How to lose a new VW California to Fire from a flat tyre!

[siestacampers]

"I felt compelled to share this experience with the forum as both a cautionary tale and an example of how some people (not all) treat rental vehicles. We received a call from a customer who had rented a van and was travelling in Northern Spain. They reported a flat tyre, and when they sent us a photo, it became clear they had been driving on it for some time. The tyre's sidewall was utterly worn out and had lost its strength.

Then, 15 minutes later, they called again to report that the tyre was smoking. We panicked and directed them to the fire extinguisher, but unfortunately, they didn't heed our advice. Lord knows for what reason, probably in a panic themselves. Instead, a kind passerby attempted to douse it with a bottle of water. I think this exacerbated the situation and they called back, this time to inform us that the van was on fire and beyond saving. They even filmed it burning down and sent us the video.

First and foremost, we are immensely relieved that no one was injured. It's just metal it has insurance etc. But I was blown away by how quickly the situation deteriorated from something so small"

 

[sidepod]

The world is brimmed full of idiots. FACT

 

[flying banana]

Wow.

 

[colintfcolintf]

Wow

 

[B J G]

I'd doubt UK Insurance would pay out when knowingly driven on a flat tyre caused the fire.

 

[DevillBelgium]

Thank god all of you are ok.
Nevertheless its a shame that you had such a bad experience.

 

[Corradobrit]

I don't think they drove very far on the flat tyre. The side wall would have been destroyed by the rim in short order and the carcass looks to be in reasonably good condition.
I would be curious to know the brand, model and weight rating for that tyre though.

At least no one was injured so thats the best news.

 

[andyinluton]

Then, 15 minutes later, they called again to report that the tyre was smoking. We panicked and directed them to the fire extinguisher, but unfortunately, they didn't heed our advice. Lord knows for what reason, probably in a panic themselves.

Unless the fire extinguisher held at least 100 Gallons of water it wouldnt have done much.

To catch light a rubber tyre needs to be up to about 400 degrees centigrade. A hand held extinguisher of any size isn't going to hold enough water or foam to cool something that large enough. Even if you got the flame extinguished there would be enough residual heat to re-ignite it.

The only thing that would have saved the van is a very large puddle or a ford.

 

[Californication69]

Thats blown my mind. Glad everybody is alive though. Quite right, its just a metal box at the end of the day.

 

[KevH]

I am accustomed to seeing pics of Splitties and bays alight at the side of the road, but a Cali? First time for everything, what a horrible and shocking experience.

 

[siestacampers]

I don't think they drove very far on the flat tyre. The side wall would have been destroyed by the rim in short order and the carcass looks to be in reasonably good condition.
I would be curious to know the brand, model and weight rating for that tyre though.

At least no one was injured so thats the best news.

Original continentals that came with the van.

 

[siestacampers]

Unless the fire extinguisher held at least 100 Gallons of water it wouldnt have done much.

To catch light a rubber tyre needs to be up to about 400 degrees centigrade. A hand held extinguisher of any size isn't going to hold enough water or foam to cool something that large enough. Even if you got the flame extinguished there would be enough residual heat to re-ignite it.

The only thing that would have saved the van is a very large puddle or a ford.

7kg of extingusiher has got to stand more chance than a bottle of Evian.

 

[siestacampers]

7kg of extingusiher has got to stand more chance than a bottle of Evian.

I've worked on T2 and spilts for 20 years had my fair share of engines fires put out with a fire extuingisher.

 

[yossarian]

I wouldn't rule out a brake fault. I've seen far more damaged tyres that didn't catch fire.

And the van has, at minimum, wheel speed based tpms. So less likely to have been driven on for long.

 

[siestacampers]

I wouldn't rule out a brake fault. I've seen far more damaged tyres that didn't catch fire.

And the van has, at minimum, wheel speed based tpms. So less likely to have been driven on for long.

We thought that but the smoke was coming from the tyre, could have drifted up through the disk I guess. It does have a telematics system that says it drove at 90kmhr for 11 minutes on its last trip.

 

[Californication69]

I wonder if they had petrol or some other sort of flammable liquid in the Evian bottle.
Very strange how water would cause a tyre to go on fire ?

 

[pjm-84]

I don't think they drove very far on the flat tyre. The side wall would have been destroyed by the rim in short order and the carcass looks to be in reasonably good condition.
I would be curious to know the brand, model and weight rating for that tyre though.

At least no one was injured so thats the best news.

Agree. I had to drive my Volvo about <1km on a flat tyre and the side wall was considerable worse than that. Tyre was kaput. Unfortunatly I had an instant puncture but it was two lanes and a flyover and I wasn't going to stop until it was safe to do so....

I'm sure I will stumble upon the burnt out picture somewhere on social media with "another EV fire" ....

Wonder if that was a handbrake issue? Smoking would be the brakes (or hub bearing), and water cooling is quite common on racing trucks without issue

 

[Calimili]

If the tyres were the original Conti, they are "C" type (commercial) with much harder in order to take abuse, as usually driven from the trade. So the carcass wouldn't get destroyed that easily.

For reference, on my slightly lighter Q7 I once had a flat on the much bigger 285 wide 21" tires, and being on the motorway, luckily approaching a rest stop, I limped at 40km/h for probably less than a mile to the rest stop to change tyre. I had then to wait because despite the slow speed and short distance, it was too hot to touch with bare hands.
If they have driven the Cali with a flat tyre at 90km/h for 11mins with a much heavier Ocean on much smaller tyres, it is certainly possible that it got so hot it caught fire.

 

[yossarian]

The telematics may have logged a tpms fault with the mothership. If so the timing would be informative.

 

[stephen watson]

Forgive my ignorance. Assuming it wasn't a brake problem, can driving slowly for a mile or so (to get off a motorway for example), knowingly with a flat tyre cause the tyre to heat up enough to cause a fire? I'd always assumed it was driving unknowingly with an under inflated tyre at speed that was dangerous.

 

[WelshGas]

Looking at the photos , is it the tyre that burst into flame or the sliding door trim of the open sliding door that when open, as in the photo, is close to the hot tyre/ wheel?

 

[siestacampers]

Forgive my ignorance. Assuming it wasn't a brake problem, can driving slowly for a mile or so (to get off a motorway for example), knowingly with a flat tyre cause the tyre to heat up enough to cause a fire? I'd always assumed it was driving unknowingly with an under inflated tyre at speed that was dangerous.

I was chatting with a friend last night who said the same thing happened to him on the M25 a few years back. He was driving a Mercedes Sprinter and he noticed black smoke billowing from the back of the van. By the time he got over to the hard shoulder and got out of the van, the tyre burst into flames. Luckily for him, someone pulled over with a proper-sized extinguisher and was putting it out while he managed to remove the wheel; he said even while extinguishing, it kept reigniting, and when he managed to take it off and threw it aside, it burst into flames again. The problem is when you're driving, it's cooling the tyre, but when you stop, the heat builds up, and that's when it bursts into flames. I think the speed you're travelling at is an essential factor. He hadn't realised he had a flat tyre until he saw the smoke billowing.

 

[Rebus]

 

[Roger Boeken]

I was chatting with a friend last night who said the same thing happened to him on the M25 a few years back. He was driving a Mercedes Sprinter and he noticed black smoke billowing from the back of the van. By the time he got over to the hard shoulder and got out of the van, the tyre burst into flames. Luckily for him, someone pulled over with a proper-sized extinguisher and was putting it out while he managed to remove the wheel; he said even while extinguishing, it kept reigniting, and when he managed to take it off and threw it aside, it burst into flames again. The problem is when you're driving, it's cooling the tyre, but when you stop, the heat builds up, and that's when it bursts into flames. I think the speed you're travelling at is an essential factor. He hadn't realised he had a flat tyre until he saw the smoke billowing.

Recent modems have tire pressure monitoring. should have given warning before it got smoking hot ?

 

[larrylamb]

Recent modems have tire pressure monitoring. should have given warning before it got smoking hot ?

my golf has tpms but gave me no warning when i set off to work with a flat a few weeks ago.