One of the engineers here has a triple black C5 vert ('03 IIRC) that he drives to work occassionally. Yesterday while we sat waiting for a meeting to start, he relayed this story to me:

A few days ago, about 4 AM, his wife went into the garage to get something while he was getting ready to leave for work and came back into the house with a shocked expression on her face. She told him he no longer had a driver side view mirror on his C5.

He went out to inspect the car and discovered that, overnight, the mirror had spontaneously combusted. The fire had been large enough to melt the mirror completely off the car and destroyed the garage door opener that was about 4 feet directly above the car. In addition, the driver's door, fender, hood and windshield areas were significantly damaged by the flames to the tune of $5000. He said all that was left of the mirror on the door were four wires hanging out of the door panel.

Apparently there was no smoke detector in the garage and they were extremely lucky the flame extinguised itself without spreading. He said the garage air was pungent with burnt plastic smell but, other than that, there were no other signs of damage to the garage.

I have never heard of this type or location of a spontaneous fire in a C5 nor have his mechanic of many years, the insurance adjuster, or anyone else I know that is familiar with the C5. It will be interesting to hear the forensic engineer's findings (I have a couple of friends who do this for insurance companies and they're quite effective at determining the cause in these types of cases). I'll ask my friend for some pictures of his damaged C5 when he gets back (on vacation now).

I was eyeing the battery chargers I keep on my two C5s 24/7 when I'm not driving them last night as I know they get hot and have heard a few stories where they have burned up. I think a new smoke detector is warranted right over the Vettes.

Anyway, I'm grateful my friend and his wife are safe and sound and the damge to his C5 is being repaired.

 

Dodged a big bullet. I seriously doubt I'd hear a smoke alarm going off in the garage when I'm sleeping unless it's wired in a part of the whole house alarms.

 

Thanks for the info, will add smoke detector this weekend into my garage. I am glad your friends OK.

 

That's a great idea , I'm so concerned with weird stuff like that I always unplug everything before leaving my shop , the bad thing for me is I would never hear it , I may give the security company a call and see what they offer

 

Very interesting, any other issues of this type of thing happening with the C5. I keep all my Corvette's my basement and and going to keep an eye on this one.

TY..

 

I wonder how many members here actually keep a fire extinguisher in the garage. I have one by each door so I can grab it entering the garage. They don't do you any good under a bench if the bench is on fire.

 

Wonder if he added any lighting to the mirror/

 

I have a smoke alarm above both car bays, in the entranceway to my house from the garage and right above the door after you're in my house. A bit over the top, but it's cheap and should provide me extra notice in case something goes wrong.

 

I have one next to one of the garage doors - never know when you might need one.

Glad no more damage than what you described was done to your friend's car and house. I've never heard of that happening to a mirror either.

 

I have two in the garage - one near each door that lead into the house and to the back.

Nada - he's not a modding kind of guy, whatsoever. It is a bone-stock C5 vert. He doesn't evern work on it himself - he has a trusted mechanic that's worked on his cars for 25 years.

No signs of trouble such as humming or difficulty with the mirror either.

 

seems strange, sad to here that happened. He is lucky that could have been far worse.

things just don't normally catch on fire without help. would be curious to learn more about this.

anybody ever here of this?

 

Yikes. My guess is the motor got stuck on and overheated. I am surprised that it'd generate enough heat to catch on fire, though.

Ive heard of seat motors catching on fire but those I imagine are a lot more powerful than the one in the mirror.

 

Should have popped a fuse before it caught a mirror on fire.

 

Almost hard to believe, those wires that drive the mirror motor are paper clip thin and I think would burn out in an instant. I am the mirrors are fused also! Something else caused this fire but what? Anyway I got insurance for that.

 

I would wonder about any aftermarket additions . . .this doesn't seem logical . . .glad the car and house were saved !

 

As I mentioned above - totally stock C5. This guy wouldn't know a mod if it bit him in the patootey.