SO....make sure you know how to wire stuff...

[leothelion]

Though I sometimes toute my skills of wiring, I was a victim today of a nearly fatal-for my car anyways-electrical short. I had just gotten out of class and got into my car and started it up, it was dark out so i turned on my headlights. I was on my way to another class, and suddenly I saw a little white smoke coming up from under my shifter(i have an auto) and in no time at the whole front of my car was filled with white smoke. Thankfully i had been working on my car earlier and didn't have time to put it back together, so all my center console pieces were out, which is where the short occurred. I rolled down my windows, shut off my car, and then i looked down at the floor-i saw a wire that was GLOWING red hot and somehow yanked it out. I think it had cooled down after i shut off my car and it no longer had electricity flowing to it. as i found out it was some lights i had hooked up to my door and speakers. All the wiring was fine, it just shorted on some mettal. Anyway it didn't cause any dammage, lucky i fuse everything. Just goes to show that this can happen anytime anywhere to anyone. Keep safe out there guys. and make sure you fuse everything!!!

 

[leothelion]

sorry about the title, ment TO wire stuff, not i wires stuff.

 

[RonJ]

My question is why didn't the fuse blow and protect you and your wiring?

 

[leothelion]

the fuse only blows at a certain amp-like 10, which is what i had. unfortunately i had wiring that was SUPER small, cuz they were all leds, so by the time that the amps got up that high there was already a lot of damage to the small wire. basically i had too big of fuse on my wire, an oversite im not going to make again lol. all it needed was a 1-2 amp fuse.

 

[ohsnapzitzmeng]

Cool make sure you solder or butt connect everything and cover it next time

 

[TigBitties]

please dont butt connect. they are crap and come loose with time

 

[leothelion]

please dont butt connect. they are crap and come loose with time

what is butt connect? is that a wire nut with tape?

 

[Matt.]

to be honest, I don't know how you didn't just burn out the leds first, that would have lost the connection like a blown fuse would and all would be well. I didn't see any resistors in your pics in the other thread. They're only good for like 1.5 volts and around 3 amps, although I may be wrong on the amps.

 

[leothelion]

to be honest, I don't know how you didn't just burn out the leds first, that would have lost the connection like a blown fuse would and all would be well. I didn't see any resistors in your pics in the other thread. They're only good for like 1.5 volts and around 3 amps, although I may be wrong on the amps.

i have resistors in place to, 1 act as a dead load so the leds light up, and 2 so that if there is a short the leds dont go out, the fuse does. those leds literally took an hour to wire in a piece, just in the door handles. i would rather replace a fuse than the leds. the fuse blew too btw. the resisters are tucked inside the door pannel./

 

[Osiris19]

Make sure you cover ALL your connections and bare wires. Too much metal in a car that it can short on. I've done it before. Blew up a relay doing that.

 

[leothelion]

So i just dug into the wiring today, and I found that it was not any bares or connections that shorted out. You know all the metal surfaces under the dash, like under the cigarette lighter and all that, yeah, they really like to stip your wire, so usually I put electrical tape around any wires that might rub against that rough metal, well apparently I forgot to do that on some wires, wich were twisted together -/+, I guess the metal shaved off some plastic and the two wires fused, thats what caused the short. lame.