Small fire

I was driving home tonight,flicked the lights on.And there was a small fire under the dash.Any ideas.

Just as as well it's only a small ford James mm  

Just as as well it's only a small ford James  
But seriously it could be a fusible link that is ment to burn,
Or it could be a major wire that has started to burn then blown a fuse ,
It's going to be worth checking for,considering it happened when you turned the headlights on
It will be in the Parker's / headlight /dash light circuits ..


                                                                                  

This is what got the old girl smoking,i have nfi what it is.

Hi James
It looks to be a resistor of some sort (,used on the dash lights to dim them)
or on the demistor fan (to give the different speeds)
Even some cars use them with a ignition points set up to give 9 volts to the coil.
The last possibility is a noise suppression choke/filter for the car radio..
Hope this helps you out some.

Gidday James

Nasty!

Assuming you mean the thing wrapped in Insulation Tape near the bottom of the photo, is there any chance you can unwrap it and post a pic of what's in it?

Open wide and looked inside,and this is what i found.  

Interesting.

Are the skinny bits in the photo the Wire that's left when the Insulation has melted off?

Yep   

Scarey!

The way its been coiled up back on itself will typically cause Wire to overheat melting the Insulation and then of course shorting out. Inductance, Capacitance, Inductance! FIZZLE!!!

At least the Van itself didn't go up in Flames.

Definitely worth chasing the wire through and replacing in its entirety.

Are there any joins hiding in there?

This is what they told me on the escort site.  
As I suggested earlier dimmer resistor! Delete the resistor altogether it's not like escort dash lights are blindingly bright and need dimming. I deleted it in all my escorts.

Certainly sounds like something all Escort Owners should do.

A Fire waiting to happen!

Pommy cars and their wiring are atrocious. You should some of the crap in my Jaguar.
How the hell they ever beat the German's is beyond me?

Regards, Smooth  

sinbin wrote:Pommy cars and their wiring are atrocious. You should some of the crap in my Jaguar.
How the hell they ever beat the German's is beyond me?

Regards, Smooth  

 

Of course back then the German's made Volkswagens with the battery under the back seat that set their cars on fire!
So I suppose that answers my question...

Regards, Smooth  

sinbin wrote:Of course back then the German's made Volkswagens with the battery under the back seat that set their cars on fire!
So I suppose that answers my question...

Regards, Smooth  

  
You crack me up every time James,I don't know how you remember all this stuff.

haha yeah dont start on german car wiring the gremlins ive encountered in the gti have been   

but turns out the major cause of those was faulty battery haha.

but that is scary! least your car did not go up in flames my old vt wagon had fire coming out of the steering column, the indicator wouldnt stop, was going so fast and then it ignited. i think it was something to do with a resister in there dropping? wiring is not my forte however so could be wrong LOL i jsut remember trying to rip the plastic off to get into it to put it out :O