2012 Jeep Liberty burned down

Hello all,
This is my first post on this forum actually my first post on any forum. I saw a Liberty similar to the one I drove the night my incident happened today which got me thinking....

Backstory;
Middle of winter prolly half a foot of snow plowed on the side of the road I'm driving on. I'm with a friend driving him home and I missed the entrance to his subdivision. The road we were on was 1 lane each direction. It was very early in the morning prolly 3-4AM. Secluded road I decide to just flip a uturn, and the steering radius didn't make it all the way and I ended up in the half foot of snow.

I'm driving basically a brand new 2012 Jeep Liberty 4x4. 20 inch factory wheels fully optioned no more than 10k on the car. We got stuck in the snow, my original thinking was, OK, were in a JEEP 4x4 with 20s no way I can't get this thing out. So I have my friend start pushing from the back while I'm throwing it in drive then reverse repeatedly trying to rock it out basically. Both of our cell phones were completely out of battery or else we would have sat in the car with the windows rolled up and waited for AAA to pull us out. No one was driving by because of how early it is. So my friend continues to push the car while I'm jamming on the gas throwing the transmission from drive to reverse. Now, In the past I have had success with this method of trying to get a car unstuck out of snow. And these were fwd vehicles. No I did not flood the gas pedal for a continuous 60 seconds in drive and then throw it in reverse and do the same. I literally did not let the rpm go above 4500 in each gear and the longest I stayed on the gas was 2-3 seconds max.

Long story short, thank you and I really appreciate it if you continued to read thus far in my story. All of a sudden smoke starts billowing out from the hood and in a split second the whole front end of the car is on fire.

In the midst of this madness one gentleman happened to drive by and pull over to see if we were ok. I immediately asked if I could use his phone to videotape the car burning down. Then i proceeded to call 911.

By the time the fire trucks and police came the WHOLE car was burned down to the frame. The fire department put out the rest of the blaze and that was that.

Now, if either of our phones were charged we would have died. Reason being, we would have sat in the car, heat on windows rolled up waiting for AAA to pull us out. The problem; the exhaust was completely buried in snow so we most likely would have died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
SMH.

The guys phone I used sent me the video i recorded and I still have it to this day. I still to this day am baffled by how quickly this Jeep burned down. Has anyone here read or heard any similar stories? Never did I imagine a JEEP 4x4 damn near brand new would end up stuck in a half foot of snow eventually to burn down to ashes.

The weird thing is i went by the fire site 8hours afterwards and i did not find anything that resembled the car. It looked like someone came and cleaned everything up. Only thing I was able to find was a piece of the license plate and it's cover( which was plastic) Really weird.

I'm glad I'm alive and I'm really glad that was my sisters car. You can imagine she wasn't too thrilled when she heard the news but in the end everything happens for a reason.

 

And when I say I'm glad it was my sisters car I mean I'm glad I had to deal with that terrifying situation and not her. She got a new car 2 weeks later. Never heard from JEEP. The car was a lease.

 

Welcome to the site. An interesting story. Glad all are ok.

 

Never really followed up with JEEP. They were really shady about the whole situation. Minimal contact, basically just wanted the police/fire department report stating there was no foul play.

Only Jeep I ever really drove beside one of my exs wranglers but yeah if you guys read the whole story I appreciate it. It's almost too hard to believe some people say I'm lieing when I tell the story but ohhh well and good thing I have the video. I'm going to try and post it.

 

Wow!!!! Glad everyone came out alive and well.. sorry about your sister's jeep :0:

 

All together we probably attempted to rock it out no more than 6-7 times with 2-3 minute breaks. And to the user who posted the comment above me, I don't know if you read the whole post I wrote or not. Since both of our cell phones were out of battery I couldn't call triple AAA which was a blessing in disguise. The exhaust was clogged with snow completely we're talking half a foot. So if I did happen to wait for a tow truck we would have sat there in the car windows up with the heat on only to die of carbon monoxide poisoning.

 

OK...my unsolicited opinion.

You likely had a fuel leak. My reasoning for thinking this over an oil leak is the speed at which you say it was engulfed in flames. Oil could still have done it but usually takes longer to get nuts. There are a number of other things it "could" have been as well but even I have to limit my totally uninformed guesses to just a couple. lol

I will disagree with Chris here...if in your attempts to get unstuck, you are still making progress, even a little, there is usually no reason not to continue with reasonable efforts. Note....seeing how fast you can spin the tires is NOT what I am talking about. If a person is doing the old "stomp the gas pedal" thing, then some kind of damage is usually a result. In most cases, trying not to spin the tires is a better technique for a stock rig. You put it in 4WD, 4low if you have it and try to tip-toe the vehicle out. If you get snow where you are and are not carrying basic survival tools such as a shovel (a small collapsable one will do) then you are wrong.

If you do need to sit in your vehicle and wait, OF COURSE, you should check and clear your exhaust of snow or whatever might be blocking it. If it is snowing (or blowing snow) hard...do it at least every hour. Opening the window a little while idling in such a situation will do two things. 1. give you fresh air if you are still getting exhaust into the cab. 2. Stop or lessen the condensation (and ice) inside the vehicle. Having the heat of the car but with a window partially open definitely beats the alternatives by a long shot. Ok, so you will not be quite as warm but you will live through it.

A little trick to remember is lowering the tire pressure to help with traction. Lowering the tire pressure, when done right, will increase traction MASSIVELY. and it may get you unstuck. Of course, after unstuck you would not be able to run at normal highway speeds until aired up but driving slowly while safe and warm in your car until you find a compressor sure beats being stuck. ( Superfluous anecdote: I have seen people, who knew about lowering their air pressure, who still sat, stuck in the mountains, all night and then some. When asked why they did not just air-down and drive out, they said because they did not want to have to drive slow on the way home. REALLY? So they could have been home the night before, but not been able to drive 75 on the highway so they sat all night instead? And then, we usually we just air many of them down and drive their rigs right out. ....smh )

I hope you don't think me rude...I get called out to rescue many stranded folks during the winter here. In my case, these are usually people stranded up in the mountains, usually in deep snow, where a tow-truck cannot get to them. It is not just "talk".

This is kinda what I do for fun...



Be safe out there folks!!