In the automotive world, smoke does not necessarily mean fire. Depending on the age of the vehicle, it could be steam from the radiator, often caused by a broken fan belt or over-heated engine. The simple fact is if your vehicle is smoking or putting off odors, something's gone wrong.
A significant percentage of smoking vehicles leads to serious consequences. According to the Federal Road Safety Corps, vehicle fire accidents make up 48 per cent of the total number of cars involved in accidents in Nigeria.

Fire Signs
An early indication of a problem is a fuse that blows more than once. The source of the triggered fuse could be either a faulty component or a wiring problem. Both issues can be dangerous and should be resolved. Next, check for oil leaks and always use a funnel when adding oil. Oil spilled on a hot exhaust manifold can cause a fire. If you have a gas station attendant add oil, double check that the cap is on securely. This sounds obvious, but better to check than end up with oil all over your engine compartment at best, or an engine fire at worst. Also, include a check of the fuel system in your regular maintenance schedule. Electrical or fuel system problems are the major causes of car fires. Another source of exhaust-related fires is the catalytic converter, the cylindrical unit located in the exhaust pipe, forward of the muffler (which is normally slightly larger in size). Catalytic converters are so hot they can ignite dried grass directly under the parked vehicle.

Causes of Car Fires
Design flaws
A design flaw in a vehicle usually isn't going to cause a car fire on its own, because there's no on/off switch for lighting a vehicle ablaze. Design flaws, however, can make conditions really ripe for a fire, and sometimes even create conditions in which an eventual fire is inevitable. Usually, the manufacturers catch on to these situations before incidents become widespread. They issue recalls to get the dangerous cars off the street and fix the problems, because no carmaker wants to be known for combusting its customers. Like all automobile fires, a design flaw is only the first step leading to a blaze.

Poor maintenance
Forgetting or neglecting to properly maintain your car can indirectly lead to a vicious car fire. Human error probably isn't going to be the direct cause of a fire in your vehicle -- after all, being lazy isn't quite the same as striking a match and igniting a wick that goes into the gas tank. But if you're sloppy about maintenance, your car is going to be a lot more dangerous, in general, and the increased likelihood of a car fire is just part of the greater risks you're taking. It's true, forgetting or neglecting to properly take care of your car can indirectly lead to a vicious fire. That's because if you let broken parts, leaky seals, or faulty wiring go without repairs, it'll make your car a lot more hospitable to the conditions that cause a fire. An engine with a bad gasket is more likely to drip hazardous (and flammable) fluids. Frayed wiring is more likely to spark and make contact with flammable materials. Isn't it better to know if your car is a potential deathtrap? Just pop the hood every now and then and take a cursory look around.

Overheating engines
An engine that overheats and causes a car to catch on fire is an especially good example of how one problem can lead to another. A car's engine probably won't overheat enough to simply burst into flames all on its own. But what can happen (and pretty easily, by the way), is an engine can overheat and make the internal fluids, like oil and coolant, rise to dangerous temperatures and begin to spill out of their designated areas of circulation. When that happens, they drip, drizzle and spurt throughout the engine bay and onto the exhaust system, landing on other hot parts, where they can easily ignite and spread.
Generally, though, an overheating engine requires mechanical attention. There's often a leaky seal or gasket, or the radiator isn't working properly, or any number of other things. If your car's engine is constantly overheating ... well, that's not a symptom to ignore.

Spilled fluids
The average car or truck has a number of flammable and highly dangerous fluids under the hood: gasoline or diesel fuel, engine oil, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, brake fluid and even engine coolant. All of those fluids are circulating when the car is on, and all of them can catch fire pretty easily if their lines, hoses or reservoirs take a hit. So even though one of the car's vital liquids is unlikely to start spewing or dripping out of nowhere -- generally, something else has to go wrong first -- the fact that all of these fluids are flammable to begin with is a problem in and of itself. Combined with another aggravating factor, like a car crash or a failed part, the result could be a fire. Though such a blaze is most likely to start in the engine bay, where all of these dangerous liquids are concentrated, keep in mind that some of them, like fuel and brake fluid, are moved along the entire length of the car.

Electrical system failures
Electrical system failures take the second spot on the list because they're the second most common cause of car fires [source: Walters Forensic Engineering]. Car batteries are problematic, and not just the hybrid and all-electric vehicle battery pack types we've already discussed. A typical car's standard battery is capable of causing plenty of trouble. The battery's charging cycles can cause explosive hydrogen gas to build up in the engine bay, and the electrical current the battery provides (along with faulty or loose wiring) can produce sparks that can quickly ignite a fluid drip or leaked vapors. The electrical system's hazards aren't confined to the area under the hood, either. Electrical wiring runs throughout the entire car; through channels, into doors, under the carpet and through powered and heated seats, just to name a few places where a stray, unnoticed frayed wire could cause havoc.

Fuel system leaks
Leaks in the fuel system are the most common cause of vehicle fires,any number of complicating factors can cause a fuel leak, but they're tricky because fuel leaks can also arise on their own and with very little warning. A fuel system leak is really dangerous. We've already discussed that a lot of a car's fluids have corrosive, poisonous and flammable properties, but gasoline is among the worst. Gasoline at a temperature of just 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7.2 degrees Celsius) or above can quickly catch fire from a simple spark. It happens all the time in a running car, after all, but it's contained by the engine. And gasoline that reaches 495 degrees Fahrenheit (257.2 degrees Celsius) will ignite by itself. It's easy to see how fuel dripping onto hot metal and plastic parts can cause a fast-spreading fire. The best way to reduce chances of a fuel system fire is to make sure the car is properly maintained and to keep it out of the situations we've already described. And if you ever smell gas in or around your car, find and fix the leak immediately!
It should be noted that there is rarely a single cause for any given car fire, even if an investigator can trace all the way back to the incident that sparked the blaze. It's more likely that there was a combination of causes: human causes, mechanical causes, and chemical causes, and they all worked together to create an incredibly dangerous situation.

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