Low-Mileage Jaguar XKR Destroyed by Mysterious Engine Bay Fire
Head’s Up: One of the forum members recently lost his 2012 jaguar XKR Convertible to a mysterious engine bay fire.
The sad image above was posted by JaguarForums member think2win, who posted the awful story of his 2012 Jaguar XKR Convertible catching fire when seemingly nothing was wrong with the car. Not only was his car burned beyond repair, but he sustained serious damage to his eyes, causing him vision problems which he is still battling.
Here is his unfortunate story:
“On Friday night a week ago (11/03/17) my 2012 XKR Convertible, 28,200 miles on the clock, suffered an engine fire. I had not driven the car for 5 days and when I got in the car the battery was dead. You guys know that the battery is very hard to access in the trunk area. Per the manual instructions, I used the positive connector provided and grounded to the bolt in the spare tire area in order to jump start with my battery booster / charger. It was a bit difficult to get a good ground, I had to play with the clamp a bit. I jump started the car, let it idle for about 10 minutes, and drove to the local Walgreens about 4 miles away.
While parked and running I turned around to get a bag out of the “rear seats”. I heard a noise, turned around and the entire engine compartment was in flames. By the time I got unbuckled and tried to get out, flames were shooting up the windshield and driver’s side window. Superheated smoke hit my eyes and burned them. I was virtually blind by the time someone in the parking lot helped me away from the car. Ambulance, ER and daily visits to the Ophthalmologist have gotten me back to about 80% vision with blurred vision and some double vision. I have included a couple of pictures of the car. Any ideas as to what happened? The fire may have started while I was driving and raged when I got parked… I don’t know.”
ALSO SEE: Warning! JaguarForums Member’s Car Catches Fire!
Members were quick to post their well-wishes for his own recovery, while offering their ideas on what might have caused his 2012 XKR to catch fire. With just 28k miles on the 5-year-old convertible, it seems unlikely that something had failed due to “normal wear”, but as of the time of this posting – the OP hadn’t gotten any answers on the cause of this fire.
Some members have speculated that the fire had something to do with the act of jump-starting the car, but as several members pointed out, the fire appears to have been too intense to be an electrical fire. Even if a fuel line was damaged after the fact, there was definitely some sort of accelerant burning under the hood of this 2012 Jaguar XKR.
Possible Causes
One possible cause of the fire – or at least the severity of the fire – could be aging fuel lines. As plastic or rubber fuel lines and fittings age, the material dries out and cracks. This fire could have been caused by a failing fuel line, or if there was a small electrical fire, a failing fuel line could have contributed to the problem.
The good news is that think2win is well on the road to recovery, but his 2012 Jaguar XKR is totaled and while we don’t know that a fuel line was at fault – this incident serves as a reminder to regular check the rubber or plastic fuel lines under the hood of your vehicle as it ages.