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Check your brake lines. My Excursion caught on fire!!

Dargo

Like a bad penny...
GOLD Site Supporter
Almost lost my X due to failed brake line setting X on fire!!

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I'd just finished launching a couple of Jet Skis and was pulling up a crowded boat ramp when I smelled smoke. I started looking around and then felt a searing pain in my right foot. The bootie to my wetsuit was on fire from flames coming up through the floor of the Excursion!! :boom:

I then tried to immediately stop to get my burning bootie off my foot and see what was going on and the brake pedal went to the floor like a clutch pedal. The only thing I could then do was get up the ramp ASAP to take care of matters. I hit the throttle, and nothing; it stayed at idle, and actually started rolling back down the ramp at other boaters! Suddenly, it goes to full throttle and I can't stop it with the emergency brake. So, I'm on fire, my Excursion is on fire, and the V10 is roaring for all it's worth towards more people. Oh snap! (but I was saying it with a little more salty language) as I noticed my right side wet suit bootie with flames coming off of it. If you look at the rubber floor mat pic, you can see the outline of my right foot sort of melted into shape in the mat.

All I could do was control it by turning it on and off with the ignition switch, which was causing it to backfire something fierce. Once I got it on level ground I shut it off and realized I now had no gear shift selector. I guess that cable had burned through. I popped the hood, set the emergency brake, ripped off what was left of my right wet suit bootie and jumped out and raised the hood. I had a fire from where the brake line had ruptured and was spraying fluid on the exhaust manifold. My fire extinguishers were on my Jet Skis 300 yards away and the fire was spreading fast. I started pouring liquids on towels and tried to put the fire out.

I thought I had the fire by the gas pedal put out with a wet towel so I scooted under the X to try the same with another damp towel, all the while yelling "FIRE, HELP" as loud as I could. I was greeted under the X with dripping balls of fire that set my wetsuit on fire. It looked like I was going to lose my 60k mile, one owner immaculate X to fire at that point.

Fortunately while I was rolling in the grass trying to extinguish my wetsuit and life vest two guys showed up with fire extinguishers! My saviors!! While one put me out the other worked on the X. By then my towel inside had started burning again so I ripped it out and he hit it with the extinguisher.
The blasted thing started on fire twice more before the fire department got there and put it out for good and used their thermal imager to make sure it was out. Fortunately the fire stayed contained to around the gas pedal area and directly above that and around that same area under the X. By then I had a puddle of brake fluid about 5' in diameter under the X from where the brake line apparently split at a bend and allowed brake fluid to spray directly on the exhaust manifold.

It's at the body shop right now and they said due to all the effort, they can definitely save the vehicle. They actually asked me to search the web to see if there were any other incicents like this. The fire department and the body shop (#1 rated body shop in the country) both said, after close inspection that Ford, GM and Chrysler have a very poor and dangerous design to allow a fractured brake line to set the vehicle on fire and I was lucky it happened where fire extinguishers were close at hand along with wet towels. Anyone else ever heard of this? I was just a few seconds from the fire getting away from us and losing my babied 60k mile Excursion that would be hard to replace.
 

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XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
Dargo, you certainly have some interesting adventures. Glad everything worked out OK and you didn't get hurt or hurt anyone else.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
And he's the one who complains about my Touareg :pat:
 

pixie

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
That's scary ! Glad you and it will be OK.

I had an '88 Bronco catch on fire ( the heater, I think) Couldn't get it out of gear or shut it off. Drove it into a snowbank and shovelled snow into the engine compartment. Lots of snow. Gave it 3 fire extinquishers..... It was a great plow truck til then.
 

Dargo

Like a bad penny...
GOLD Site Supporter
And he's the one who complains about my Touareg :pat:

You're just jealous because you don't have a feet heater. LOL

On a serious note, I did look on the internet all I could to see if anyone else has ever reported this problem with an Excursion and see if possibly Ford has some sort of recall, TSB etc., but I've not found any other incident of this happening with an Excursion. I guess I'm just the lucky one. :unsure:
 

tommu56

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I can tell you I would have pi$$ed in my suit with all that going on hence putting out that part of the fire my self:yum:
 

Dargo

Like a bad penny...
GOLD Site Supporter
I can tell you I would have pi$ in my suit with all that going on hence putting out that part of the fire my self:yum:

See that black on the picture of the rubber floor mat? That's what's left of about the last 3 or 4" of my wetsuit bootie.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Brent, being a Ford guy I'm sure you are aware of the joint venture.

Renault and Ford are working on a new small car for women which should be far less susceptible to theft.

They are mixing the Renault Clio and the Ford Taurus, calling it the "Cli-taurus."

The average male thief won't be able to find it, let alone operate the damn thing.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Good thing that you're ok.

Now, onto the ford jokes.:biggrin:

You do realize what Ford stands for, right?

Found On Ramp Dead

:yum: Sorry, couldn't resist.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I thought it was "Fixed Or Repaired Daily"
 

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
FORDs

Fire On Ramp Delivery System

Sorry Brent - couldn't resist piling on.

Doesn't the firewall come down enough to protect the front of the floorboard?
 

jwstewar

Active member
FORDs

Fire On Ramp Delivery System

Sorry Brent - couldn't resist piling on.

Doesn't the firewall come down enough to protect the front of the floorboard?

Seems like the firewall didn't do too much does it? Guess when they said firewall, they didn't mean to keep it out but to spread it to the passenger compartment.

Glad you are OK Brent. I'm not sure if you are brave or stupid:whistling:, I don't know that I would have gotten burned and risked my life trying to save a vehicle - even one that I really liked. Wait a minute, yes, I do know, I would have bailed on it and let it go in the lake. At least the fire would've been out.

As we said when our house burned. We did OK, We weren't hurt (weren't at home), firemen weren't hurt putting the fire out, and we salvage most of our pictures. The rest of it is just stuff, we'll get new stuff.
 

300 H and H

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Would said brake lines be on F2,3,&450 trucks? If so many vehicals can do this. I will have to checkitout on my F250. The Excursion if I am not mistaken uses the same front frame and engine compartment components as the other F250 and up series trucks. Anyone know?

Regards, Kirk
 
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