My mates vT's engine caught fire the other day, I told him I thought it was a short seeing as the wires were burnt. He thought petrol was the cause but i disagreed when I finally saw it. A whole group of wires in corrigated conduit going to the negative terminal had melted and left dark black starnds of wire remaing. The fire from the wires set the insulation on the underside of the bonnet on fire and burnt his left rocker cover and one of the leads. He had to put it out with water and didn't cause too much damage (except the fact that cold water on an engine isn't good). It also made the paint bubble on the outside of the bonnet.

Anyhow, the mechanic said the whole loom is f**k and he's not sure what may have caused it. He also said he won't tell him a quote as he doesn't want to get his hopes up and then tell him later that the bill will be very high. Just before he does anything, just wandering if anyone knows any tell-tale problems that would cause a group of negative terminals to fry. The only thing I can think of so far is that it was close to a lead and wondering if its possible the lead was sparking to the wires perhaps? Any help from the expertise of ford owners would be appreciated.

Like I said in another post drinking seems to make me helpful...

Anyway it sounds like he had a serious short in the loom somewhere (state the obvious ). The looms on most newer cars (I've got no experience with coonodores whatsoever) are removable at the firewall. So if he has had a fire in ther it is pretty easy to replace the whole thing. Basically plug and play from a wrecker. But I don't blame the mechanic for not wanting to quote as electrical problems can soak up a lot of time. Time=money.