Guess I should have put a smoke detector in the garage!

[40]

Went to bed around 1AM like usuall last night....was laying there formulating a game plan for the next day when I hear this horn honking.I lay there for a few minutes thinking it's the neighbor kid..but..it keeps honking and my dog begins to bark loudly...I'm getting * and jump out of bed,throw on a pair of sweat pants and head up the stairs to quiet the dog and kill the neighbor kid! When I open the door to the garage,I find it filled with smoke to the point that I can't see anything and realize it is the horn on the old original 35 Ford that is honking...I immediately opened both overhead doors and,mostly by feel,managed to get the floor matt up and unhook the battery cable.This stopped that dreadfull honking which in turn quieted the dog.I left the doors open,turned off the furnace and went back to bed
  Today,I reconnected the battery cable...everything,including the horn works properly and there appears to be no ill effects from last nights serenade...the car started right up and runs fine.I can't really see where any of the wires appear to be burned or melted.I have no idea what caused the horn to start honking or what was burning/melting to fill the garage with that awfull smelling,thick white smoke.I assume there must be some kind of short in the horn wiring but could not get it to honk or act up at all other than when I hit the button.Any Ideas?
   Just to avoid another exciting night and to prevent burning down the house/garage...I unhooked the cable again I have interconnected A/C smoke detectors in every room on both floors of the house but neglected to think about the garage....I will take care of that situation soon!

[phat46]

Wow, that's scarey, I think that's every guys worst nightmare, a garage fire. I really hope you can find the reason for the smoke, I know i wouldn't be able to sleep till I did. The smoke detector sounds like a good idea too, I have three extinquishers in the shop, but no detector, but the shops separate from the house, I'd have to wire it to sound in the house I guess. Good luck finding the culprit!

[SKR8PN]

HOLY COW!!!   Don't EVEN leave the battery connected, untill you find out what happened! With that much smoke,there HAS to be a wire melted somewhere,and I would HATE to hear you have to rebuild your house because of a $.25 wire!  Wonder why the fuses didn't blow???

[GPster]

My guess is when you went to bed the dog snuck out into the garage and got on the seat of the '35 and was practicing his driving. When the arcing started he ran to the other side of the house so you wouldn't think it was him before he started telling you. My first thought (although they usually prove wrong) would be if it's the original steering column that the horn wire going down the center of the shaft is frayed. We had a dog years ago that was bothering us while we were sleeping. We put him in our utility room and closed the door one night to get some sleep and he woke us after a while barking and scratching on the door. When we got up to quiet him down we saw the problem. The window air conditioner in our living room had caught on fire and caught the drapes on fire and fire was blazing up the window to the ceiling. The closest place to get water was our utility room and when I opened the door the dog got out,ran past me and the fire, down the hallway and up the stairs to check on our kids that where still asleep. The scratch marks still exist on the back of our utility room door as a memorial. We now have central A/C and a "King" size bed so our current best friend doesn't have to sleep on the floor. What was the question? GPster

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Was it particularly cold in there? I had a '79 Riviera some tears back that did that parked out on the drive way. I assumed it was a cold-touchy relay. Never caused any other problem.

Charlie

[purplepickup]

Wow, that was a close call.    It sounds like it's time for some rewiring.  This is a good reminder to all of us to make sure we have fire protection stuff in place and working.

Well Daryle, if your house does burn down, I know a guy in your area that builds houses......you

[40]

"Was it particularly cold in there? " No...The garage is heated,around 60 degrees.Not sure if there is a fuse in the horn feed,must be some type of relay??...it has the dual external horns...not sure if the circiut is activated by completeing a ground or if the switch/button is on the hot side.I am curious as to what was burning that created that awfull smell and thick white smoke...I assume it was the old cloth insulation on the wiring somewhere but I didn't see any damage...I am on my way out the door to look at a 67 Coupe D'Ville in Wichita,Kansas and will investigate further when I return. George...I am looking for a lot to build a new home but still prefer to sell this one rather than burn it down

[HotRodLadyCrusr]

Wow, that was a close call.  Never thought about it before but I guess a smoke detector in the garage is a very good idea especially if the garage is attached to the house.

Many years ago I was dating a guy who had his own place but we'd go over to his folks house who had a built in swimming pool.  We'd skinning dip and whatnot.  We didn't have to worry about anyone being around and seeing cuz both the garage and house had burnt to the ground and were in the process of being rebuilt.  His dad had come home from work one nite, pulled the daily driver in the garage, had dinner with the wife, relaxed, then went to bed, all the while something (can't remember what) was smoldering in the new car, caught on fire, and by the time the fire department was notified and got there, it was a total loss.  If I remember correctly he worked for FORD and it was a brand new lease car, like a Town Car.  

Ya never think something like this will happen to you, always happens to "the other guy".  Glad no one was hurt and there was no damage to any cars or the garage/house.  Your little pup deserves an extra special doggie treat tonight, and a hug, from me  

[Pep]

Doing my best Sherlock Holmes.......Here is the evidence.
1. I assume the smell of the smoke was not pugnant, as in electrical wire burning smell.
2. The car appeared not to have a flat battery when you started it the next day.
3. There is no visible signs of wire loom damage..

So what can we deduce from all this Mr Holmes?

 I'm glad you asked...
Answer...That it was in fact not an electrical short circuit because a direct short circuit would have clearly caused a multitude of damage to the wiring loom and inevitable fire. Also, the battery would have had an massive drain and would therefore be too flat to crank the engine over the next day.

So what caused the smoke and horn to go off by itself?

Another good qusetion Mr Watson..
Answer...The  smoke, was in fact, steam from the heating system.

But why did the horn go off Mr Holmes?

Elementary Mr Watson...the alarm system in the car is connected to the cars horn and as the steam penetrated the sensors, and as we know the alarm senses small current drains to trigger, the steam condensed on the sensor terminals thus causing a small drain to ground.

But why didn't this happen the next day?

Again, elementary Mr Watson ...By the next day, the condensation had evaporated, leaving no signs of its presence...It was a devilish plot by Mr Moriarty...but we foiled it!


Hows that?

[phat46]

Doing my best Sherlock Holmes.......Here is the evidence.Hows that?

 GREAT!, but now we have to figure out why the garage was full of steam!!???

[Pope Downunder]

. . .
   Just to avoid another exciting night and to prevent burning down the house/garage...I unhooked the cable again I have interconnected A/C smoke detectors in every room on both floors of the house but neglected to think about the garage....I will take care of that situation soon!

Make sure you can turn it off (the smoke alarm), otherwise it will activate when you are working with the Oxy etc.  Maybe it could be wired to come on only when the lights are off, or some such trigger.

[purplepickup]

I think Joe was right.  The dog was out in the car smoking something and got a little carried away and started honking the horn and barking.  Kinda like Cheech and Chong

[Pep]

In all seriousness, I hade a similar thing happen many years back, except there was no smoke, just the horn of this clunker I had bought for temporary transportation. I was laying in bed just drifting off to sleep when I hear this horn. I layed there for a minute getting angry at the a-hole leaning on the horn. It then occurred to me that is was right outside my window. I threw on some trackies and ran outside just in time for every neighbour to peer at me as I ran to the car. I opened the car door and banged on the steering wheel with no success. In desperation I popped the hood and felt for the horn. I then tore off the wires then sheepishly went inside. The next day I reconnected the wires waiting for the horn to go off again...but it didn't. I poked, prodded and tried a multitude of things without success.
Next night at about the same time...off it goes again. Now this is getting spooky. I have flashes of Christine the car.  After many fruitless attempts to find the cause I finally hit on it.
 The car had a padded steering wheel that had a thin plate with dimples seperated from the horn ground by a thin layer of foam rubber. The method of actuating the horn was by pressing anywhere on the padded area causing one of the dimples to touch the ground plate. Not a bad theory but I found the flaw. Over the years, this foam became very thin and during cold temeratures, the steel steering wheel ring inside would contract. The result was the whole ring would distort and caused the thin metal plate to come in contact with the ground contact. Similar principle to the oil can effect on stretched panels...I don't know if its a similar situation, but it sure was spooky for me.

[parklane]

Pep
   What have you been smokin? Some of that tupperware that interests you according to your profile?       You do have a vivid imagination
John

[Pep]

Pep
   What have you been smokin? Some of that tupperware that interests you according to your profile?       You do have a vivid imagination
John

I can assure you John its 100% true...I didn't mention that later on I lent the car to a fellow work mate while I went bush for work and needed a larger car so we swapped. He rang me up the next morning telling me that the car had turned its own lights on. At that exact time, I was walking to the car from the motel and parked right beside me was the exact same make and model of my car and on ts rear window was a sticker that read "Christines Auto Centre"....As soon as I got the car back I sold it.