I was toying with some wiring in the glovebox of my car. I had a 12v line running to a fuse distribution block wich was open. The 12v line is fused with a 100a fuse right next to the battery. The only other wires in the glove box lead back to the amplifiers. The next thing I know.. there is smoke pouring out over the guages above the steering wheel. I looked at the fuse block, and moved it.. thinking it had shorted out. It kept going.. but eventually stopped.

None of the fuses in the car are blown. the 100a fuse was fine, and all the fuses under the dash are fine too. What could have caused this fire? Even if I had shorted out every wire I had in that glove box... I still don't think I could have started it. I have not run any wires to that side of the car at all! The closest I have come is to my touchscreen where the stock radio use to be, but that still works fine.

BTW, the car works fine. I can't find anything wrong.

So can anyone explain... WHAT HAPPENED?

and.. what should I do?

 

a live 12v line? touch any peice of metal anywhere on the car and itll short. the whole chassis is grounded to the battery.

sorry if thats clearly not the answer, it seems a bit simple, but the info was a little confusing.

 

Yes, I had a live 12v line but if i shorted it out, it would have blown the fuse next to the battery, created sparks where it was touching the frame, or welded itself to the frame; not start a fire under the dash.

 

you have a 100amp fuse? how thick is this wire you have fused?

 

A 100A fuse would be huge. Even a house does not have breakers that large. I am guessing that he meant 10A. The reason that the fuse may not have blown is that you attached to the wrong side of the fuse thus removing it from the circuit.

 

yeah 100amp fuse would hold out for a LONG time. you could likely run a car battery straight through a 100amp fuse without blowing it.

but your correct, it should have sparks and welded to the metal. so that is odd, also the wire should have gotten red hot right before the wire itself melted in half.

 

I have 4guague wire running to the battery. I have a 100a fuse because I have a pc and two amplifiers running on the same line. The fuse ratings for these three things come to 130amps.

Even if i did have too big of a fuse, or no fuse at all.... how did i start the fire under the dash. It doesn't make sense.

 

Let's see here over 100 amps from a dead short * min 12v, is over 1200 watts. That's a pretty good cooker.

 

If the wire got nicked somewhere and is touching anything at ground potential, the wire would get hot. If the connections is poor, as it would be if there was only a small contact area where the insulation is missing, there might not be enough current to blow the fuse, but more than enough to heat the wire and burn the insulation.

If this is hard to understand, you should probably let a qualified shop install your stereo gear. What's worse, a couple hundred in install charges, or a charred $30K car?

 

I work on electrical systems for large industrial applications and the 100 amp fuse sounds like huge overkill to me. First of all if you did need a 100 amp fuse the #4 wire that you ran would be too small and is only rated at 85 amps according to the CEC. I would agree with the previous opinion of paying a couple hundred to get a professional to complete the stereo install on your new car and not have to worry about a fire.


Yielar

 

Been there, done that unfotunately...

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....ight=dash+fire

 

Thanks, I'll check that out.

Everyone else doesn't seem to understand that even if i am as incompetent as the seem to think.... i still don't think i could have started the fire.


Lets just assume that I didn't even fuse the power wire and that i gave it a perfect connection to the frame. The wire runs up the RIGHT side of the car... the fire was on the LEFT side of the car. I do not have any wires that run to the LEFT side of the car.