Well friends I had near death incident last month.
I was driving from my Hometown to Hyderabad.
After 60 km at one small village I noticed that brake was ineffective and I missed ramming to a Lorry tripper and after crossing the village I pulled over and opened the bonnet I am seeing fumes behind the engine.
I was not sure this was an Electric issues or why this was happening. I didn't have anything.
I immediately doused off the fumes.
On closer observation, I figured out that the Vaccum Brake booster pipe has melted due to fumes.
Car was Fully loaded along with my parents. I called the Team Leader of Service Center and he asked me for any Instrument cluster warnings.
There was no warnings. I was advised to drive slowly to the nearest town. I tried to check if I can get local mechanic and he was not available for nearly 90 minutes.
So I decided to not wait and drive for 80+ km slowly in this condition carefully. I was able to understand how at times it becomes challenging to drive in this condition keeping car and other road user safe.
On reaching the City and visiting local mechanic found out the cause of the fire. The Felt behind the engine Portion of it fell on the Exhaust and it caused for the fumes to burn off the Vaccum booster pipe, below is the pic:
View attachment 793518
A learning of a life time.
Had I not stopped to check it would have been catastrophic and probably I would have not been alive to write this info in this forum.
I had to thank god for saving me, my car, my family and other road users.
Now the interesting part is I complained to Nissan India and they were lethargic in their initial response.
When I blasted back they became serious and working to solve to my satisfaction.
This felt is a big piece in engine compartment and I did not notice the deterioration. Even Service Center is casual and not reported to me.
So my recommendation is, on regular basis take pics of engine bay and spend some time to compare to make sure all is well in Engine Bay. I don't think no Mechanic in Workshop or FNG will be serious to check this.
This may be one of the causes when car goes up in flames.
Till date nobody has asked for Felt and replaced it. Usually they might ignore. I am adamant to have the felt replaced and it may have been provided by car manufacturer with a purpose and why to run the car without the felt.
The felt is yet to be received at Service Center.
This is a freak incident and may happen to anyone.
So please keep a track of engine bay from time to time, thus making sure all of us remain safe.