that leaking oil on the exhaust will catch fire, it wont, i proved a wof garage wrong when i put a gas torch on the oil and it never caught fire
richardmayes,
Mar 16, 11:29am
It's easy to **illustrate**that it doesn't catch fire in some circumstances.
It's much harder to **prove**that it doesn't catch fire in general!
Any time I accidentally spill oil over the Umph's exhaust manifold while topping the engine up, I just drive it around the block a few times until the oily smell goes away, before I go anywhere!
bubbles52,
Mar 16, 11:32am
thats crude oil, not synthetic motor oil
mrfxit,
Mar 16, 12:48pm
A POOL of oil can catch fire A wet stain of oil will only smoulder
Theres the difference
rod525,
Mar 16, 12:52pm
A lady at the servo next door tried topping up the power steering on a PT Cruiser when it was hot and spilled it onto the exhaust manifold below it, it was a really good fire - even the gas attendants were running the other way.
cjohnw,
Mar 16, 12:59pm
Good use of a PT Cruiser.
morrisman1,
Mar 16, 1:28pm
isn't power steer fluid just transmission fluid! I dont know if thats more or less flammable than engine oil
i-n-horz,
Mar 16, 1:53pm
Depending on the amount of oil loss at the time, the heat of the exhaust and the vehicle being in motion possibly fueling the components to become ablaze.maybe!
mrfxit,
Mar 16, 2:38pm
Moving vehicles could be at risk from a 'dripping" leak because the wind speed would drag the drips to places that can absorb or hold excess oil therefore creating a hot pool of oil.
A leak that only creates a smear of oil won't catch fire. Oil fires NEED bulk fluid to burn & the only way for a smear to burn (as in flames) is for the direct application of pure oxygen & a very hot surface & even then it will mostly just smoulder really fast Common air just makes it smoulder & high pressure air just makes it smoulder faster. Try it at home. I see this a lot when welding/cutting car parts
Leaking oil could make other rubber componantes softer therefore making them easier to ignite
mrfxit,
Mar 16, 2:41pm
Power steer fluid in a situation perticulerly such as mentioned above with the PT cruiser will ignite sooner & easier because the fluid is thin even when cold & also CLEAN. Engine oil leaking won't normally be anything even remotely like clean therefor making it a lot harder to ignite. Hot engine oil will normally for most grades, be thicker then cold power steer/ trans fluid.
intrade,
Mar 16, 2:44pm
how do you think my waste engine oil burner runs then poster *1 !
mrfxit,
Mar 16, 2:51pm
Another part of why oil leaks are a wof issue, is to do with the number of vehicles leaking fluids on to the road. Example: 1 single 5km section of motorway/ 1 car in 20 dripping oil / 15,000 cars per day/ 105,000 cars per week = 5250 leaking cars on THAT stretch of road per week
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