There are a number of different devices used on vehicles to interrupt the battery connection in the event of fire, accident or what ever. Not least of which is a small explosive charge on the pos lead from a BMW battery.
Tony.
Tony.
Wiring harness fire, what to do next..?
- Thread starter Dino D
- Start date
Yoiks, what terrible news @Dino D, but as others have said you and your son are ok. Replacing the loom would be possible but a huge amount of time would be required. Not sure what I would do in your situation but I think even if you did change the loom but couldn't find the cause of the original fire, would you trust it again. Maybe time to get another Zed and move your stuff onto it.
Keep us informed, best of luck.
Keep us informed, best of luck.
Terrible news @Dino D gutted for you after all the work you have done, as others have said the main thing is you and your son are safe.
Reading your account you say the smoke was initially from the glovebox area and the ASC/ABS lights came on. On the '98 the ASC/ABS control box is situated behind the glovebox on left side - silver box in this pic could be seat of the fire.
Reading your account you say the smoke was initially from the glovebox area and the ASC/ABS lights came on. On the '98 the ASC/ABS control box is situated behind the glovebox on left side - silver box in this pic could be seat of the fire.
gutted for you Dino, pehaps get an auto electrician to advise if repairable. I have taken out an agreed value for my z this year with Heritage insurance for an agreed value of £ 7000, had to send them pictures of the car & list all improvements . cost £248 for year
Glad that your son and self are physically unharmed from this event. I understand your dilemma after putting so much work into your car to just write it off, It won't hurt just to get a assessment of the cause and if remedied by a new loom and modules replacement it might be worth taking on. I hope you can find a happy conclusion to this
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Hi @Dino D it was good to meet you on the South Downs cruise, so sorry to read about what happened to your lovely Z.
But as everyone else has said both you and your son were ok.
Not being technically minded I don't understand what goes on in cars but I do know how attached we all are to our Z's so can understand how you feel, hope you can sort out the problem.
But as everyone else has said both you and your son were ok.
Not being technically minded I don't understand what goes on in cars but I do know how attached we all are to our Z's so can understand how you feel, hope you can sort out the problem.
Definitely worth doing this in future.
I see they also guarantee you can take salvage title if you wish.
My worry now is the possibility of not getting salvage title.
Didn't realize they offered on cars that are not yet officially 'classics' as mine is 'only' 17!
Went to see a garage a few miles away that specialize in BMW but the owner also works on plenty of classic minis (they self combust a lot apparently!).
Will get it recovered to him to make an assessment next week and see from there how bad it really is and decide.
A complete loom with fuse box is £558 incl vat (Sopers with 10% zorgster discount).
Not as bad as I expected.
Looking @Sailorbaz 's thread makes mine look trivial and gives me hope.
Its fiddly work but I know I can take it all apart and put together as I've done that in sections over the years.
Lack of a garage is an issue but a pop up garage thing could help.
It's still a lot of work though.
I'd like to try and save it if I can. Sentimental value aside the money I spent is on the important bits - full poly bushes (including the rear subframe), complete new suspension and brakes and most of cooling system done not to mention braided lines, corner weighting and full service history on the engine (which runs perfect).
These are all jobs that will need doing on any replacement car and although I can take out parts from mine that's a big job on its own plus lots of labour to pay out for.
I always said a Z is like a mini TVR!
I feel like classic car owner now..
Will get it recovered to him to make an assessment next week and see from there how bad it really is and decide.
A complete loom with fuse box is £558 incl vat (Sopers with 10% zorgster discount).
Not as bad as I expected.
Looking @Sailorbaz 's thread makes mine look trivial and gives me hope.
Its fiddly work but I know I can take it all apart and put together as I've done that in sections over the years.
Lack of a garage is an issue but a pop up garage thing could help.
It's still a lot of work though.
I'd like to try and save it if I can. Sentimental value aside the money I spent is on the important bits - full poly bushes (including the rear subframe), complete new suspension and brakes and most of cooling system done not to mention braided lines, corner weighting and full service history on the engine (which runs perfect).
These are all jobs that will need doing on any replacement car and although I can take out parts from mine that's a big job on its own plus lots of labour to pay out for.
I always said a Z is like a mini TVR!
I feel like classic car owner now..
Here we're fortunate in that we can get an appraised value and guaranteed write off fairly cheaply. My son has a restored 55 Pontiac and was in a fender bender and they wanted to write him off until he pointed out the guarantee. They were very happy to get off with just repairing his car rather than paying him out at the agreed upon price. Hope all works out for you in the end. That's too gorgeous a car to go to a breaker! JIM
Any suggestions/links Tony.
If it ever happened to me I hope I would re-act properly - my concern now is if the co-pilot was driving solo.
Hi Colin, I'm a bit confused that this could have been caused by boot light wiring. The only reason that I say this is because when I was wiring in the extra white LED's into might boot lights I only had to very briefly touch the live to the body and the fuse blew instantly. This happened a few times because I was too idle to remove the fuse, eventually I did and no more issues. I'm fairly sure it was only a 10 A fuse which would blow before causing enough heat to start a fire. Was the fuse the correct rating? Did the conflagration start at the front and burn backwards?
Just some thoughts, check all fuses are the correct rating, the fuse box lid tells you what they should be.
Make sure the battery area is clear and the connections easily accessible, it could be worth fitting a battery isolator switch inside the boot compartment or even quick release battery terminals.
Peugeot Citroen cars have them, but rather stupidly have them on the LIVE terminal???
Tony.
Just some thoughts, check all fuses are the correct rating, the fuse box lid tells you what they should be.
Make sure the battery area is clear and the connections easily accessible, it could be worth fitting a battery isolator switch inside the boot compartment or even quick release battery terminals.
Peugeot Citroen cars have them, but rather stupidly have them on the LIVE terminal???
Tony.
The cause is what's been making me think too. There'd be little or nothing drawing any great current and I'd hope a fuse blows long before any wiring decides to act as the fuse. Its possible that wiring that is tightly bound through a constriction causes them to heat up. There's specific guidance on mains cabling, especially high current stuff like cookers and shower cabling. Even so, its unlikely to cause insulation to break down.
Difficult to see how faulty wiring in the boot causes a fire up front. Am not familiar the wiring/control systems. Could a faulty brake light switch cause constant load creating heat and then the opportunity for a fire?
It sounds like constant and excessive local heat rather than a straight electrical short caused the problem. Three things needed - fuel (something to burn), heat and oxygen. It could be the cause is some distance from the consequences.
My local mechanic checked all the fuses and all are the correct rating.
I've had the boot light fuse blow instantly in the past when changing the bulb too. It has the standard bulb in there and it didn't look like the bulb was blown.
The mechanic said the only fuse blown was the one for the soft top motor (the wires for it and the boot light are close together at some point).
Another fuse was melted (but not blown), I think it was 29 which if I recall correct is for headlights, can't remember now for sure.
I changed the headlight bulbs for brand new Osram bulbs on the Friday before (they not higher wattage than standard).
I did have the headlights on and they still worked after the event (which in hindsight makes sens as the fuse didn't break but melted).
Were the fire was is where all the cables are bunched together to go through the firewall into the fuse box. I say fire, but really it was small flames or maybe even sparks.
The recovery guy said this bunching of wires were it happened acts as a heat core.
Someone mentioned the ABS module that's also in that area, I'm not sure if that was a cause or a casualty as the abs lights only came on after the smoke was coming out.
Will be interesting to see what the cause was as this will likely be a big factor in wether it's is repairable or not...
Reading up on other BMW fires and on some 5 series the problem was with the battery wiring in the boot but others seem to point to the boot loom (other models also suffer the same boot loom issue as the Z).
I've had the boot light fuse blow instantly in the past when changing the bulb too. It has the standard bulb in there and it didn't look like the bulb was blown.
The mechanic said the only fuse blown was the one for the soft top motor (the wires for it and the boot light are close together at some point).
Another fuse was melted (but not blown), I think it was 29 which if I recall correct is for headlights, can't remember now for sure.
I changed the headlight bulbs for brand new Osram bulbs on the Friday before (they not higher wattage than standard).
I did have the headlights on and they still worked after the event (which in hindsight makes sens as the fuse didn't break but melted).
Were the fire was is where all the cables are bunched together to go through the firewall into the fuse box. I say fire, but really it was small flames or maybe even sparks.
The recovery guy said this bunching of wires were it happened acts as a heat core.
Someone mentioned the ABS module that's also in that area, I'm not sure if that was a cause or a casualty as the abs lights only came on after the smoke was coming out.
Will be interesting to see what the cause was as this will likely be a big factor in wether it's is repairable or not...
Reading up on other BMW fires and on some 5 series the problem was with the battery wiring in the boot but others seem to point to the boot loom (other models also suffer the same boot loom issue as the Z).
Hi Dino, just hope for your sake that it's repairable mate after all the time, effort and not to mention money that you've put into it. All the best!
Tony.
Tony.
Too much of a coincidence about the bulbs. Possibly a combination of them drawing more current but not enough to blow the fuse along with heating effect of cabling bunched and constricted. That and grease and muck acting as fuel burning from the heat. I suspect the wiring is still pretty much intact but won't now be salvageable. Not an electrical fire as such - just excessive heat. Just plain bad luck happening on a set of conditions 
Possible misunderstanding on my earlier question - has anybody done this on the Zed and if so what type/any recommendations?
BMW shipped these cars from the US with a battery isolators fitted for `transport safety' but then removed them prior to delivery. If you look on your build spec they are listed on there. No idea where they were fitted or what they looked like.
Sailorbaz
Zorg Addict
Sorry to read this post mate but glad to hear you and your son are both safe.
The look cost me £1300 and 'apparently' was the last but one left. I maybe mentioned it in my thread but just in case, I was very impressed at how complete it come with fuse box, complete with relays, fuses and all all multiplugs right down to the speed sensor in the diff. To be honest the most fiddly part was around the dashboard and footwells.
Around the engine room, boot space and wheel wells are the most straight forward but as you imagine, the cockpit can be pretty awkward.
Feel free to PM me mate for any other info and even if you fancy a blether about it, I enjoyed putting mine back together and one thing I would recommend is do not go looking for a used one as everyone you'll find will have had alarms, immobilisers, hands-free, Bluetooth, etc etc spliced into it and just be a disaster.
Good luck,
The look cost me £1300 and 'apparently' was the last but one left. I maybe mentioned it in my thread but just in case, I was very impressed at how complete it come with fuse box, complete with relays, fuses and all all multiplugs right down to the speed sensor in the diff. To be honest the most fiddly part was around the dashboard and footwells.
Around the engine room, boot space and wheel wells are the most straight forward but as you imagine, the cockpit can be pretty awkward.
Feel free to PM me mate for any other info and even if you fancy a blether about it, I enjoyed putting mine back together and one thing I would recommend is do not go looking for a used one as everyone you'll find will have had alarms, immobilisers, hands-free, Bluetooth, etc etc spliced into it and just be a disaster.
Good luck,
Hi @Sailorbaz , thanks for that encouragement. It possible your loom was the last being an M model (I think the main differences being the extra gauges in the dash and lack of ASC compares to my 2.8)
By the way there is one for sale on eBay for 99model M from a Bimmerforum member based in Turkey (he's a well know guy and makes some great replica ACS parts - it's up for £210 or best offer!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/131607055266)
Agree with not going used.
Mine could do with a new windscreen too (chips) so looking at your thread might make sense to pull it out if I do repair.
Thanks for the offer, will be intouch
By the way there is one for sale on eBay for 99model M from a Bimmerforum member based in Turkey (he's a well know guy and makes some great replica ACS parts - it's up for £210 or best offer!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/131607055266)
Agree with not going used.
Mine could do with a new windscreen too (chips) so looking at your thread might make sense to pull it out if I do repair.
Thanks for the offer, will be intouch