Electical fire on Motorway!

Blak_Mamber

Blak_Mamber

Member +
Morning all.

Long story short.

Got car MOT'd last week. Dropped the car at the MOT guys house so he could take it into his work the next day. However, he could not start the car in the morning at all. I came round & found it was the alarm playing up (TOAD Ai606) I pressed a few buttons on my alarm fob after looking at the alarm instructions and the car started in the end. But the engine management light now stays on for some reason.

I left the car with him, got the MOT done, two new front wheel bearings and CV boot & all was fine.

Saturday morning, I changed the oil and filter, gave the car a proper clean ready for the bluewater meet. Took her out for a test drive, got some petrol and all seemed normal.

Heading to Bluewater on the motorway doing normal motorway speeds and suddenly there was this loud grinding sound and car felt funny. Sounded like a shit load of metal was stuck under my car and being dragged along the ground.

I pulled over straight away & popped the bonnet. There was an earth from that is connected to the top of my gearbox which was on fire!!

I turned the ignition off, put the hazards on and called the AA. When I turned the keys back on the ignition so I could do my windows up, it made a weird noise in the bay (like a high pitched noise) and smoke started pouring from my front arches! My brake lines (TMD carbon braided brake lines) were on fire!!! :eek:

I took the keys out, and the ignition was still on lol. Smoke still pouring out so I disconnected the battery and the smoking stopped.

I waited 2 hours for the AA to take me home and now the car is on the drive with the battery disconnected.

Any ideas? Pics below. I may have missed info so please ask. Thanks in advance :)



Heres the earth-

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Heres where the earth connects to the chassis- As you can see the rubber is burnt and the wire split in half.

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Heres where the earth connects to (i've obviously taken it off at this point)

IMGP0434.jpg



Front brake lines :eek: :-

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goldenvtr

goldenvtr

Member +
too much power being drawn through, i would suggest extra earthing to the points battery, can only presume that the brake lines have some conductuive metal in them and they got to hot... very strange though!! any fuses blown?
 
Blak_Mamber

Blak_Mamber

Member +
goldenvtr said:
too much power being drawn through, i would suggest extra earthing to the points battery, can only presume that the brake lines have some conductuive metal in them and they got to hot... very strange though!! any fuses blown?
Click to expand...

I havnt checked any fuses yet mate. I wanted to get ideas from people on here 1st and then check. When you say too much power, what would cause that? Battery is a 6 month old halfords 330amp. Should i re-earth everything?
 
Jay

Jay

Admin
Fuck that's a new one...

My guess (not being very good with electrics) is that whatever has gone wrong has sent a voltage down the brake pipes and the braided lines have burnt the covering off. Scary stuff indeed!
 
Jay

Jay

Admin
Also worth inspecting the condition of all the other earth wires. The one that is melted is one of the thin stock ones. It could have just been the weakest link.
 
goldenvtr

goldenvtr

Member +
Blak_Mamber said:
I havnt checked any fuses yet mate. I wanted to get ideas from people on here 1st and then check. When you say too much power, what would cause that? Battery is a 6 month old halfords 330amp. Should i re-earth everything?
Click to expand...

well could that a live wire has touched a earthing wire somewhere earth ires bearly see 1v and if its see full battery voltage of 12/13v thats when they overheat, the less voltage going the cooler it is, so more points of earthing would deffo help. but shouldnt of happend really.
 
Jay

Jay

Admin
I'd start at the positive terminal and trace along looking for a short. It's possible something has been disturbed and a wire is now touching the chassis somewhere. The wire that is melted is probably the weakest point of the circuit and that's why she burned. The hoses heated up as a result of the short.

Keep us posted dude.

Jay
 
Blak_Mamber

Blak_Mamber

Member +
Thanks for your help lads. Much appreicated. What would cause the metal griding noise? Would this have fucked my gearbox or anything?

Im going to go over all the wires and re-earth etc..

Meanwhile, while i was looking over the bay, i found three connectors and one wire coming from the black injector wire box, which arnt connected to anything?!?! Any ideas what these do?

IMGP0438-1.jpg


IMGP0439-1.jpg
 
Jay

Jay

Admin
That's good. The broken one should be connected to your knock sensor..

The other two aren't important, one's your hi/low solenoid (missing) and the other wasn't used in most GT's.

Jay
 
Blak_Mamber

Blak_Mamber

Member +
Jay said:
That's good. The broken one should be connected to your knock sensor..

The other two aren't important, one's your hi/low solenoid (missing) and the other wasn't used in most GT's.

Jay
Click to expand...

Thanks Jay. So that wire that isnt connected to anything should be connected to my knock sensor? Any idea where that is located?

Whats the best way to ensure all my earths have good connections? Should i get some kind of earth block?
 
malcolmgt

malcolmgt

Member +
one thing after another isnt it dude, hope you get it sorted.
when you called and said fire i literally s**t my pants lol
 
Brad_L

Brad_L

Member +
No its not on the inlet its on the block just below the inlet.

I dont know if you can get to it from under the car i just managed to reach it from above.
 
Blak_Mamber

Blak_Mamber

Member +
Not too sure where to start with this lot.

As Jay suggests, I'll check over the positive going to the battery and trace it back. Ill also look for any loose wires and try & figure out where they belong.

Can anyone suggest better places to earth the battery negative to? And for things like my gauges, which are earthed in the engine bay to the chassis, should i have a main earthing block that all these can connect to? I'm really no good at electrics and not sure what to do on all this :(
 
corofin12345

corofin12345

Member +
wow... something is very wrong in the wiring...im not really up on electrics but to me it look like your car turned live for a bit and the grinding noise may of been your alternator recieving voltage insted of putting it out?? id check all earthing points bud. i think i see a aftermarket earthing kit in there?? check that also.. something is live when it should be earthed id say, wheres the big earth off the battery going too??
 
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Blak_Mamber

Blak_Mamber

Member +
corofin12345 said:
wow... something is very wrong in the wiring...im not really up on electrics but to me it look like your car turned live for a bit and the grinding noise may of been your alternator recieving voltage insted of putting it out?? id check all earthing points bud. i think i see a aftermarket earthing kit in there?? check that also.. something is live when it should be earthed id say, wheres the big earth off the battery going too??
Click to expand...

Tell me about it dude. I dont know where to start.
There are two wires coming from my negative on the battery, both of which connect to two different points on the cars chassis.
 
Blak_Mamber

Blak_Mamber

Member +
corofin12345 said:
sorry.. dont know what way i looked at it.. see it now... mad tho... the whole loom in the bay needs to be checked bud
Click to expand...

Auto electrician u think would be my best bet? I wouldnt know where to start and what does what, and what should be connected to the right place etc..

Also, anyone know a thread on this site that shows the best place to connect the negative wires coming from my battery in the bay? I remember a thread ages ago showing the best places to connect to.
 
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