Adding Character to my Char-okee

Been quiet in here as of late. Anyway the title is not misspelled.

After the last couple of wheeling adventures my rig was fifthly. Between Husky dog hair and dried mud I knew it would be a long day making it shine again.

So the usual vacuuming, washing, treating the leather seats, and finally the home stretch wiping down the plastics with shiny smelly stuff. Was wiping down the last few crevices around the steering wheel and smelled smoke. Looked down and it was coming up from beneath the drivers seat. Took one step toward the fire extinguisher in the garage and turned back to get a closer look since there were no flames. Funny how many thoughts go through ones head in an emergency. Took a deep breath and stuck my head upside down in the drivers foot well and sure enough the entire area under my seat was fully engulfed with flames. Let out all the air in my lungs to blow it out as a helpless attempt but the flames surprisingly all went out followed by tons of smoke.

Took the side trim off and was going to pull the seat out to ensure no more flames. Discovered the power seat switch was barely connected. I had just moved the seat before the fire to wipe down the plastics and the switch was acting funny. I think the high current from the loose connection heated and sparked setting off the grease that had seeped out of the motors. Plugged the switch in and the seat moved back to the normal position. Still working and I can at least drive it. Anyway I settled for just unplugging the power to the seat after watching it for quite awhile.

Dang it, smells like burnt plastics now inside my jeep. So much for cleaning it up.

Bummer. Be nice if I could find a replacement seat. that matched the original. May have to settle for aftermarket. Will be looking for manual adjusters too.

Greenz said:

Been quiet in here as of late. Anyway the title is not misspelled.

After the last couple of wheeling adventures my rig was fifthly. Between Husky dog hair and dried mud I knew it would be a long day making it shine again.

So the usual vacuuming, washing, treating the leather seats, and finally the home stretch wiping down the plastics with shiny smelly stuff. Was wiping down the last few crevices around the steering wheel and smelled smoke. Looked down and it was coming up from beneath the drivers seat. Took one step toward the fire extinguisher in the garage and turned back to get a closer look since there were no flames. Funny how many thoughts go through ones head in an emergency. Took a deep breath and stuck my head upside down in the drivers foot well and sure enough the entire area under my seat was fully engulfed with flames. Let out all the air in my lungs to blow it out as a helpless attempt but the flames surprisingly all went out followed by tons of smoke.

Took the side trim off and was going to pull the seat out to ensure no more flames. Discovered the power seat switch was barely connected. I had just moved the seat before the fire to wipe down the plastics and the switch was acting funny. I think the high current from the loose connection heated and sparked setting off the grease that had seeped out of the motors. Plugged the switch in and the seat moved back to the normal position. Still working and I can at least drive it. Anyway I settled for just unplugging the power to the seat after watching it for quite awhile.

Dang it, smells like burnt plastics now inside my jeep. So much for cleaning it up.

Bummer. Be nice if I could find a replacement seat. that matched the original. May have to settle for aftermarket. Will be looking for manual adjusters too.

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Yea it’s been pretty quiet around here, I just got out my laptop and was going to update my build thread, But was reminded Photobucket is stopping the free accounts. So all of my pictures will be gone soon anyway. Talk about frustration!

I can’t believe your seat was about to burn your Rig to the ground. I can imagine the panic! The only advice I have would be some PRPs or corbeau’s. Or maybe a ZJ seat swap? I’ve seen some good write ups

Well she put the scare into me again today.

Wife said the jeep was getting too modified for DD reliability although I beg to differ. But, who am I to argue if she says yes to a new to me vehicle. I haven't bought anything since buying the XJ in 03. So I buy a used pickup yesterday and it had to go through detail so I didn't get to drive it home until today. Ran home on my last break, picked up the wife in the XJ and got a half a mile from the house when white smoke suddenly poured out the hood vents and all around the hood. Without a fire extinguisher I decided it's gonna live or die in grandiose fashion. So I busted away from the stop sign hoping 45MPH would either fan the flames or put them out. After all my new DD was just 2 miles up the road. Interesting enough at 45 dual white streams of smoke exited the hood vents tapering off right before the windshield. That ends the hood vent mounting location debate right there. It works at higher speeds. I digress. Get to the car lot and she billows white smoke out all sides. Damn, there she goes and the crowd began to gather. Yee Haw here we go. Popped the hood and right there about fell over laughing. A brown stream of coolant pissed straight up the in the air from the upper rad hose right onto the valve cover and in/ex manifolds. lol lol lol. It wasn't a fire just steam. I thought for sure it was gonna be its last ride. Funny thing is about six weeks ago I ordered everything to replace the cooling system. Clutch fan 3 row rad, hoses, pump yada yada. All that stuff was original stock and I knew I was on borrowed time. Been too busy to do the labor on her. So the driveway is now full of hardware and the XJ on the cooling system donor list.

At least my awesome wife can't say I told you so since I agreed to a new DD before it broke. Still checking out my seating options.

Id name it Kitty because it must have 9 lives. I’d pull the fuse for the seat in addition to leaving it unplugged just in case.