Irish Mini Owners Club

so was driving home from belfast this afternoon....

get a sudden loss of power but then returns instantly...

few mins later i get a weird smell, pull over to check under the car, under the bonnet, all looks grand..

then drive on for a minute or so and smoke starts appearing from the boot, pull over sharpishly, open the boot, a fire had started!!

the boot lining was a blaze, pulled everything out of the boot and got it out, burnt myself quite badly in the process

all seems to be fine, checked everything in the boot and it seems the battery connection must have arced off something and then started the fire

special thanks to kerryminigringo who kindly stopped to see if all was okay, cheers mate, appreciate it

Bad luck all right, but lucky you still have a car.

Was the battery retaining bar fitted properly and the cover in place ?

Wow Al, lucky escape there mate. How bad is your burn? As TMG said, lucky you still have the car.

Feckin drama queen

burns arent too bad, nothing i wont survive

neither the cover or the bar were in place unfortunately, both are firmly in place now tho

wow dude!
you really aren't having a good run are you!

at least you still have your life, and your mini, could have been a lot worse!

but as my mammy always says "bad luck comes in threes" and now you've had your three so hopefully that's it!


btw, any pictures of the damage?

Glad you and car are ok buddy. Another example of the importance of a working fire extinguisher in all minis.

Buddy wrote:burns arent too bad, nothing i wont survive

neither the cover or the bar were in place unfortunately, both are firmly in place now tho

Were they there before you had the last work on it done ?

id like to think so....but to be honest i cant be sure

Worth having a peek to make sure the gromit is in place in the floor. Often the cable coating gets worn through causing a short if the gromit is not in place. Not saying that is what happened in this case but a reminder to check it. Fire in car not good.

Glad to see you got home Alan,good idea to carry a fire extinguisher in your Mini.I usually keep one in the rear bin,easy to get to fast if you need it.Should have told me you got burnt,I always carry a first aid kit and it had burn gel in it.

Them battery covers and fire extinguishers are very important, Simon lost a mini because of a boot fire years ago, good to hear your ok.

one of my first ever spins in mine after cutting all the rust out and rebuilding my 998 i had jump leads in the boot just incase i hadn't put things back together properly and alt wasn't charging or something, well the chances of the teeth at either end of the black lead contacting the + and - of the battery would be 1000's to 1 i would say if not millions but it happened and the lead burst into flames. doodoo my panties! close call, glad your relativly unscaithed.