98GSX-WI
15+ Year Contributor
- 131
- 0
- Jun 6, 2004
-
Kenosha,
Wisconsin
I've said before, if you own a modded DSM long enough...eventually you will probably see many of the problems that you read about here in the forums--but I never expected my car to start on fire.
Last Saturday it was the first time by brother got to ride in my car. He has a 440hp cobra. I really didn't have a good place to show him what my car could do. I only got into boost once, came to a stoplight...and then the car died. It would not restart. So after having my brother push my car to the side of the road and scratching my head for a while, I finally figured out that the ignition fuse had blown.
I switched the 30amp fuse from my power windows, restarted the car and made it to a auto supply store where I bought their last 3 fuses. Luckily there was a Mitsu dealer a block away. I blew two of the three new fuses just getting one block to the dealer. The last time the fuse blew is when I turned off the turbo timer (exactly when I hit the switch)--so I thought that the turbo timer was shorting something out because it is wired into the ignition.
Left the car with the dealer and they disconnected the turbo timer and drove the car around a while and then let it idle a long time...and the fuse didn't blow anymore. I paid $90 in labor and picked it up on Monday and drove it 25 miles home.
I then drove it to work (35 miles) and when I got into the work parking lot, sure enough, the fuse blew again. I made arrangements to take it to a close-by shop to check the wiring for shorts--had someone take me to buy more fuses at lunch for the short ride to the shop just in case the fuse blew again. (Not really a smart idea to test my luck any more).
Now is where the fun started. Put a new fuse in, started the car and it blew right away. Put another new fuse in and just turned on the power so that I could shut off the other electrical stuff in the car. Went to shut the hood so that I could start the car again and take off....and there it is, a fire near the bulkhead (would say firewall, but too much of a pun). The fire was about 6 inches wide and 4 inches high. Lucky I have a fire extinguisher in the car, so I was able to put it out right away. (My advise...I suggest everyone keep a fire extinguisher in their car).
I was kind-of puzzled as to what electrical wiring could have started a fire in that location, but had my car towed to the shop. I should note that the great thing was, I extinguished the fire very soon, so there was no visible damage to anything. As soon as I got to the shop and we started to look around the area, we found the problem.
The braided fuel line had pinched a wire up against the intake manifold and wore it bare. The continued arching of the wire had penetrated the fuel line until a hole had formed and it started to leak. It was actually gasoline that was burning! I can't imagine if I would have started the car again with the fire there and if fuel would have sprayed into the engine compartment.
That is about it for the story...I believe that I made a dumb mistake by continuing to replace the fuse to try to get the car to the shop and not towing it right away. But then again, I was also smart for having the fire extinguisher handy...
. The fire actually turned out to be a good troubleshooting technique (ha, ha), because I think that it would have been very difficult to have located the short--because I think that most people would have looked at the battery, fuse box, or the ignition wiring under the steering column.
I put this story in the bolt-on section...because it did involve the fuel system.... Hopefully, you guys will learn from this story and maybe avoid the same thing from happening to you. Later.
Last Saturday it was the first time by brother got to ride in my car. He has a 440hp cobra. I really didn't have a good place to show him what my car could do. I only got into boost once, came to a stoplight...and then the car died. It would not restart. So after having my brother push my car to the side of the road and scratching my head for a while, I finally figured out that the ignition fuse had blown.
I switched the 30amp fuse from my power windows, restarted the car and made it to a auto supply store where I bought their last 3 fuses. Luckily there was a Mitsu dealer a block away. I blew two of the three new fuses just getting one block to the dealer. The last time the fuse blew is when I turned off the turbo timer (exactly when I hit the switch)--so I thought that the turbo timer was shorting something out because it is wired into the ignition.
Left the car with the dealer and they disconnected the turbo timer and drove the car around a while and then let it idle a long time...and the fuse didn't blow anymore. I paid $90 in labor and picked it up on Monday and drove it 25 miles home.
I then drove it to work (35 miles) and when I got into the work parking lot, sure enough, the fuse blew again. I made arrangements to take it to a close-by shop to check the wiring for shorts--had someone take me to buy more fuses at lunch for the short ride to the shop just in case the fuse blew again. (Not really a smart idea to test my luck any more).
Now is where the fun started. Put a new fuse in, started the car and it blew right away. Put another new fuse in and just turned on the power so that I could shut off the other electrical stuff in the car. Went to shut the hood so that I could start the car again and take off....and there it is, a fire near the bulkhead (would say firewall, but too much of a pun). The fire was about 6 inches wide and 4 inches high. Lucky I have a fire extinguisher in the car, so I was able to put it out right away. (My advise...I suggest everyone keep a fire extinguisher in their car).
I was kind-of puzzled as to what electrical wiring could have started a fire in that location, but had my car towed to the shop. I should note that the great thing was, I extinguished the fire very soon, so there was no visible damage to anything. As soon as I got to the shop and we started to look around the area, we found the problem.
The braided fuel line had pinched a wire up against the intake manifold and wore it bare. The continued arching of the wire had penetrated the fuel line until a hole had formed and it started to leak. It was actually gasoline that was burning! I can't imagine if I would have started the car again with the fire there and if fuel would have sprayed into the engine compartment.
That is about it for the story...I believe that I made a dumb mistake by continuing to replace the fuse to try to get the car to the shop and not towing it right away. But then again, I was also smart for having the fire extinguisher handy...
. The fire actually turned out to be a good troubleshooting technique (ha, ha), because I think that it would have been very difficult to have located the short--because I think that most people would have looked at the battery, fuse box, or the ignition wiring under the steering column.I put this story in the bolt-on section...because it did involve the fuel system...
. Hopefully, you guys will learn from this story and maybe avoid the same thing from happening to you. Later.
the f'n back of the car is blazing". The only thing I could say was "it still has good oil pressure though, look. (as I revved it up)" For some reason I figured that if it actually WAS smoking that it had to be oil leaking all over the place and that I would notice it on the oil pressure gauge. The next thing we did is walk out back and try to flag someone down to give us some water or something to put it out with, but no one would stop. After about 5 minutes I said "hey wanna just keep driving it, because the further we get to home the less we will have to walk" 
. Then the next day when we trailered it home we ended up loosing the brakes on the truck we were towing it with while we were heading down a nice steep hill at around 55 mph WTF . Fun, fun, fun. I bought an extinguisher the next day. 
