Electrical Meltdown

dj_ules · Post by **dj_ules** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:20 pm

hmm seems im in a bit of bad luck ..
ive just installed my new starter motor. few days ago.. though ive had a fuse blown .. ive replaced the fuse with a thinner piece of wire (headlight fuse) because i sortof had an accident with the headlights (silly one wont go into it)
though i started my car today .. and yellow smoke came out from the engine car would not kick over looked under the bonet.. thought it was a fire.. but my earth wire to my battery to the engine has been completly melted the plastic bit around it.. and the terminal on the actual battery has melted off. completly. here are pics:
any one got any ideas what could be a fault or something ? could thi have anything to do with the starter motor i have installed in ? or fuse wise or anything like that.. any info from you guys would be good before i go to a auto electrician and get ripped off.. just because its an import! and really its not much to it than a normal car.. cheers

ohh just to add i had been drivin the car for about 1 hour before this happend when i stopped to get a bite to eat.. so the car was runin before this happend but not sure .. i stalled the car when i started it goin into reverse.and started it again and thats when the short happened. ! to be more precise on the situation.

Post by **Bennoz** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:32 pm

Thats the first time I've ever seen that!

I dunno... electricals is not my strong point, but putting bits of wire in for fuses is bad. Like the old trick with household fuses going, just whack in a 6 inch nail - resistance goes from 10amp to 250amp... bad.

noccers · Post by **noccers** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:59 pm

surely it wasn't actually a piece of wire you put in place of a fuse?

if that's what you did then that's what caused it.

curious to see what else is buggered; i doubt it's just the wiring

dj_ules · Post by **dj_ules** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:07 pm

well i didnt do it .. my old mans mate done it.. said it would be perfectly fine.. il take pic of the actual fuse and show you ! il take a few more pics now!

and ive also noticed this off my radiatior which wasnt there before?

khunjeng · Post by **khunjeng** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:07 pm

noccers wrote:surely it wasn't actually a piece of wire you put in place of a fuse?

if that's what you did then that's what caused it.

curious to see what else is buggered; i doubt it's just the wiring

I piece of wire as a fuse is not going to cause this. A fuse is a safety device and is rated less than the decives it protects. However it has probably contributed in this case as it has allowed the fault to continue as the rating of the wire was much higher.

For the earth to have melted u have had a massive short to earth. I would be looked at the connections form the starter motor to the battery...something is wrong for sure for this to happen.

dj_ules · Post by **dj_ules** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:24 pm

hmm.. the starter motor wire's dont seem to be affected.. could a loose conection on the starter motor cause this possibly ?

khunjeng · Post by **khunjeng** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:02 pm

its hard to tell without knowing exactly what was going on and seeing it.

WTF is that stuff from your radiator? whats under the cap? green or the same color?

Its logical that something u changed caused a MASSIVE current to flow through the neg. terminal. A straight short between the terminals would do it. Something might have got loose when driving. Trace the connection to the neg. terminal...as some point it mst be shorted.

dj_ules · Post by **dj_ules** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:33 pm

hmm i dunno what it is in the radiator.. wasnt there before.. but only after all this stuff hapend? not sure..

boarsai · Post by **boarsai** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:52 pm

Hrm that looks nasty.

I had a few auto elec issues I wanted to sort out, so I asked my mates and they told me to go to a guy that all the boost cruising people seem to use in brisbane. He was really awesome and much cheaper then I thought it would be.

Perhaps the boost cruising boys and girls could direct you to a good IMPORT auto electrician in your area.

I was very happy with the guy I dealt with.

He seemed to go the extra mile to make me happy. *thumbs up*

oldie · Post by **oldie** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:53 pm

the cause of the problem would have been that the terminal was not tight enough or a bad connection. during cranking is the only time the current draw is high enough to do this, a spark would have started and just kept on heating up, something like an arc welder. you can use 2 batterys in series as a welder!
Replace the battery and clean the terminal on the lead really well and you"ll probally be OK and put in the correct size fuses

khunjeng · Post by **khunjeng** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:03 pm

oldie wrote:the cause of the problem would have been that the terminal was not tight enough or a bad connection. during cranking is the only time the current draw is high enough to do this, a spark would have started and just kept on heating up, something like an arc welder. you can use 2 batterys in series as a welder!
Replace the battery and clean the terminal on the lead really well and you"ll probally be OK and put in the correct size fuses

good advice...

jonowong · Post by **jonowong** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:06 pm

and wrap up the lead again

dj_ules · Post by **dj_ules** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:28 pm

hey cool thanks for your advice guys.. il have to buy a new battery ... il get that main earth re wired ? any advice to what to wrap it in ? electrical tape will do it .. but just seems a bit dodgy ? is there any proper stuff i can do it in anyone name of it and il duck down to bunnings or something and get it .. il try hookin up the new batery clean the terminals. and stuff i will let u guys know when this happens see how it goes.. im shittin my self that it will electrecute me or somethin lol..

well if i die yous are welcome to come to my funeral. il get my cofin shaped into an fto hehe .jk

khunjeng · Post by **khunjeng** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:40 pm

dj_ules wrote:hey cool thanks for your advice guys.. il have to buy a new battery ... il get that main earth re wired ? any advice to what to wrap it in ? electrical tape will do it .. but just seems a bit dodgy ? is there any proper stuff i can do it in anyone name of it and il duck down to bunnings or something and get it .. il try hookin up the new batery clean the terminals. and stuff i will let u guys know when this happens see how it goes.. im shittin my self that it will electrecute me or somethin lol.. well if i die yous are welcome to come to my funeral. il get my cofin shaped into an fto hehe .jk

tape is fine. If u buy a near earth cable it should be insulated. But tape will work.

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:04 pm

you mentioned yellow smoke? how dense was it? this is probably the coolant
I reckon your whole block got hot, especially where the coolant lid is,
It seems as if the coolant boiled, due to pressure leaked out, and then due to surface heat it started to burn.
Replace your coolant before drive, see if this theory is correct?
If yes, you probably need to change oil as well. Then I assume much more damage though.

noccers · Post by **noccers** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:00 pm

I don't think this problem is just oging to go away so easily. There was a MASSIVE short; strong enough to melt the terminal its self, almost all the insulation and by the looks of it, your fluids were affected by it all too.

A dodge fuse like that could be 'fine' for a headlight, as you're not going to do much damage, but for a starter motor I wouldn't be so confident.

Very strange problem, but obviously hard to say for sure without being able to see anything. It would look like there was some kind of direct short between the two terminals somehow.

I wouldn't rule out the fuse, as that wire looks like some electrical wire, and if you notice the wire that was connected to your terminal is fine. Since you already had one short it'd be safe to assume you had another, and the wires held their own long enough for your terminal to heat up and subsequently melt.

Just because the wire is 'thin' and looks a lot thinner than the metal used in a fuse, does not mean it is weaker or more sensitive.

Get yourself an auto elec cos you need to find the source of the problem, not just replace the battery, patch it up and go for round #2

-my 2c

Post by **dstocks** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 8:03 am

Yep, I would get it straight to an auto electrician. No use speculating on something like this. They will have a much better idea of what to do, because they have probably seen something like it before. Also, they then carry the risk if something else goes wrong.

dj_ules · Post by **dj_ules** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:51 pm

yeh i got a mobile leco to come out and look at it monday.. 30$ to look atit and do a few tests.. and watever in parts or watever else he has to do ontop of that..so fingers crossed its not gonna cost me an arm and a leg. although i goto get a new battery

FtoSam · Post by **FtoSam** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 1:19 pm

That is crazy mate...
If that was your positive terminal i'd have said it was a short...
But negative??? It can only short against positive.. and it obviously hasnt.
It is F**kin hard to melt a battery terminal.
Unlikely it was anything to do with current draw.
I dont think anything draws that much current. And if it did, other things would die first. (wiring and fuses) and you're electrical stuff (dash, cd player, etc) would be going absolutely mental. Not to mention it would take an extended period of time to melt it. (at least 60 seconds worth id say)
It may be chemical related. i.e. a chemical leak in the battery produced a gas (yellow smoke) which also happened to react to the water around your radiator cap.

Be carefull mate... battery chemicals are deadly.

Other than that im not sure... Its definately a good one..
I agree with everyone else... take it to an auto electrician...
And be carefull with that battery.

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:01 pm

Have you checked your bonnet, around the battery location (underside of the bonnet, facing engine)?
Is there any mark there?

FTO AUSTRALIA

Electrical Meltdown

Electrical Meltdown

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