So I was getting a system check done on my battery and alternator last night. Everything was good with it. I left the shop and about 2 miles later the truck died! Put in in neutral and tried to restart and nothing not even any of the gauges were working. So I coast over to the side of the road and I see a ton of white smoke pouring out from under the hood. Open the hood and the fire wall is on fire full fledged. Luckly there is still snow here because I had to use that to put the fire out.

Aftermath: Now everything electronic on the truck is screwed up. Gauge cluster hazards are blinking and there not turned on, fuel gauge is at E and low fuel light is on. Door chime works and then doesn't work. Power windows don't work. I had the keys out of the ignition and shut the hood and the daytime running lights came on. The Viper alarm/remote start was also freaking out. I have no idea what happened.

The truck is an 01 ECSB 4.8L with only 45k miles on it. Any ideas guys?
I had it towed back the the shop and they are going to look at it today.

 

you can directly go after the shop or alert your insurance company, (fires are covered under full coverage insurance) and give them the whole story and see what they say, they'll likely go after the shop if you choose not to. It sounds to me like the shop overloaded the wiring system which caused a short.

 

All I know is that it was defintily something that shop did and they must have made a horrible unnecessary mistake. If you do the insurance thing I would maybe not tell them about the Viper because they will try to find anyway to not pay for this! I would be at that shop chewing *** like there was never to be any *** chewed again!

 

Well, Sounds like a chassis ground strap is the cause of the fire. The braided one on the firewall. They said it was stereo related but my system was not on at the time. Seems like the computer is not damage like I thought. We'll see.

 

Must be rpetty damn ironic it happened 2 miles down the road from the shop ... I still say go after them. They have insurance for this very reason.

If you go through your insurance, it doesn't matter what's on your car, insurance should cover it.