Dashboard fireworks

[Teletom]

I had an exciting drive home this evening... pop the headlights onto full beam, the switch sparks at me and smoke starts pouring out of the dashboard. I pulled over while wildly emptying the contents of the fusebox, luckily it didnt catch fire in earnest, and all looks repairable.

I suspect the cause was a nick in the insulation causing the live for the light switch to short out on the chassis. What has stumped me is why the fuse didnt blow hmmm - the stereo head unit turned off when i switched the switch, so I guess it could have sunk some power into that-it is connected to the lights for the dimming function

I've not investigated too far back (it's getting dark now) but see this loom splits off all over the place, I'm hoping I can just put a new wire in to replace this one, although I shall visually inspect and meter out conductivity between the other wires in the loom to see if they've been damaged.

[Teletom]

Ok, I've just purchased some 17amp cabling, and started to run it in, my question is

-How do I extract the metal pins from the plastic plug that goes in the back of the headlight switch

-similiarly the big multi-connector that goes into the fusebox, although I think I may have to cut and splice this??

Thanks

[new8vgtiowner]

Be careful----the fuse should have blown,damage to a cable like that would have took a good 20-50amp----you havent wired any aux lamps in anywhere or something like that ?

[Teletom]

No, I'm planning on up-rating the headlamps this week anyway, then there will be much less load on that wiring as it will only be switching a relay

I really can't understand why the fuse didn't blow, when I removed the fuse it certainly cut the circuit

I think the ampage was so high because the wire looks like it shorted straight to the chassis of the car inside the dash?

Again does anyone know how to extract the pins from the plastic multi-plugs?

[Ant]

Be careful----the fuse should have blown,damage to a cable like that would have took a good 20-50amp----you havent wired any aux lamps in anywhere or something like that ?

I went through this when my headlights went, the thread's around somewhere.
From memory there is an unfused live connection from the headlights through the headlight switch.
edit:
Found the link to the reference in my thread when this happened to me:
http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=45372.msg361254#msg361254
Also has some of my questions and the answers given, might help you out.

[Teletom]

ah brilliant that looks helpful thanks, all I need now is a free day to work on it...