FIRE.. Scary!

[pvisser]

I have an 2002 RDV. Runs great drives great, then all of a sudden smoke!

Smoke started to appear through the defrost vents, I thought it was just really cold air from the AC, so I turned up the fan, and whoa, way more smoke into the cab, then noticed smoke from under the hood too. Pulled over, shut it off, poped the hood, threw my coffee at a small fire by the wiper motor, witch was the wires on fire. No fuses burnt out. Long story short, had to replace the entire wiring harness that runs across the dash and controls the fans, radio, wipers, tach, speedometer, etc etc.... Major pain in the butt.. Hindsight I should have let it burn...

Anyways. My mechanic says all this was caused by a bad gound connection from a ground wire that runs from the steering column to the floor, he said the floor there was quite rusty, and therfore not a good connection.

My question? Is he right? Would a bad ground cause the whole harness to melt together and catch fire?

Thanks

Smokey Paul

[3100]

maybe he meant (short to ground)

[spike88]

Glad you escapted without any personal injury. That's the main thing to focus on...


In theory, I can understand how a loose ground wire can "heat up" and if given the proper conditions, it melts is outer plastic layer, and catches on fire. Rare but it can happen.

I wonder what that specific ground wire is for? If its that critical of ground wire, I wonder if 2 x ground wires should be used - instead of 1 factory ground wire?

Some auto engines are given an extra ground wire. For example, from its engine block to its battery. And, a ground wire from engine block to its fender. And, ground wire from its steel fender to its battery. Thus, complete "alternate path" current flow - in case one of its other ground wires becomes loose or accidentlly broken.

Using above "alternate path" wiring design , I wonder if that specific device should have 2 x ground wires - instead of only 1 ground wire? Might be worth more investigation...

.

[pvisser]

The ground wire was connected to the floor, however where it was connected had rusted enough that it no longer did anything. Thus causing ALL my electrics to find their own grounds through the lower voltage circuitry, which in turn heated them up, melted the wire coating until they were all bare and, well hot hot hot.

Anyways, Have the RDV back now, and it runs as good as ever. I did run 2 grounds instead of the factory 1.

Just a heads up, if you have a RDV, which I assume you do if your reading this, keep a close eye on the main grounding wire that runs from the steering column to the floor. I have found threw a college of mine who works for a local GM Dealership, that this is NOT an unheard of issue. He has seen 3 (on RDV) in his 10 years of service. So not really common, but known to happen.

Like someone said, I escaped unharmed, and the SUV is back on the road.

Cheers

[Akboyz01]

Not a funny situation. That sounds very similar to me. I have a 2003 Rendevouz, and I was on the way home after having my oil changed, and suddenly smoke started to appear from my front vents at first I thought it was from some ones fireplace since there was a lot of smoke in the area. Then I noticed it was more evident that it increased and was coming from under the hood of my car. Seeing that I was close to home I ran it over to my driveway, and parked it. That is when I discovered a small fire under the hood. I was totally ticked off seeing that I just drove it home from the shop after having the oil changed. After complaining to the shop owners they came to a conclusion that it was not there doing, and after further inspection it turned out to be what happened to you. Yep you got it a short in the ground to the wiper motor. Everything on that harness had fried almost to the ignition system. I was totally pissed off, and really there was nothing I could do but have it fixed. Like you said I should have let it just burn, lol. It cost me an additional 2k to have it fixed. Sucked because when I purchased it the front bearings had to be fixed also. That alone was 9 hundred bucks to replace them. This all happpend in 2005, and since then things have been ok except now the tranction control system is not working. This stopped working January 2009. I am planning on having that fixed tomorrow, 10/19/2010. Oh, and funny thing is you end your posting with Cheers. I do that all the time,

Cheers,