Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:46:57 -0400
Reply-To: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Electrical Fire in the Engine Bay
In-Reply-To: <4E531AA9.40603@charter.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Be happy that at least it got caught in time. It also shows that not all
engine fires are the result of bad fuel lines. Would have been nice if
there was a fuse or circuit breaker somewhere.
Dennis
From: John Rodgers [mailto:inua@charter.net]
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 11:13 PM
To: Dennis Haynes
Cc: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Electrical Fire in the Engine Bay
Dennis,
I have found the cause of the problem.
The air filter housing has always been a problem in that it was never
mounted correctly. With all the work recently done, the filter housing
installation was corrected. Unfortunately, part of the harness from that
ignition box with the relays branches off carrying the wiring for the Idle
stabilizer, the power steering pump pressure switch, the throttle switch,
and a few more things I couldn't see. That portion with these wires got
trapped under the air filter housing and squeezed directly against the metal
shield on the spark plug. For just a few minutes of local driving, it never
got hot enough to do any damage, but today I took a long drive (for here)
and 7 miles out at highway speed trouble started. The engine was hot, and
the wiring was clamped against the plug shield and the insulation just
melted, shorting the wires and burning off a lot of wiring insulation. Bad
enough, but it could have been far worse.
I suspect I'm going to to have to replace the complete harness and maybe
some relays, connectors etc. I'll have a better count tomorrow.
John
John Rodgers
Clayartist and Moldmaker
88'GL VW Bus Driver
Chelsea, AL
Http://www.moldhaus.com
On 8/22/2011 4:27 PM, Dennis Haynes wrote:
You just have some bad luck. The ignition, ECU, including the injectors and
the fuel pump are all non-fused circuits. Start at the fuel pump and work
your way back. Another possibility is some short near the starter. If you
have one of those hard start relay kits it could have closed energizing the
starter. Anyway, look carefully for the first short. It will be apparent
what initially went wrong.
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
John Rodgers
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 4:21 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Electrical Fire in the Engine Bay
Well, if it's not one thing, it's another.
I was tooling down the road, enjoying my newly opertional air conditioning,
and my smooth running engine, when of a sudden - the engine just quit. I
immediately put it in neutral, turned off the AC, recycled the ignition
switch, but nothing happened. None of the panel lights came on. It was like
the battery had been disconnected or something. I left it out of gear and
pulled to a stop off the road. Then I realized that with the ignition off,
the engine was still running, rough, but still running. I jumped out, popped
the hatch, and smoke was everywhere. Engine was kicking over, but barely,
and roughly. I pulled the coil wire out of the distributor cap and the
engine stopped. At that point I saw a wiring harness that had really gotten
hot and melted the insulation.
The wires in question came from the high voltage electronics box on the left
side of the engine bay that has the two relays in it. The insulation was
melted and fused on the wires on the relay marked 53
PN#141 951 2538 and PN# 321919505A. From there, the wiring cover - the long
flexible plastic cover through which all those wires go, was melted along
the bottom, all the way from the ignition box across the front (towards the
front of the van) over to the the point it disappears down and behind air
filter box and AFM. I moved the wire harness where it passes over the top of
the box with vacuum line layout, and got a click over where the starter is.
Sounded like the solenoid clicking. I immediately went and disconnected the
battery. Got AAA to come and get the van and take it home. That is as far as
I have gotten. I'll spend a bit more time later today when it cools off. I
have no idea what may have cause this, but to be sure - it will take some
time to trouble shoot and fix.
I haven't yet started tearing it apart to troubleshoot and fix this.
Haven't even looked at Bentley yet.
But has anyone any ideas??
Thanks.
John
--
John Rodgers
Clayartist and Moldmaker
88'GL VW Bus Driver
Chelsea, AL
Http://www.moldhaus.com
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