<VV> Re: wiring harness fires?

[Bill Elliott]

As many of you know, I previously had an ur-quattro (Audi quattro turbo coupe).
Anyway, since they hand built the UrQ out of a chassis designed for a 4 cyl FWD (but stuffed in a turbo intercooled 5 cyl 
and awd gear) things were cramped. Battery went under the rear seat and the juice was carried by a very heavy gauge 
cable (completely unfused) to the starter motor (lower front center) of the car. 

Anyway, the previous owner had done some mods (different turbo, etc) and apparently had not put things back together 
quite right. I had used the car as a daily driver for a year...came home one evening, parked it in the garage, and went in 
the house. THANK GOODNESS my wife came home early... about 5 minutes after I came in and said "Your car has 
steam coming from it".

It wasn't steam...it was electrical smoke. The braided oil cooler cable had been sawing on the misrouted battery cable and 
had just gotten through the insulation...though that wasn't immediately obvious.

I popped the bonnet and about that time the juice going though the oil line to ground popped the oil line, adding hot oil to 
the mix. Now flames and black smoke billowing out. I unloaded a Halon extinguisher into the engine comaprtment...which 
beat down the flame and smoke long enough to see the battery cable was the source. So then I ran to the rear of the car, 
pulled the back seat (thank goodness I never bolted it down as the factory intended) and popped the battery cable.

Total damage: One oil cooler line, one battery cable, and I replaced the battery for good measure. A cut-off switch would 
have been a good idea...
Corvair story: new body man, replacing his first Corvair floor. Cut out the old floor, was drilling holes into the upper front 
floorboards to rivet the panels in place to weld them. Started smelling gas... and luckily (for him and the car) he quit to 
investiage. He apparently had no idea there was a gas tank up front!
Corvair content directly corresponding to this thread: I have never replaced a Corvair wiring harness unless there was 
physical damage to it. But based on some issues I've seen with engine compartment harnesses (including very low 
voltages being supplied by the old resistor wire to the coil) I can see replacing those for reliabilty and will likely replace at 
least the one in my Corsa this next season....
Bill Elliott
Urbana, MD


On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 11:58:12 -0600, Dave Morris wrote:

>My daughter burned her first car to the ground because she bumped the curb 
>hard enough while parking it late at night that the battery slid forward 
>and contacted the chassis, which caused a fire that burned unseen in the 
>engine compartment... unseen until the next morning when she came out to go 
>to school!

>Dave Morris


>At 12:30 PM 1/20/2005 -0500, you wrote:

>>i reall doubt that the unfortunate loss of a corvair was due to the wiring
>>harness itself, they are new enough yet to have decent wire and insulation 
>>, i
>>would guess a screw or other  pinch got into  a b+ wire somehow.  not really
>>the fault of the harness??i have seen failures due to floor pan screws or 
>>other
>>easily done mistakes so if you have any electrical symptoms check them 
>>out..do
>>not let them go. usually you have a warning of somekind  before they get that
>>hot. it takes a good forensic man to find the real cause..i have worked with
>>them before on car and boat fires.
>>regards, tim colson






-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.7.1 - Release Date: 1/19/2005