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[Bryan]

A few days ago my 97 2.5V6 Elite caught fire.
The fire started just after setting off in the car, and seems to have come from the Nicad battery pack located just under behind the radiator water reservoir.
No fuses blew and even after disconnecting the main battery the wiring harness continued to short and burn.
Is this a fault that anyone else has come across, and can anone help with how I issolate this part of the harness from the main under dash bundle of wires?
The harness comes from the break fluid level sender, water res, sender and the back up battery passing through the bulkhead next to the throttle link below the steering wheel.
I would recommend that other owners may want to check on the state of the little battery if it is responsible for potentially dangerous fires like the one I had to take on a beautiful bank holiday monday morning!

[Kevin Wood]

I have seen pictures of burnt out cars where the fire appeared to start in this area before, and wondered what caused it. When my power sounder died I was surprised at how conductive the goo from the batteries was It had come very close to permanently switching on the feed to the sounder transformer, which would doubtless have gone up in smoke.

The feed to the power sounder is only fused by an 80 amp PDS fuse and the wiring is poxy.

I do hope you get it sorted. Probably the only way to repair is to work backwards down the loom removing the damaged wiring and checking for any adjacent conductors that have been burnt.

Don't think I'm inclined to fit a replacement power sounder now. If I do I will fit inline fuses into the 2 power feeds to this device.

Kevin

[davlad22]

Sorry to hear this Bryan, hope it's all salvagable?

Sadly, it's a problem i've heard about before, it happened to another member, thankfully it didn't take his house and garage with it!

[Amego52]

I had this problem on my 98 V6. It turned out to be the small water pump on the drivers side inner wing, you know the one that circulates hot water to the heater with the engine off, it siezed up and caught the loom alight before blowing the fuse. Too late by then!  

[Kevin Wood]

I had this problem on my 98 V6. It turned out to be the small water pump on the drivers side inner wing, you know the one that circulates hot water to the heater with the engine off, it siezed up and caught the loom alight before blowing the fuse. Too late by then!  

Another one to look out for, then.

Kevin