It's dead!

[toast boy]

You lot must love me with the constant questions and problems! I guess that's what happens when you leave a Tiv off the road for 4 years and try and get it running again!

I've just had a rather upsetting episode in traffic - I'll try and cut the story as short as possible and get as many pertinent details in.

I've had bother with the fan previously, replaced the otter switch and have a dash override wired in too. I'm not sure if the override was on or not (I thought it was) but the car started to get hot in some very heavy traffic. I popped the bonnet for a bit of extra airflow and looked down and the override was off (it may have been knocked by me knee). I turned it on, heard a ping and lost the electrics. The car would turn over but not start so I thought some fuses that would affect the fuel pump relay might have gone. Swapped some over and still no action, apart from a sizzling and burning smell so I turned off the power sharpish. The bottom left 15A fuse (engine control etc.) has melted it's casing but not blown and the wiring behind has almost set itself on fire. I gave up at this point and got my dad to come and tow it home.

I appreciate this could be any number of electrical gremlins and am going to have a quick hunt before it gets really dark but any help/pointers/words of reassurance would be greatly appreciated. Alternatively, if the collective consensus is get a professional auto sparky in I might do that as I'm a bit concerned about the pyrotechnic possibilities here!

Sorry for the essay and thanks in advance for any wise words, I'm off to cry into my dinner!

[tvrgit]

When did you wire in the over-ride switch

how is it wired

have you userd the switch successfully before?

[toast boy]

The switch was wired in a couple of months ago and was working fine on the drive but today has been the first day of real life use of the car. It's going to be one of the first ports of call tomorrow to potentially rip out and start again I think. I'm pretty confident my wiring was up to scratch but there have been alterations to the loom before me so it will probably be worth taking it back to source and staring fresh.

I also noticed before it got dark that the bundle of wires that runs round the back of the engine was touching the manifold/block at the nearside and the heat resistant wrap was melted a bit so it's possible the wires inside may have shorted.

[GreenV8S]

toast boy said:

I also noticed before it got dark that the bundle of wires that runs round the back of the engine was touching the manifold/block at the nearside and the heat resistant wrap was melted a bit so it's possible the wires inside may have shorted.

Symptoms do sort of point towards something like that, although it could also be a loose or corroded fuse / relay holder causing a voltage drop and then overheating. That would explain the heat damage without fuses blowing.

[ketvrin]

You mention a sizzling and burning smell... Is that in
The car (fuse or yellow connector ?) or under the bonnet
(Loom on exhaust)

K

[toast boy]

The sizzling and burning smell was coming from the fuse box, but I've found a bit of the loom in the engine bay that has touched the manifold/block and melted through and probably caused the short. I'm going to replace that bit of the loom and see what happens.

[toast boy]

The sizzling and burning smell was coming from the fuse box, but I've found a bit of the loom in the engine bay that has touched the manifold/block and melted through and probably caused the short. I'm going to replace that bit of the loom and see what happens.

Ps. It's not the yellow connector - that thing's long gone!

[toast boy]

Update: It's fixed! Replaced all of the damaged wires in the loom going to the chunky engine connectors and it's sprang back into life. I've temporarily re-routed the wires away from the hot areas but I'm obviously going to have to sit down and have a good think about where it's best to route the loom and make sure it's totally secured away from heat sources.