My Girlfriend was driving the Corrado home yesterday and said she could smell a slight burning smell. Having then travelled a bit further she noticed smoke coming from around the ignition Barrel area. She then did the sensible thing and pulled over, and switched the car off.

I came and looked at it later on and took the steering column cover off and exposed the block connector on the back of the barrel

the black and yellow wire closest to the camera had melted the insulation away and exposed the bare wire as can be seen in the next picture.

I realise this is obviously where the problem is but what can i do to stop it? I dont want the car going up in flames with my girlfriend inside it. I'm not sure if its relevant but i also noticed that one of the connections had been 'removed' and replaced with a spade connector as can be seen below.

The insulation will have melted because of excess current draw on the wire. Fixing the connector is one thing, but you need to find the ultimate cause of what is most likely to be a short circuit.

What does not work with the black yellow wires disconnected, as this will be whats broken.

Dont worry about the spade connector, just looks like a previous owner fitted something and removed it when they sold the car.

I guess the first thing is to work out what this wire does and where it goes?

Then you can decide whether it is ok to just replace that section of wire, the whole wire or whatever it is powering.

It has either occured due to the wire being worn or the wire being over-loaded in which case I think the whole wire would need replacing along with checking there isn't a short somewhere causing it to melt the wire.

Hope this helps.

Phil

Excellent cheers guys I'll get on to it when I get home. Just hope its nothing serious

Yellow can often be switched live.

Have you added anything switched such as a radio that might be pulling too much current?

Also have you checked all the fuses in the fuse box are to the specified rating and somebody hasn't just thrown a bigger fuse in to get around a problem and so causing the meltage you're now seeing?

If you are unsure I'd get a proper auto electrician to have a look at it.

Now you mention it i dont think the Radio has a swtiched live ignition as you have to tunr it on and off manually. I suppose the ignition feed could be hanging around somewhere and now shorting out..... its possible

Its more likely to be an earth wire shorting out onto an already working live. For the radio theory to hold true then the live would need to be connected to the 12V supply, and its not otherwise it would switch on/off with the key.

Often the radios have live and switched live inputs.

The amplifiers are driven off the permanent live input and the switched live is only something small.

If the chap has wired the radio lives backwards (Very easy on VAG cars) then the amplifiers could be running off switched live and the car would also have to be turned on manually and you would often lose radio presets.

I wonder if the previous owner ran a `switched` live from the ignition, which may not actually be a switched one and too much power is being pulled down an under rated wire.

Ideally you want to find out if that wire with the spade is usually there or if it's been added. If you can it's worth tracing where it goes.

THe tape on the wires suggest that at some point something was scotchlocked onto the ignition and looking at the spade I think it could have been an amplifier control relay. Eg they relay takes feeds and when the switched live comes on it turned on the amp for a sub etc.

I've seen far too many bad installs done like this.

The tapes on the wires are from an old immobilisor which was removed by the garage and then the wires resoldered and taped up for insulation. The radio, from my investigation, has a constant live from the car being wired to the constant and ignition feed for the radio. hence it gets swtiched on and off manually but doesnt loose its pre-sets.

Ahh ok so you have two permy lives to the radio.

If you take the burnt wires off what stops working?

I've heard of ignition switches that short, so maybe it's worth getting that checked out too.

I'm not sure as of yet, When i get home I'll disconnect the burnt wire and see what happens. I'll give you an update later. Thanks for your help on this by the way

This is just a thought, but is the burnt bit near the spade connector? I think you said that the spade connector is a replacement and therefore may be a poor job causing a 'high resistance joint' that will heat up and burn out with only a small current running and the heat will run along the wire.

I had a similar problem on a Fiat 132 in the late 70's and making the joint 'good' cured the problem.

Hope this helps, but these things can have simply causes that are quickly put right.

Mac

Put all wiring back as it was,do what ever you were doing when you smelt the smell,(Ignition turned on,or driving ?) .Then use your eyes,nose and fingers to locate what is getting too hot.(or smell,or lightly smoking).Be prepared to disconnect the battery in a hurry .This way you should find the faulty wire,or connector ,without going down the wrong way by changing fuses,changing suspect wires etc. The spade connector looks like it replaced part of the black originally fitted multi-connector ,perhaps when the connector got hot,and melted the black connector. If you cant find the problem,then it needs more investigation,with a meter on current , or a DC current clamp meter,in the +ve battery lead.

Do not try and start the car with the meter in circuit,you will damage the meter, High current flows when the starter motor is turning.

I would disconnect the battery when car is not in use for long periods ,and overnight until the fault is cured.

Edited 26 July, 200916 yr by AndyPandy

if it was an earth touching a live it would blow a fuse, that'll be caused by a worn switch or loose connection causing arcing and excessive heat build up in the switch/connection and burning the cable literally.