Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: califkid_66 on Thursday,August 15, 2019, 12:44:36 PM
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Today i decided to go for a ride to get motivation to work on my crossflow
and the fan went on like usual then i smell burning and then lots of smoke i look at the fuse box the wires where melting i just grabbed the wires and ripped them off the fuse box then went in front took off the relay then pulled the battery wire it came off then i was waiting to see hoping it wasn’t gonna burn to the ground
Waited a while and and it was ok
I noticed that the fan power wire was not Fused it was on the wrong side of the fuse box now its in the garage
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Wow Good save!
Dave
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I was lucky i hope the damages are only around the fuse box and at the relay im gonna remove the dash and check the wiring
To make sure nothing else got damaged
If it’s damaged i have a rebel wiring kit all labeled that i had for my seven wich would be an improvement but i wanted to keep it all original
Now i added 2 things on my shopping list
Battery cut off switch and fire extinguisher
If i had the cut off as soon as it smelled i could have shut it off
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Glad you saved her (and yourself) a lot of potential damage!
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Thanks i love that car i drove it a few times and i am addicted
I really thought it was gonna lose her there was a lot of smoke
I am going to install a battery cut off like the ones in vintage racing
better be safe than sorry
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Glad to hear you moved quickly. Yes, master battery switch a very good idea and I don’t drive my Lotus cars without a fire extinguisher mounted in it.
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Thanks im just glad it’s over i feel so relieved
Just another thing to fix
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Lesson learned...Glad you caught it in time.
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O my god that’s terrible i just glad i reacted fast enough
Just hope you got another one
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Was undecided but finally decided to keep everything original so i made a list and i thought
just changing the at both ends was not a good idea so i went i went from relay to fuse box
and im glad i did cause the purple wire was melted to the black ground wire a couple of places
i removed the tape so i can inspect every wire the wiring is all the right colours so that makes it easy
Now i need to go buy the right gage and colours
The first four lines of my list i got from JB ‘s post witch is very helpful
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Ugh! I hate it when the smoke escapes from the wires!
Those first four lines are the most important. There are several copies or versions of the Lucas wiring standard on the interwebs. Here's one (https://www.triumphexp.com/article/lucas-colours.html). It's a good thing to hang on the wall of your garage next to your wiring diagram.
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Yes the first four lines very useful but don’t worry im well prepared i went to print shop and got
Posters of the wiring diagram and the wiring looks pretty much the right colours so im checking every wire and keeping it original up till now the damages are limited to 2 wires the rest were damaged only at the ends
I saw this online i don’t think im gonna need anymore!!
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Yes, you don't need that anymore. It's for positive ground wires. You'll need this: (http://www3.telus.net/bc_triumph_registry/images/Smokekit2.jpg) :)
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What caused the short?
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Confirmed,
That’s why I intend to run that section of the harness thru pvc tubing. Dirt and wire movement chafing.
Good find!
Dakazman
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not sure what caused it i didn’t check the fan motor yet what i know is i went on a little ride last week and the engine temperature was going up the power was not going through the fuse box to the fan
when i moved the fuse it was working intermittent so the last ride i took i didn’t want the engine to overheat so i plugged it on the brown battery unfused side and it was working like it was supposed to and drove it with the fan running normal and then the wiring started to smoke and since i bypassed the fuse the wiring started to smoke instead of blowing a fuse
Im not finished untaping the wiring but i don’t think that plugging it direct was the reason for the short the only difference would have been the fuse would have blown early
What it could be is either short on fan motor wiring damaged and cause short or relay problem or just ran it to long and wiring overheated bad contact make wire heat up
Like i said i have to test all the components but for now im checking the wiring
Ps i know it was stupid to bypass the fuse lesson learned
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I would install a relay in the circuit if you are ok with minor mods from the original.
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i have no problem with modifications if its for safety reasons i forgot to mention earlier before my last ride i tested the battery while the car was running i noticed the headlights seemed to be much brighter and i don’t know if my tester needs new batteries but it was showing 14 to 16 volts dc so maybe my problem is the regulator might need adjustments its the old ones with aluminium cover
Maybe sending to much power in the wires everything electrical was off except the fan when the engine was running
and their is a relay near the fan but the wire to trigger the relay and the power for the fan all start at the fuse block and go through the body and wheel wells to reach the fan the purple wire from fuse box to the fan relay beside the fan is always live maybe i should put a relay to the purple wire near the fuse box so that the wire doesn’t stay live all the time
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One relay is enough. Fit a new one though.
A duff voltage reg causing high system voltages will fry your battery and blow bulbs, it won't cause a catastrophic short.
Things that cause shorts:
- internal issues in the fan motor
- connection or wire going to ground (ie: loose and touching the case or chassis)
- misrouting leading to wire insulation failure (ie: rubbing through the insulation)
- insulation failing over time due to heat cycles or chemical exposure
- poor connection leading to heat, melting and eventual grounding (surprisingly common)
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Hi JB i tested all the components the fan the relay the otter switch all worked ok what i noticed was the connection were dirty and corroded im going to sand them clean and put dielectric grease but im going to change the fan relay the wires did not rub anywhere the tape was intact but wires overheated along the circuit
So i think the cause was bad connection causing wire to overheat and stupidity of not going through a fused circuit that would prevented the damages