Re: Help - Air filter assembly caught on fire

[ChuckKuecker <ckuecker@mcs.net>]

At 20:40 4/26/97 -0500, you wrote:
>As I was driving today, my '88 16V started puttering and then stalled. 
>When I popped the hood, I could see smoke and smell plastic burning. 
>After getting it home and disassembling the air filter assembly, I found
>the air filter had pretty much burned up, the plastic housing is all
>melted inside and some of the hoses have also melted.  The engine still
>turns over and runs briefly before stalling out.
>
>Does anyone know how and why this happened and other than having to
>replace the filter (which seems to be the only thing signficantly
>damaged) is there anything else that should definately be replaced.  My
>other concern is how much damage I may have done to the engine since
>there was no air filter on my 20 minute drive home and there was
>difinately alot of debris still in the housing when I took it apart. 
>God knows what got sucked up into the engine.
>
>My knowledge in this are is very limited, so any help would be
>appreciated.  Especially since I have to drive to work on Monday.
>
>Thanks in advance.

If the debris were plastic or paper, you probably did no damage with them.
Running wihtout an air cleaner won't hurt if it is not done for hundreds or 
thousands of miles, or in a FILTHY area.

I would imagine your engine had backfired into the air cleaner, which may have
been oil soaked, or fuel soaked. Was there a strong odor of gasoline around
the car before this happened?

I would pull the intake manifold and clean it, at the minimum. Look at your fuel
injection system, and your ignition. One cause of backfiring is a cracked or 
tracked distributor cap. Another is a partially open intake valve, but you
probably would have other symptoms also.

Chuck Kuecker

ckuecker@mcs.net

'83 Scirocco
'58 Ghia Convert
'67 Bug
'63 Bug
'91 Vanagon


--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send email to scirocco-L-request@privateI.com,
with your request (subscribe, unsubscribe) in the BODY of the message.