Melted rear seat, what could cause this?

johnsoma73

johnsoma73

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2001 4WD, One of the evap lines to the charcoal case got so hot that it disintegrated and then melted the seat above it.
A Toyota specialist here in Denver has never seen this in over 30 years and has no idea what caused it.
There was no wires involved.
Any ideas?


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johnsoma73 said:
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2001 4WD, One of the evap lines to the charcoal case got so hot that it disintegrated and then melted the seat above it.
A Toyota specialist here in Denver has never seen this in over 30 years and has no idea what caused it.
There was no wires involved.
Any ideas?


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Click to expand...

When you fill up, do you stop when the pump stops? Or do you add a little extra, i.e. top off the tank? I believe topping off can put liquid gasoline into the charcoal canister. Activated carbon (charcoal) and hydrocarbon (gasoline) can react very exothermically (lots of heat generated). The charcoal canister should only see vapors. The liquid may have resulted in a more significant reaction.
 
Evap lines carry no heat, at least not enough to ignite something.

Only place I've felt any 'heat' (more like warmth) is on passenger side around where the oem jack is stored. Has minimal insulation from exhaust pipe below, so I added more.

So this is on driver side, correct? I'll check that side soon but could be something else.

Once I was driving back from deer lease at highway speeds, looked in rear view mirror and saw small smoke trail. Pulled over and found a 6v feeder battery that managed to find a small piece of metal to arc across, it was starting to ignite a piece of plastic off corn bag, got lucky there.
 
Could you get a pic from underneath?

I've never seen the evap system get hot on any other car, including my '99 4Runner. It's under the hood on the 96-00, not under the seat next to the tank like on the 01-02. I'd just be concerned that something under there may have been damaged from the heat, as much as wondering how it got that hot. Somehow some gas fumes got ignited?
 
Fuel pump wiring is suspect

The evap pipes aren't really under the seat, they're under the vehicle traveling mostly along the driver side left of middle, together mostly with the fuel lines.

The evap lines don't get more than 1/2" close to the body and in some places are 2" away (on my '01 anyway).

I just drove it about 40 miles, got underneath and touched evap lines, barely a few degrees warmer than my hands.

Perhaps the wiring on top of the fuel pump caused the issue? Where the burn marks are is just about where the pump is underneath the body and above the fuel tank, smack in the middle.

Regardless, very lucky it didn't go further. I'd have a pro check this out, probably have to drop the tank to find out for certain. I wouldn't drive it anymore either....
 

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That’s a very strange burn location for sure. When parking at home definitely avoid the garage until you figure this out.
 
Wow, I've never seen that before, ever. Or anything close.

I agree with above sentiments, don't drive it until you know what's gone wrong. The fuel pump and fuel tank are very close to that burn mark but nothing even near that should EVER get that hot since it's right above 18.5 gallons of gasoline...
 
gamefreakgc said:
Wow, I've never seen that before, ever. Or anything close.

I agree with above sentiments, don't drive it until you know what's gone wrong. The fuel pump and fuel tank are very close to that burn mark but nothing even near that should EVER get that hot since it's right above 18.5 gallons of gasoline...
Click to expand...

Came back to comment about checking the fuel pump myself, just had the realization on the way home it's directly under that spot or at least VERY close
 
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Fuel will never ever get heat up to a point of burning stuff without getting lit by an source of ignition first. A electrical short could do that. Or someone who held a flame to the underside at that spot.
How does it look under the truck at that spot? Any pics?
 
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