Did he just actually say that?

 

O.L.T.

Don't want to get into a pissing contest with you.
But my observations are noted by many others on this forum.
Sometimes the truth just--- HURTS----

Rob

 

Setwire is notorious for trolling anyone with electrical knowledge. This is a big boy's forum, the drama children get silenced.

Sorry to see you couldn't stay quiet. Now we will have a peaceful thread.


Now on with the thread

 

Ok number one... I didnt keep on driving when it happened. I stopped in the closest parking lot to inspect under the hood and all my fuses. I had replaced the climate control fuse with a fuse of the same rating in ATC.

As far as I remember, all was working fine when I turned on the heater, then it only took a matter of minutes to start smoking which is when i stopped. Turned off the car and the smoke subsided.

As I started driving, needles on the gauge cluster which were black for a minute flashed orange for like 5 secs, and then everything just seemed to go out. Everything from the climate control, radio, to gauge cluster, anything with lights within the cabin basically went out.

I checked later, and all the fuses underneath the dash were fine, especially the climate control one. Now will someone please tell me what might be wrong instead of flaming how "unspecfic" my first post was?

 

Brother no one can tell you what is wrong, that's what we are trying to stress. Cars don't catch fire for no reason, but the electrical system is the most complicated part of your car and there is absolutely no way to know what went wrong.

The interior lights dying only further the confirmation of something wrong after the smoke smell and blown fuses.

The problem seems under the hood.

There are 50 circuits in a bundle in just one block of the fuse section - which is it? Exactly, no way of knowing.

You are going to HAVE to get this inspected by a qualified tech. Even if I wanted to waste 5 hours attempting to diagnose it with you uploading pics and pointing to things, there is no way, just no way to know without standing there with full knowledge of the electrical system and a volt meter and one heck of a good guess.

While that was my simple point, certain people that have a history of stirring the pot have tried to drag that out further. It's that simple however, this issue is not a "check this wire" issue.

The interior lights did not cause the problem, they were the result of a catastrophic failure that needs to be looked at in depth by someone who "doesn't have to ask" if you can understand what I mean.

This is BIG and hugely complicated. I'm sorry you are dealing with it, but I only help when it is possible, this is NOT possible to get help for on a forum. Someone needs to put their fingers in it.

Where in GA are you?

 

I would HIGHLY recommend having the auto towed to a "Good" auto electrical repair" shop and have the problem resolved. This is not a "shotgun" problem, meaning just throwing parts at it. You need exacting diagnostics with specialized equipment finding a short or worse partial short. There are expensive parts at risk here, worth more that the SC itself... Understand burning out the entire system is possible with you driving in the auto. It's not worth the risk.

 

damn, get that **** checked out by someone

 

You have double checked the fuse(s) and at this time you have two choices.
1. Take the vehicle to a pro.
2. Arm yourself with circuit diagrams and trace all ciruits with a vom.

Make an un-emotional analysis of Money, time and aptitude. The problem at this time is more than the fuse. If you plan a DIY (assuming the aptitute and time is there), the $$ is not always zero as you need the manuals, tools and still have to replace the broken part.

Salim

 

I hate electrical . Makes me mad . If I had an electrical problem like that I'd take it to a shop. Messing with it or trying to figure out what the problem is might just make it worse. Sorry to hear about this happening to your SC. This is definetly a first. I have never ever ever ever heard of this problem before. Get it checked out and let us know what went wrong so we all know what to expect when it happens to one of us. .

 

I'm wondering if he had some hack install some stereo equipment recently.

 

No, I havent had any audio installs actually.

Yeah.. Im just taking it into the shop tomorrow, shop says they can probably fix it, looking like a $1000+ job. Anyways, being that its an older car and electrical wires oxidize and deteriorate over time, I imagine a wire was probably exposed to bare metal which caused the short. Im expecting the mechanic to say that all the wires are fried leading from the console, to the gauge cluster.

 

Whoa so does that mean its time for a new harness?

 

Actually that was pre-1990. After 1990 the wires in all cars were changed to a different jacket (silicone jacket) and they do not age like the pre'89 wires did which were rubber.

 

although it's silicone, no wires are impervious to sharp metals and cuts over time =P. I think the car has been fixed a couple times in the past before i bought it. So probably one of the mechanics down the line probably just did a horrible job at putting everything back where its supposed to go.

 

Well that's user damage, not deterioration as posted above. If there's been a hack job on the car it definately needs to visit the Lexus doctor.