From what I recall, 2 out of the 3 fires reported here have involved driving through high grass. Could it be that it's not actually the JK that is catching fire, but dried grass that has accumulated on the exhaust catching fire, which in-turn ignites the JK's fuel system?

 

Okay, see now that gets me wondering if in fact it really was your EVAP that caused this problem. I have gone wheeling several times now with people who, while in the course of wheeling, found their RPM's to fluctuate and have other issues with their tranny. On a couple of instances, the drivers heard a single 'ding' go off and without any idiot light illuminated to accompany it. On our last trip up to Death Valley, this 'ding' was soon followed by visible smoke billowing from the bottom of Trail Bud's JK who was quickly informed of it by SDMF who was immediately behind him. Everyone quickly stopped, pulled out our fire extinguishers and ran to see what was going on. In the end, it turned out that Trail Bud's auto tranny was severely overheating and ATF was pumping out the dip stick. This in turn caused the ATF to splash on the exhaust system and burn. Fortunately, we caught this early enough that the ATF only smoldered there but had we not caught it, a fire could have easily been started.

Anyway, just thinking out aloud here. I hope your insurance company takes care of you and as mentioned, you should definitely file a report.

 

Sorry about your rig, but I am glad everyone got out safely.

 

If anyone decides to launch a campaign to get Chrysler to pay attention to this matter that picture would (sadly) be a great image to use .... glad you're ok. Imagine if someone had other passengers or a kid in a child seat to get out... Doesn't help to jump to any conclusions because the problem could be anything. But it seems with even two vehicles catching fire it is serious enough for them to investigate immediately. I hope it takes less time to address then the stall bug....

edit: I just looked at all those pictures - wow - just amazing. Does it appear the fire started from the front in the engine area? I saw the one picture where the fire is all in the front.

 

Holy roasted buns, Batman ... I just traded a Ford Ranger for my JK. Rangers had a nasty habit of bursting into flames from the speed control switch and had to be recalled. Now there could possibly be an inferno bug in the Wrangler? Say it ain't so.

Were all of these reported fires in 4-doors? Or were any 2-doors involved?

 

This is really scarry stuff....Glad to hear everyone is OK.... Just read thru every post and all links ...... Can anyone please elaborate on what the Vehicles had for transmission ...lifts...anything

Speculation is a hard subject to chase.... seems like they both had recently filled up with fuel ..... and WOL said they had a problem with the Auto Trans overheating and spewing trans fluid on the exhaust ( this is almost as flammable as fuel )

Need more INFO please !!!!!!

 

Thank God no one has been injured!

We need to find the common denominators here! Even though the sample size is small (statistically insignificant), it's HUGELY significant to those potentially affected. Are the burners all 4-dr autos?

 

Thank God everyone was OK. Only problem with trying to blame the evap is the fact that you are in some really tall grass. I've seen vehicles burn up driving through grass because some part of the exhaust was hot enough to ignite it.
.
.
.

 

As a 17 yr firefighter, I can tell you by looking at the pic with all the fire up front that the evap can. isn't the cause. That is if you're talking about the one by the rear axle.

Point of origin is near the front of vehicle.

 

WOL, What you are saying makes perfect sense to me. If I had an auto I think I'd make sure I had a fire extinguisher 1st, and a tranny temp gauge second.

Then I'd look into a really good, and large cooler with a thermostat so it would not over cool in the city, but have enough cooling off road. Might even need a separate fan for that.

I don't remember the figures for auto trans oil temps but above a certain temp the oil life is cut in half, and about 40 deg above that it is cut in half again (1/4 of the normal life) I change oil every year in my MH because of that and going through mountains/deserts. Figures can probably be found in MH forums.

Be safe! I cannot even imagine a kid in the back seat of a 2dr if this were to happen.