TPIS sent me out a new fuel cross over tube. I stood the new one up on end against the old one and sure enough, my old tube was at least .150" shorter than the new one. It was enough for the tube to shift around and allow the o-ring to loose its seal.

Anyway I put the new one in and there's no more cross-play between the fuel rails.

 

That seems to be fairly typical of most aftermarket parts. I could swear some of that stuff was made not to fit.

 

So, are they paying for the fire damage since they sent you the wrong size tube to begin with?

 

I'm not really pursuing it to that point. To be honest, the damage was minimal- just some melted wire looms and vacuum lines. Had it repaired in about an hour after the fire was put out. The fire was small enough to localized right behind the rear pass-side fuel rail and we put it out before it got out of control. The biggest PITA was getting all of that fire extinguisher residue off the car.

However, I did send a nasty-gram to TPIS letting them know that they're very fortunate that A.) The damage was minimal and B.) they lucky that I'm not the sue-happy type. However, if this happend out on the road and the damage was significant, you could bet your bottom dollar I'd be talking to my lawyer.

 

People laugh at me for carrying around a fire extinquisher for the first couple mths after I assemble a car.

I havent used it on my rides except once. Ever put out a brake fire on a 89 Turbo Trans AM? I have :-) Put out fires on other peoples cars too.

Get one of those small stupid ones and keep it on hand.

With all the fooling we do with wires and fuel lines and pressure and elec. connections its a very very wise investment.

I also agree that the nice white/yellow paste from extinquishers is the best joy to clean up. I think they is still some on the inside of the rim lol

later
Jeremy

 

Well, I still haven't heard back from TPIS. You'd think the words "ENGINE FIRE" in the subject line would warrant immediate attention??

Anyway, they're probably having their lawyers formulate an innocuous response that doesn't "admit or deny" responsibility...

 

You must be the only one that has ever happened to
Of course it will end up being a problem with a subcontracted vendor that supplied the tubes. Still surprised they didn't aknowledge the message after sending you the corrected part.
Fire extinguisher and a wrench to remove the battery cable are a minimum.
After having a + battery cable melt to a header and begin hissing at me as it bubbled and swelled up in the sparking smoke cloud, got me to thinking I don't need blood pressure or adrenaline levels that high ever again.

 

Having had a close personal friend catch fire once, I almost always carry an extinguisher with me. The GN, and truck each have one, the garage has 1, and the house has one.

Once you see a bad burn victim, you'll always have one around.