smoke coming from the hood, pulled over, popped the hood and it was on fire. Most certainly a UIM failure I'd say. Can you guess what it is? I didn't know at first, but I think I got it figured out.

2000-2005 Buick LeSabre

PLAGUE PHANTOM wrote:2000-2005 Buick LeSabre

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1st pic I thought it was a 98-05 Park Ave but the next couple pics gave it away.


But wow that was a terrible fire. So did your friend just get away from the car when it was on fire or what happened there?


Sidenote: Not sure if anyone watches Hardcore PAWN, but on there a guys Impala started on fire. (Is it bad I knew exactly what caused it right away...lol)

That wasn't from the UIM. There's no way.

It was likely from a bad fuel pressure regulator. Very common failure point on the L36. Same can be said for that one on Hardcore Pawn too. (I saw that episode earlier in the summer)

The UIM's with the regulator issue is a problem when you start the car, have a slight backfire through the intake and BOOM...

I bet my money on the fuel line was leaking and sparked a fire under the hood... Very common fuel leak is the pressure fitting, over time the movement of the engine wears out the O rings and the fuel dribbles out onto a hot engine...

Sad to see the car burn to the ground tho...

Ya, I should have been more clear like you Don. lol. Based on classic signs of a UIM just leaking coolant, there's no way it would have caused a fire like that.

Wow.

I'm starting to see why GM dumped the plastic lines/fittings under the hood and updated them to metal fuel lines on later cars. The '11 Impala has metal fittings with crimped rubber lines as seen Here. They turn to plastic under the car.

That was one heck of a fire! Very sad to see a 3800 go down like this :( Another reason its good we check over our cars every now and then...just to ensure nothing is leaking or acting differently than expected!

Agreed... I have had to replace the fitting on my 95 some time ago... I will replace the length of line in the near future... I have also had to replace the same section on my 03, it had developed that same leak...

I know what that car is. It's a total loss!!!

For sure a 00+ LeSabre.

Sucks to see that. If she hadn't have popped the hood, she could've probably gotten her stuff out before the whole car went up... (added more air to the fire)

Looks like a 97-04 Regal to me. The body does not seem long enough to be a LeSabre.

At least she was on a dirt road!!

Definately a Lesabre. The dead give-aways are the wheels, and the front bumper and radiator support (identical to the H-body Bonneville).

The rear struts give it away that it's a LeSabre. W-bodies have coilover struts in the back.

vogie01 wrote:Looks like a 97-04 Regal to me. The body does not seem long enough to be a LeSabre.

At least she was on a dirt road!!

Those wheels scream Lesabre, plus the gas door is round and directly above the wheel, also LeSabre. Regals have more of a square gas door that's a touch farther back from the wheel.

That is undeniably a LeSabre, no question about it.

LeSabre:


Regal:


Look at the back door. The Regal has a triangle quarter window, the LeSabre has the rounded corner towards the back. No Question.

I guess I always thought that engine fires on 3800s were cause by the dread UIM failure! Shows how much I know! haha. Like Andrew said, it screams H-Body. Even whats left of the seat you can tell it's similar to the Bonneville seats (if not the same)

wow lots of heat... the last pic there is no rear rim.....
dont worry though....That'll buff right out! No worries!

WOW. i have seen fires before (when hanging at a junkyard you see all kinds, mostly Taurus with the valve cover leak at the back will spark one up very fast, and one Probe caught fire after being allowed to overheat (it was junk with no oil press but kept going anyway) but in those cases they never allowed the entire car to burn. a bit of water or a tiny B-C fire extinguisher did the trick. i had a Caddy limo do that once due to a bad oil leak onto the exhaust and it only burned a few wiring harnesses. usually with burning to the ground the first they see a fire they take off and run. kinda fearful of quick explosions in those movies, usually that doesn't happen till it gets to the rear

That is actually a really sad sight.