Date:         Thu, 21 Oct 1999 13:24:44 -0400
Reply-To:     Richard Golen <rgolen@UMASSD.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Richard Golen <rgolen@UMASSD.EDU>
Subject:      Forensic Investigator visits the EuroVan
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

My saga has now taken an interesting turn. I got a call this morning from
the dealer where my EV has been residing as of late, and was told that
there was an insurance investigtor looking at my EV. They put the
investigator on the phone, I told him I'd be there in 10 minutes to meet
with him...so off I went armed with my trusty file.

As soon as I got there we went out to the EV. He asked me a bunch of
questions about what happened, how I kept the EV in such good shape, etc.
Then he went to the engine compartment and pointed out the damage and asked
me where I thought the problem was. Showed him the melted/burned blue fuel
line. He said he wasn't sure if it was the cause of the fire, because the
damage would have been further toward the battery tray. Then I moved the
severed piece of hose to where it originally had been before the fire (just
above the distributor). From there all the pieces fell into place. He
showed me the distributor cap...the back side was all charred and melted.
This burn area was right below the blue fuel line.

Conclusion - fire caused by leaking fuel return line (blue line) dripping
fuel onto distributor.

He was especially interested in the Canadian recall. I gave him a copy as
well as the URL for the Canadian Ministry of Transportation. He also looked
over the various email reports from the folks on the lists as well.

He also mentioned that he had seen a number of burnt EVs over the past year
or so. Because I used my fire extinguisher and got the fire out quickly, I
was able to preserve the "evidence", and he said that this is the first EV
he as been able to get a definate conclusion as to the cause of the fire.


Ric