I was driving about 60 mph on the freeway when the transmission light flashed red. I immediately went to pull off of the freeway. Within 10 seconds of the transmission light flashing, all of the dash lights turned on and the care lost power. I managed to get to the side of the freeway where the car was putting out a lot of white smoke. The smoke stopped after about 2-3 minutes for about a minute when all of a sudden thick black smoke started coming out. I got out of the car and checked the engine when I saw embers underneath and the engine was on fire. I managed to get out, but the car was completely up in flames within minutes.
Did you have a question ?
My question was what could have caused that to happen. I'm completely clueless as to how a car can go from running perfectly fine to being in flames within minutes.
Of course I would have to look at the remains, but my guess would be a cooling line or seal ruptured in the transmission, causing trans fluid to be blown onto the engine and the hot exhaust pipes.
I only bought the car 5 months ago. If a car had undergone a full inspection like it was said that it had been, would something like that have been noticed or is a cooling line or seal rupture in the transmission an all of a sudden kind of occurance? I read somewhere that the fuse box in the 2004 convertible gls turbo beetles are located on top of the battery and if the car overheats, the wires can melt and spark and cause an engine fire. When the hood was first opened it looked like most of the fire was coming from the driver side of the engine nearest the front of the car where I believe the battery was.
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SOURCE: 2003 VW Jetta TDI Check Engine Light Issue
Try disconnecting the battery (unhook on of the terminals) wait for like 15 mins, hook the terminal once again and start the car. I also own a 2003 Jetta and once my engine light would come on after 2 mins of driving. Disconnecting the battery is like resetting the computer and hopefully the sensor.
SOURCE: Engine won't start
The fact the engine rotates indicates a good battery, that's eliminated from the search.
The problem is of Main/Auxiliary Power Supply. Trace the Main Battery cacle from the Starter, if it has more than 1 Power cable attached, looking for a connector break running back to the Power Box. If the Starter has only 1 supply cable, then look for a loose joint on that Battery to Power Box Connector Block, or broken 'Spade' connector. If again all appears ok, by using the "Idiot" diagram, on the Power Box and Fuse Box, pull each Maxi and Service Fuse and Relay in turn, looking for a Failure. Should this not detect the fault come back to me again.
Regards,DT
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