1st ever break down!

[seijik]

So had my first ever break down this morning, bit of a strange one too. everything has been fine with the car so far. Was driving along, then the battery light flicked on, momentarily after the speedo and rev counter went crazy along with all of my lights on the dash, car cuts out, I managed to pull over and park, a fair amount of smoke coming out of the engine bay at this point so I opened the bonnet hoping there wasn't a fire under there! Smelt like an electrical fire but by the time I found a bottle of juice to throw over it the smoke had stopped thankfully!

my mates garage said the starter fried itself, has anyone had this before?! I would have thought that if the starter was going to go it would do so when i was starting it not when i was driving along?!

So hopefully it will just be a new starter motor for me, bit annoying as this is the newest car I've had and its the one to break down! and I've only just got my regu on there and didnt want to scratch it getting it on the truck, went on with a few mm clearance thankfully!

 

[Riz]

Could be that the starter motor didn't disengage properly.

Btw, opening the bonnet when there is smoke coming out of it is a bit risky. I've seen on tv a few times of people setting fire to themselves doing that

 

[donzooo]

Smelt like an electrical fire but by the time I found a bottle of juice to throw over it the smoke had stopped thankfully!

Please tell me you weren't considering throwing a bottle of juice over an electrical fire.

 

[TyperItr]

It definitely sounds like an electrical short circuit anyway, same thing happened to be before all the lights flickering and engine cut out. Turns out a tool I had left near the battery connected itself to the chassis and the positive terminal. No Damage done but a fright when driving along the motorway.

 

[C&S Evo7]

starter could have stuck, ive seen it happen on lots of other cars, do you have a start button by any chance ?