9 replies to this topic

[Clubby1275GT]

driving about as you do the other day, stopped for 5 mins, with the brand new angel eyes on! and smoke started billowing out of the bonnet!!!
turns out the wire that runs from the fuse box to the drivers side angel eye and then in paralell to the other angel eye was glowing red and all the plastic coating was melted!!

i thought it may be the wire, wasnt high enough ampage to run them, turns out thats not the case, used a thicker one yesterday and it still melted and smoked the hell out of my engine!
cant figure it out, it has been fine for days and suddenly pooooooof!

theres a total of 6 bulbs running of the bottom glass fuse in the fuse box, one wire coming in to the fuse box and two coming out, one to the original side lights, and the other to the new angel eyes, but only this wire is affected, the fuse didnt even pop and yet the passenger side angel eye wire that meets the drivers side one wasnt affected! but the plastic al lthe way up to the bulb on the drivers side one is melted too!!

What the hell can cause this suddenly out of nowhere?? could it be earthing?? the bulbs are only piddly little things and only about 5w each, not even that!

[Guess-Works.com]

The ONLY thing which will cause that is an earth leak, the wire is basically acting as a direct feed from the battery to earth... Unplug the battery before you blow that, the main wiring loom and set you car on fire !

[Clubby1275GT]

ive took the wire totally off, there not connected until can figure out whats going on, any ideas how to solve it?

basically ur sayin that the earth on the battery ent working (the one in the boot) and that wire is acting as it? if this is the case then why is it just this wire??

[miniboo]

the wire is probably shorted out some where

current will always travel the shortest way to earth

Edited by miniboo, 19 July 2006 - 10:12 AM.

[Guess-Works.com]

na, the earth on the battery is working fine otherwise the circuit would not be made..

How old is your GT, what type of fuse box has it got ( 2 fuse or 4 fuse )

[Clubby1275GT]

its a 79 GT, 4 block fusebox
the sidelights have been working for a week fine, then suddenly dead! its just that wire,so it must be earthing somewhere it shouldnt be, im gonna take the lights out and see if i can get them to work when not in place so i can chase the wire from the light to the fuse box and check out whats wrong.

[Grayedout]

Is there a bare live wire somewhere behind the headlight thats touching metal and shorting out ???

I had this exact problem once when fitting a set of halogens......the live to the sidelights kept shorting out and blowing fuses !!!

[Dan]

Yeah that's what I was thinking. A Clubby probably has nasty metal headlamp buckets. Make sure the rear of the lamps aren't touching the metal bucket when installed. Get yourself some plastic buckets anyway as they are loads better and don't rust.
The extra amp and three quarters from the 4 extra sidlight bulbs is not a problem for the wires like it can be for the switch (as you found) so it really must be an earth fault. Since they've been OK since you fitted them, check that vibration in the car hasn't worn away the insulation on the wiring inside the bucket or anywhere it travels through a panel. Hopefully you fitted grommets to each hole the wires go through but these can slip out of place.

Having said that, the fuse chould really have blown before the wire could get that hot. Make sure there's nothing shorting out the fuse box and all the fuse box wires are fitted properly. Also, are you sure none of the wires you fitted in the relays are giving power to the sidelight circuit from the unfused original headlamp circuit? Since the problem has appeard slowly and is getting worse I reckon it must be worn insulation, but the fuse should still have blown really.

Edited by Dan, 19 July 2006 - 11:32 AM.

[Clubby1275GT]

the relays come nowhere near in conctact to the sidelight circuit. but ur right yes, i have crusty metal headlight bowls! where can i get plastic ones from?
i imagine it is touching in there as its a squeeze getting them in as the sidelight bulbs for the angel eyes stick out the back and have to be pushed in to keep the headlight aim correct!

[Dan]

Any of the normal specialists do them, about seven quid each I think. You need some large headed aluminium pop rivets to fit them and a pop rivet gun but it's pretty easy.