Dash destroyed in electrical fire.

[purpleminx]

First off, sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place.

I'm a new poster who's looking for some idea or advice on what happened to my own little 2006 Yaris. I figured the people here were the best to ask considering Toyota hasn't gotten back to me yet.

Long story short... On Thursday when I returned to a car park somebody told me my car was on fire. When the fire department got there they said that it was an electrical fire, and that they couldn't pinpoint what started it.

I KNOW that I left NOTHING in the car that could have done this, and I've NEVER installed anything in the car. All services have been done by Toyota. A friend suggested that a short circuit sparked, lit the synthetic carpet on fire which then set the dash alight.

The windshield shattered and the entire car is smoke damaged. I have a pretty wicked tint job going on right now.

If anyone here has seen this before, or heard of it before, or knows just exactly what Toyota will do considering it's still under warranty (and definitely a write off), I'd greatly appreciate their input.

Pics below.

[Bob_VT]

Wow that sucks. That is the first one I have seen and the first electrical fire I have heard about in a Yaris (actually any toyota).

My suggestion is.......
clean out your cigarette butts.....
let the insurance company handle it and they will probably approach toyota about the warranty.....

[Bob_VT]

I can tell you that Toyota WILL NOT admit any fault or they would be responsible......

Did you EVER install any electrical items yourself?

[purpleminx]

The cigarette butts would never be blamed. They're all empty of any tobacco. I used to hold them out the window and twist them until the lit part fell out of the car.

I never installed anything in the car. From the sounds of it, Toyota already knows they're in deep. It got towed from the insurance company's assessment centre over to Toyota on Friday, and when we spoke to them we were told that after they saw it, they were instructed to lock it up, put it somewhere, and call in a bunch of engineers.

[andries]

Whow, that looks very bad

I hope for you that this can be made.

[cleong]

I sure hope you've not fitted voltage stabilizers or anything of that sort. Otherwise you haven't got a leg to stand on.

[Bob_VT]

Well..... this is going to sound terrible but I hope it was a toyota "fault" and you should be replaced free-of-charge. In the insurance industry there is a term..... substitution of collateral where you should end up with a new car if your current one is financed.

I have seen fire destroy chevrolets and fords too in the US

[purpleminx]

I haven't installed anything, added anything, changed anything, and all services were done by Toyota.

[purpleminx]

No lit cigarette butts were possible. Hadn't had a single one in the car that day. Just got in, drove to where we were going, went away from the car for 20 minutes, came back, windows were blacked out, and sirens were in the distance =/

[*MAD DOG*]

Originally Posted by purpleminx

No lit cigarette butts were possible. Hadn't had a single one in the car that day. Just got in, drove to where we were going, went away from the car for 20 minutes, came back, windows were blacked out, and sirens were in the distance =/

That is one messed up Yaris. Just a few questions, you say "...drove to where we were going..." To me that indicates that you had at least one other passenger in the car, right?

Do they smoke?

Could they have left something on the passenger side of the car?

What brightness setting did you have the speedo on?

It really is unusual for a Toyota to catch fire. I hope it all gets sorted out in your favor.

[purpleminx]

Originally Posted by *MAD DOG*

That is one messed up Yaris. Just a few questions, you say "...drove to where we were going..." To me that indicates that you had at least one other passenger in the car, right?

Do they smoke?

Could they have left something on the passenger side of the car?

What brightness setting did you have the speedo on?

It really is unusual for a Toyota to catch fire. I hope it all gets sorted out in your favor.

They smoke, but like I said, we didn't smoke in the car that day. I'm not sure if they left anything in the car, but if they did, and it's recognisably theirs, and I'm presented with it as being the cause.... God help me.

The brightness setting was on default.

Originally Posted by cleong

If you're in Brisbane and the car has to go to the scrapyard, I'd be interested in buying the steering column off you. Australian Yarii steering wheels are adjustable for tilt and reach, aren't they?

I am in Brisbane, actually. The car is sitting in the Morningside Downtown Toyota Service Centre right now. Called them yesterday, apparantly it's caused quite the stir. It's definitely a write off, so I'll see what I want to do with the leftovers after all this is done.

Originally Posted by contraband831

It looks like the fire started here, so i will ask this again to the OP: is this a flashlight?? if so this could have caused the fire, the batteries where exposed to extreme heat. It looks like the fire traveled up form this point destroying your dash and gauge cluster.

The car wasn't exposed to prolonged or extreme heat. It was left sitting there for maybe 20 minutes max. While it was a moderately hot and sunny day, it was partially shaded by a tree, especially on the passenger side. I refuse to believe that it was the torch. If it was, that area of the car would have sustained so much more damage. The damage that is down there is basically just melted dash thats dripped onto the torch.

I think it had to have been something further up in the dash. Not the storage compartments, not down where the torch is. The heat had to have been extreme where the dash is melted away and the wires are all exposed. Look what it did to the windshield.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...0102008074.jpg

The plastic is so tough that if you look closely at the pictures in my first post, you can see that the rear view mirror actually touches the drivers side floor now. I don't think a torch could start the kind of fire or heat necessary to light the dash on fire.

Then again, I admittedly, don't know that much about cars.

Originally Posted by stran

If someone has time, they can look through the service manual and figure out what's actually behind the dash. If the ignition is off, most of the wires will not be live, so that would narrow down what could cause the fire.

From the extent of the damage and the time that it would have taken to get like that, I'm assuming that the problem actually started towards the end of my journey, probably before I turned the car off and got out.

[purpleminx]

It was a hot and sunny day, it always is, I live in Australia, lol. Nothing in the top compartment that was flammable. There were just some pieces of paper and my GPS unit.

[Bob_VT]

Originally Posted by PK198105

i wouldn't tell them you had a gps, they will blame it for the malfunction. was it a battery powered one or cigarette lighter one? it could be that the lithium ion battery malfunctioned or cooked with the high heat (its been reported before ) . so th miux of high temps , paper bits and a malfunctioning gps unit or its power adapter and you have your fire. but thats just a theory

It's probably melted in the glove box........

[purpleminx]

They'll know I had a GPS anyway, considering it's fused into the top storage compartment, relatively untouched. You can see that the charger was plugged in to the car at the time of the fire. It was also plugged in to the GPS which was sitting in the top storage compartment. If it had been a fault in the GPS it would have melted the cable, and the top storage compartment would have been a lot more messed up than it is.

So... nobody thinks that the theory I presented is plausible?

It started in the dash itself. Not in the storage compartments. Look at the two photos from different sides of the car, look at how far back it goes.

[Bob_VT]

Originally Posted by purpleminx

They'll know I had a GPS anyway, considering it's fused into the top storage compartment, relatively untouched. You can see that the charger was plugged in to the car at the time of the fire. It was also plugged in to the GPS which was sitting in the top storage compartment. If it had been a fault in the GPS it would have melted the cable, and the top storage compartment would have been a lot more messed up than it is.

So... nobody thinks that the theory I presented is plausible?

It started in the dash itself. Not in the storage compartments. Look at the two photos from different sides of the car, look at how far back it goes.

What theory? You intitially said the carpet?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by purpleminx

They'll know I had a GPS anyway, considering it's fused into the top storage compartment, relatively untouched. You can see that the charger was plugged in to the car at the time of the fire. It was also plugged in to the GPS which was sitting in the top storage compartment. If it had been a fault in the GPS it would have melted the cable, and the top storage compartment would have been a lot more messed up than it is.

So... nobody thinks that the theory I presented is plausible?

It started in the dash itself. Not in the storage compartments. Look at the two photos from different sides of the car, look at how far back it goes.

I've done some analysis of this nature on some of our products that have had catastrophic failures in the field. If you weren't on the opposite side of the globe, I'd like to poke around under there. You would think that fuses would prevent this type of thing from happenning, but you'd be amazed at how little current it can take to set a small component ablaze.

Also, When I installed my remote start/ keyless entry unit in my car, I found a nice nick in one of the wires, with exposed copper. There is a mile of wiring in a modern car and a whole lot of sharp sheet metal (and humans dragging one over the other).

Having never seen a right-hand-drive Yaris in person, can someone describe what is different and the same under the dash. For example, is the fuse panel above the left front kick panel?

[purpleminx]

Originally Posted by CTScott

Having never seen a right-hand-drive Yaris in person, can someone describe what is different and the same under the dash. For example, is the fuse panel above the left front kick panel?

Knowing nothing about cars, I'm going to assume that you're asking if the fuse box is on the left hand side under the dash, the answer is yes.

Originally Posted by tuckevalastin

....

Or there was a problem with car's electrical systems that caused a fire, or am I looking too far into this?

That's what I'm thinking.

Originally Posted by TheRealEnth

i thought there was an airbag around that area?

There is. It's lucky that the fire didn't get in there and get to the explosive chemicals in there. There are huge yellow stickers on the windows from the fire department saying not to reconnect the airbag and stay clear of the deployment area.


If you guys can see a little silver thing that looks like it has buttons that's visible a bit out of the top storage compartment on the left hand side, that's the GPS. If it was due to the charger being faulty I would also assume that the cable going from it up to the GPS would be melted? I'm not sure.

Thanks for all the brain storming and suggestions so far, I imagine that Toyota is going to take their time with this so I'm just trying to figure out myself what it was.

Even after all this though, my next car is going to be another Yaris!

[purpleminx]

The theory is that a short circuit in the dash sparked, which lit the synthetic carpet that goes all the way from the floor up to underneath the dash. Then, in turn the carpet set the dash on fire.

Also, as I said previously. The fire department said that it was an electrical fire.