1987 Acura Inegra with 160k miles
My spouse had a dream of fire - mechanic didn’t see any concerns or repairs.
He said he never saw this car getting on fire and said will do 300k.
Any of you have other experience or concerns or suggestions?
There’s now way of knowing when or if a fire will develop. A fuel line could split open or an electrical component could overheat due to electrical current draw but the odds are sharply against either one happening. There’s no sense in fretting over it. If this is a concern then one could replace any rubber fuel line under the hood and reseal all of the fuel injectors with a seal kit.
Many years ago I had what appeared to be a very real dream that the bedroom wall was slowly falling over on me. Next thing I knew my wife woke me up and I was sitting on the edge of the bed with both hands pressed against the wall and sweating profusely. The wall was still standing so it’s assumed that I saved us both from being crushed… 
I’d be more concerned about rust in the body, and that fact that it’s many generations behind on safety equipment and design.
That is, unless you smell gas.
Integras were really good cars. I wouldn’t worry about it. If you smell gas, and it’s coming from the engine area, find (or have a mechanic find) and fix the leak. But that goes for any car.
I don’t believe you are any more likely to have a fire than any other vehicle.
That said, yes, I have seen Integras burn, but all of the Integra carbeques I’ve seen have involved people performing bad modifications on them. I saw one catch fire because the guy installed a high pressure fuel pump in anticipation of installing a turbo, and then wanted to wait a few weeks to fix the now-leaking fuel rail because he was broke.
I saw another catch fire because the kid installed a high-output stereo and did not put a fuse on the amplifier’s power wire like you’re supposed to. And the wire was the wrong gauge for the amp he installed. The amp drew more power than the wire was designed for, it heated up, and set the carpet in the hatch on fire. To compound the stupidity, he had a gas can in the hatch that he was going to use to add a little bit of gas at a time at the autocross we were attending (to save weight and make his times slightly faster), but he’d left the cap at home by mistake, and so the flames had an easy path to the gas fumes, as well as the spilled gas that had soaked into the carpet. Fwoosh. I hope for his sake that he’s avoided cars since then and sticks to public transportation. 
In short, assuming you don’t do anything abjectly stupid like Dumb and Dumber up there did, this isn’t something to be overly concerned about.
If he dreamed your house was hit by a meteorite would you move into a cave?
I think your spouse probably wants you to buy a new (or newer) car. Your spouse is probably correct, a newer car is probably due. Overdue in fact. It seems that safety is the spouses concern, and there are a lot of new safety features on cars since 1987. In the meantime carry as big of fire extinguisher as you I guess.
The most likely reason this car would catch fire would be to run into the back end of a Pinto. You are going to start having a lot of age related issues with this car so it might be time to look for a good deal out there. If you see one, don’t pass it up.
Dreams don’t lie. Your spouse wants to get rid of the beater.
Shopping time?
A dead short on a properly fused circuit will rarely cause a fire either in a house or car. The fuse blows or the circuit breaker trips almost instantly and cuts the power. The cause of most electrical fires is when a device is drawing current when it shouldn’t but doesn’t draw enough current to blow the fuse or trip the breaker, or more current is being drawn through a wire than it can handle, but the fuse or circuit breaker is too large for the wire. I had a 1990 Ford Aerostar that was recalled for a new ignition switch. Apparently, the switch could draw power and heat up to the point where a fire could start, but the protective device for the wiring to the switch would not blow and stop the current flow. Our son called us one morning and said that his in-laws had had a bad fire at their house. The fire started under the hood of the car in the middle of the night. The car was parked outside, but the fire jumped into the eaves of the house. They were out of the house for the better part of a year while the house was rebuilt. The car in which the fire started was a Lincoln TownCar. The car had been parked and everything shut off for about 6 hours so nothing should have happened. However, the cruise control had quit working about a week before the fire and the assumed cause was that the circuit drew power and overheated. The insurance company that insured the house ultimately collected from Ford Motor Company.
Even a small low voltage battery can put out enough current to start a fire. I was replacing batteries in the smoke detectors in the small church I attend which we do on a routine basis once a year. I had changed the 9 volt batteries in a couple of the detectors when I thought my pants were getting hot. I had put a 9 volt battery in my pocket and my car key had bridged the terminals. The key became hot to the touch.
I had changed the 9 volt batteries in a couple of the detectors when I thought my pants were getting hot. I had put a 9 volt battery in my pocket and my car key had bridged the terminals. The key became hot to the touch.
I have a TV background. You carry a lot of 9v’s in television. I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to myself and coworkers. The real fun is when you’re carrying 2, and they somehow hook themselves together. That can require burn creams. Professional-grade 9-volts come with little plastic tabs clicked into the terminals specifically to try and prevent this.