Excessive Engine Compartment Heat - Melted Plastics

[Star Rider]

A little background. I bought this car a year ago but have not driven it for the last 5 months due to the weather here in NY. I get it out of storage recently and have beed modding it etc. I removed the plastic engine cover to check on the air filters. I noticed that at the rear drivers side of the engine that there was some wire mesh protector melted, a shrunken vacuume line and that the bottom corner of the air cleaner housing has heat damage. I have never smelled anything, nor noticed any excessive heat. Maybe this happened prior to me owing it? Anyone have this issue? All heat guards seem to be in place as far as I can tell. Check the lower left of the pic... see the tiny buble holes in the plastic. It must have been really hot, like just prior to ignition!

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[ericgoh]

I don't think that is from just a hot engine. If it's the same layout as my 2003 C240 (non-4matic), that's the area of the engine that has your fuel line. I'd suspect some sort of fuel or oil leak that ignited at some point. Also, check your valve covers and the notoriously leaky recirculating covers for signs of oil.

Perhaps it was just a fuel line in the past that has since been replaced/tightened. But, I'd look real carefully since the small amount of melting seems very, very lucky.

Good luck!

[Boom vang]

Like the previous post, it does not look like melting but rather a small fire. The tell tale is the bubbles in the plastic, if it melted it would be a smooth deformity, this looks charred and burned

I think you had a small engine fire

[Star Rider]

I am still baffled by this find. A heavy stainless steel braided fuel line does in fact cross from the firewall to the engine right below this burned/melted area. The plastic on the air cleaner housing is shiny near this area. I did not jump to the fire conclusion since other than some melting, there does not appear to be any evidence of a fire, but who knows.

[ericgoh]

Where did you buy the car? Any chance you can dig up some service records? Perhaps have MB look up records via VIN? If the problem was corrected, that's great. Otherwise, I'd do a comprehensive evaluation. At the very least, take the air filter box off and take a bunch of pictures for us to see. Maybe we can identify a possible cause.