georgevandusen

So I was sitting working in my shop, and heard a loud "POP" just outside where I park my van (2 ft. from my shop). Went out and smoke was POURING out of the driver side engine compartment. I opened the hood and the smell was electrical, so I disconnected the battery. After the smoke cleared, I hooked the battery back up so I could see where the smoke was coming from, and I heard arcing and could see that it was coming from the ABS control module (disconnected the battery again). Looked on the ground and a black piece of plastic was there, charred. I pulled the brake distribution box with the control module attached, out of the van, and removed the module. Looks like the gasket between the dist. box & module leaked and shorted out the module, then literally blew the top (side actually) off of the module (obviously the "popping" noise). Surprised that no fuses tripped. Had I not heard the pop, I don't even want to know the consequences, like burning down my shop, which is attached to my home. I looked and there are no Ford recalls about this. Anyone else? The van has 84000 miles on it, and there was no external indication of brake fluid leaking.

George

360ci

Geeze. I've had small one-off fires before myself and they're not fun nor easy to properly pinpoint. I'd let NHTSA know about the incident. The E350 is a popular model with millions on the road. I had a brake problem in my E250 a while ago, started it up, and the pedal went straight to the floor! Then the airbag light illuminated on the dash and blah blah blah blah; it equaled another day at the shop.

Only other thing I can think of is if brake fluid isn't leaking, perhaps water someone got into that area of the engine (drove through puddle?). Hmm.

__________________
'00 Durango R/T 360ci 290hp (modded); 138,500m
'06 Pontiac G6 GT 3.5L 220hp; 44,000m
'12 Chrysler 200 Limited 3.6L 283hp; 13,000m
'99 Taurus 3.0L 2V Vulcan 145hp; 154,300m - Traded
Amsoil in all vehicles!