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yes I have cameras on my house, motion activated they go off if a squirrel enters my driveway and they went off when the fire dept walked towards my jeep about 20 feet away

That's weird, man. If it was something like a short (unlikely, because fuses) or gasoline leaking onto a hot turbo, you'd be on fire within minutes upon arriving home. But an hour after going to bed? That's suspicious AF.
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Mattia60

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That's weird, man. If it was something like a short (unlikely, because fuses) or gasoline leaking onto a hot turbo, you'd be on fire within minutes upon arriving home. But an hour after going to bed? That's suspicious AF.
Raining hard could have been when I parked but didn’t notice because of running in house because of rain and lightning never noticed it could water cause a short in electric system and cause a fire ?
 

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...could water cause a short in electric system and cause a fire ?
Highly unlikely. Other than coming to put the fire out, have the authorities contacted you? Did the fire marshal want to check it out? I don't know about Jersey, but around here vehicles catching on fire in the middle of the night tend to arouse their curiosity.

It's a shame, tho. It was a sweet rig.
 
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Mattia60

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Highly unlikely. Other than coming to put the fire out, have the authorities contacted you? Did the fire marshal want to check it out? I don't know about Jersey, but around here vehicles catching on fire in the middle of the night tend to arouse their curiosity.

It's a shame, tho. It was a sweet rig.
I asked the insurance co to do a forensic inspection and have contacted jeep.
 

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That's weird, man. If it was something like a short (unlikely, because fuses) or gasoline leaking onto a hot turbo, you'd be on fire within minutes upon arriving home. But an hour after going to bed? That's suspicious AF.
Not necessarily suspicious at all.
Google “Ford ignition recall”. They had tons of vehicles burn hours after being parked. Any number of things could cause an electrical fire after a period of time.
 

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Could have been something as simple as a bag or some other paper item flying up under the hot engine and igniting. Or, a hardwired relay with constant power flowing through it could have gotten hot enough that it melted and burned down the Jeep. I’d be suspicious of any aftermarket wires that weren’t run through a wiring loom or that were simply taped together with electrical tape and not soldered. Normal vehicle vibrations can easily open those up over time. Anyway, so sorry about your Jeep.
 

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Not necessarily suspicious at all.
Google “Ford ignition recall”. They had tons of vehicles burn hours after being parked. Any number of things could cause an electrical fire after a period of time.
Well yeah, but that’s Ford.

seriously though, it does look to have started in the engine bay but a fire starting like this is suspicious. Hopefully it is accidental and not foul play. Watch out for yourself, just in case…
 

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As someone that has been involved in multiple product liability and safety issues, including fires (not automobile), I would highly recommend that you secure your own fire investigator.
I would include your homeowners insurance as well as your auto insurance, but remember they will blame it on anyone but themselves, including you. If you did your own electrical wiring, you could potentially be put in a tough spot.
It would be interesting to see how the bench testing goes.
 

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As someone that has been involved in multiple product liability and safety issues, including fires (not automobile), I would highly recommend that you secure your own fire investigator.
I would include your homeowners insurance as well as your auto insurance, but remember they will blame it on anyone but themselves, including you. If you did your own electrical wiring, you could potentially be put in a tough spot.
It would be interesting to see how the bench testing goes.
former home owners insurance adjuster here, HO will have nothing to do with it if the house was not damaged. HO policies explicitly state vehicles are not covered.

your auto insurance carrier will likely send a fire investigator. They want to see if they can subrogate the loss if at all possible, also to make sure it wasnt arson (especially by you). The fire investigator will be able to determine what caused it. They also look at insurance records to see how often this is happening to wranglers and what those causes were.

i had a claim where an audi spontaneously caught fire in a body shop at night. Did over a million $ in damage (including structural). Other cars were damaged so multiple carriers involved. Each with their own fire investigator. The audis insurance investigator was there when i was there, we watched the security footage together. He said it its a common issue with this particular audi model and there was already a class action suit by the insurance carriers.

unless its a very minor loss insurance companies will always look to see if they can subrogate the claim. Be it auto, home, workers comp, etc. its one of the first things an adjuster checks. You get BIG kudos if are able to help determine subrogation is warranted.

vehicle fires are always looked at with suspicious eyes. Whether arson or a defect.

they usually say dont touch anything till the investigator gets there.
 

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Looks electrical as it started in the engine bay. The batteries and relays are on the opposite side that was burning though. Where did you run lighting the wires through the firewall?

Also, to add to what the adjuster stated above. Be prepared to have your credit pulled, your bill paying history scrutinized to include the payment history and balance on the Jeep. Sucks to go through it but there a lot of scammers out there, so we all have to pay for it.
 

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I'm guessing winch power wire or connection. Glad it wasn't parked in the garage. Sorry for your loss; hope the replacement process goes smoothly.
 

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Oh man I hope this all gets resolved for you.
Electrical stuff scares the crap out of me. I’m about to add a winch, compressor and run dometic wire kit to back for the fridge. Everything with fused out of the battery and I’ve got the power interrupt kit for the winch. But I guess you can’t put fuse n winch power given amperage.
 
 



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