<VV> Oops! Set my CORSA on fire......

[aeroned at aol.com]

Lighter is unfused circuit, no fuse to blow.
 
Ned
 
 
In a message dated 12/6/2009 10:31:51 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
ravensong13 at verizon.net writes:

Well,  only a tiny bit.....  no fire damage.  

Today I found my  cigarettee lighter was inoperative.  I looked underneath 
the dash and  discovered the wire was off.  I hooked the wire back up and 
pushed the  lighter in....  pulled it out after 30 seconds, but before it 
popped and  found it was still stone cold.  

Just to test the socket I plugged  in a 12 device to the socket.... no 
power.  I pulled out the adapter,  pushed the lighter back in and started 
driving the car...  

About  20 minutes later I started picking up a little whiff of something I 
thought  might be the belt....  started to pull over....   my fiance'  
started to panic a bit at this point as smoke started pouring out of the  
dash....   I tilted my head sideways to ponder the situation while I  switched off 
the ignition and reached for the chrome fire extinguisher mounted  between 
my front seats......

I then noticed that the smoke was coming  from the area of the lighter....  
I reached up, carefully gripped the  wire and yanked it off the back of the 
lighter socket....   the  wire... which had gotten hot enough to melt the 
insulator off of it.....   struck metal on its way out and set fire to the 
insulator....    scared me a sec but I gave it a good huff and a puff and it 
went  out....   

I had my fiance' run back to the engine  compartment and disconnect my 
battery quick release....  looked for any  futher sign of damage (found none), 
duct taped the exposed wire all up to make  sure it couldnt short out....... 
reconnected the battery and went on my  way.... things seem to be ok.

Much to her credit my girl didn't make an  undue fuss about it.


Now my question is......   shouldn't  this have blown a fuse rather than 
start a fire?



Ray Rodriguez  III
click here for a pic of me and my car  
http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f90/Swiftblade13/?action=view&current=sigphoto3.jpg
Lake  Ariel, PA
CORSA member
66' Corsa 140/4 hot rodded coupe
65' Corsa  140/4 coupe (under  construction)
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