Smokin' dash. Please help!

Discussion in 'Electrical' started by n/a, Feb 24, 2019.

  1. N/A

    n/a New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2019
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    Please excuse the long ramble, but want to explain the series of events so I can get some advice.

    Fitted two new rear speakers yesterday, and one was a little crackly, after fiddling with the wires around the speaker, I decided to check the wiring at the head unit

    After pulling the head unit out, I discovered someone had chopped the original radio plug and rewired it with crimp connectors and other clip-in solutions.

    Bit of a mess, but it all seemed to be working and in place.

    Popped the head unit back, drove to work (10mins away) and all was good.

    Jump to the evening, and I get 2 minutes down the road and smoke starts coming from the dash, and the interior lights all dim. The smoke was mainly coming from the right side of the dash.

    I pulled over and turned off the engine, and waited...

    Went a little bit further down the road and the same thing happened again. I quickly grabbed my radio pins from the boot and removed the head unit, only to discover that three of the wires that had been connected to a crimp connector and that had some electrical cable around them had melted. I assume this is what was smoking.


    So my question is this: what happened? What do this wires do, as they appear separate from the radio wires. Did they crimp connection short out against something and get hit enough to melt the electrical tape causing the smoke? Any advice on how to move forward would be appreciated. Picture below shows the three wires, which I have tried that way in order to keep them isolated in order to get home (once I had done this all was well and no smoke)

    <a href="https://ibb.co/d59MNps"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/vj5qNdC/F9-A6-FD10-8843-4431-8971-714-B48-D683-DA.jpg" alt="F9-A6-FD10-8843-4431-8971-714-B48-D683-DA" border="0"></a>
    [​IMG]
     
  2. Savagesam

    Savagesam Moderator Staff Member Moderator

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    Cut it all out, new wires, into an iso block and then plug it in properly.

    I redone all of mine when I fitted a head unit, speakers and underseat sub. New wiring throughout.
     
  3. rubjonny

    rubjonny Administrator Staff Member Admin

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    Bracknell
    urgh. look for mk3 golf in scrappy, these have the same wire colours as mk2 for the ISO plugs so easiest to use when repairing. Though you'll need a new mating ISO plug for your stereo loom too as the wire bodger has just spliced direct. Can get wire tails off ebay with correct iso colours to match the stereo end, might even be able to get a complete new stereo wiring loom even, that woudl be the ideal solution

    the grey/blue is your dash illumination, you dont need this for aftermarket stereo so you could cut the spade off and properly insulate the end. I can see its been shorting out as its all melty at the end. The yellow/white is speed signal for expensive VW stereo, dont need this either so again cut and insulate or it matches up to the blue/white on a MK3 ISO plug.

    The brown/red is the original switched live, this is fed from ignition switch and should go live as soon as the key is inserted if the wiring and switch are ok. If it checks out fine this needs to be fed to the red wire on the ISO loom. Red and brown are the live and earth, these go to yellow and brown on iso harness. The rest of the wires are all for the speakers. Note ISO standard pins for live and switched live are reversed VS original VW stereo plug, but usually the stereo wiring has bullet connectors on these 2 wires so they can be swapped
     

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