electrical woes

[Dan_GTi8v]

brilliant, as soon as one thing gets sorted something else blows up in my face! (almost litterally)

so tried to start the car the other day, made a clicking noise but nothing else happened. tried it again and all was good. bit strange I thought but carried on as usuall. Parked up or a few mins, then went to start up again and smoke coming from the dash! swiftly turned it off and let the smoke clear, tried again and all was good again. Better check this out when I get back I thought

So next day, started up and was fine again. Turned off and did some investigation, one of the wires from the ignition barrel is toasted and also one of the wores running from the ignition to my radio is a bit melted. Unplugged the radio and started it up when all seemed fine I drove round to my garage. On the way i noticed my spotlights light was on, but my lights were all off, and a new problem when I got to the garage, when I turn the ignition off the engine still runs till I take the key out 

so in conclusion

Toasted ignition barrel wire
slightly toasted headunit ignition wire
engine runs with ignition off
spotlight warning light on all the time when lights off

Any ideas before I go at it in the morning?

Cheers

[tweed]

good luck 

[F17BAD]

mate this is something to do with your conversion wiring

you need to trace back, have you checked all fuses ?

who did your wiring for the conversion  ??

[Seanl]

I'd say it's your ignition if your confident with your wiring. Shorting of ignition wiring will cause the burning, and a duff barrel or cabling is prime suspect for continued running after switch-off IMO.

[Dan_GTi8v]

rubjonny did my wiring, im not sure if its anything to do with that as the bit thats bunrning is part of the original wiring, the conversion loom is all back at the fusebox. I have a feeling its something I've done with my radio as the ignition live wire coming from that is also a bit toasted and thats where I've connected my aerial and dab box feeds.

Only thing thats puzzling me is why would that make the spotlight come on on the dash  I had a search on google and found someone with a sililar problem after connecting his audio and having too much on the ignition live so fingers crossed its an easy fix. Maybe the burning wire has shorted something and thats why the warning light is on, I can live with that for the time being if thats all it is but will probably have to take the steering column off and check it out

edit: forgot about the bloody ignition barrel I'll have to figure out whats up with that as well 

[Dan_GTi8v]

First job I've done in a long time that actually turned out to be easie rthan I thought!

took the steering column plastic off and traced the wire back as far as I could, then reached around under the dash with other arm and traced it back to a plug which then goes to the fusebox. All the wire up to the plug has melted off its plastic covering! but after the plug feels ok just a bit misshapen.

I moved the bare wire out of the way of the other wiring, then pulled the radio out and took out all the wiring running from the inition live feed so everything was connected but the ignition to the radio. Turned ignition on, everything was looking good, spotlight warning didnt come on and the wire was staying cold to the touch. Turned engine on, still everything was good, turned off but kept ignition on and engine turned off so thats another problem solved. So far everything is fine except the radio, checked the fuse and it had blown, so tried another one and it blew straight away  Tried a few things but after blowing 4 fuses I gave up

And thats as far as I got today, I know I need to replace the knackered wire but as I've got work in the morning I dont want to start anything I cant finish. Still dont know why the radio fuse keeps blowing though, I've disconnected everything but original woring to the headunit and its still blowing so I'm a bit puzzled, still all in all its been a good result