Here's what happened:
I left my place for my parents house, about a 45-minute drive. On the way, the Check Engine light came on. Okay, annoying, but things seemed to be running a-okay. Still, I was concerned and wanted to know something right away. I stopped at an auto shop a few minutes from my destination and it was a P0303 —*Cylinder 3 Misfire. I think I had one that a couple years back and it was a headgasket issue (which I had fixed, and that was after driving around with the light for few days with no further issues). Still, at this point, all seemed well. About a mile before I reached the house, I seemed to notice a bit of a weezing/air sound when I stepped on the gas, but I didn't think much of it, maybe I was just hearing things. I pulled into the garage, parked. Thirty to forty-five seconds later I got out, smelled something burning and noticed smoke coming from under hood. I looked under the 4Runner and saw flaming debris under the engine, maybe slightly toward the passenger side.
I got a bit of fire extinguisher on it, but then the smoke was pretty intense and I thought it best to get out of there. The fire department got there pretty quick and took care of the fire.
In hindsight, or next time, I'd probably stick through the smoke a bit longer and fight the fire, or maybe try to pop the hood from inside to give more room for the extinguisher. But hey, things could have been worse for a car fire.
Possibly relevant:
- I noticed in the last few days that when I'd start the truck, there was a sort of quick metal-scraping sound before the engine started. It'd start, but make that sound on the way. But this only happened on a low gas tank. Once filled up again, things seemed okay.
- The last bit of electrical work I had done was installing a new radio antenna, and that was a couple months ago.
So that's all I've got. I'll admit right here I'm not nearly as mechanically inclined as many of you, so I'm stumped. For what it's worth, I didn't notice the engine temp gauge on that last drive. I've overheated before, but it caught my eye then. So there's that.
And here are some pictures.