Topic

Ok, quick trip to the shops resulted in an interested break down! got in the F reversed it out of the bay to the smell of burning electrics. I then noticed that the EPAS had stopped working, along with my rev counter. Then I started steaming up as the blower packed up along with the heated rear window, on trying to turn off a dual carriageway the indicators flashed once followed by a crack and the smell of burning.

After pulling over, I checked the fuses and found, blower, heated rear window, indicators, ignition lights all gone. Replaced them and tried to drive home, only to have another crack and everything failed again. Finally got the car home with Handsignals and window open to address the steaming issue (wipers + Lights worked fine ) , I parked up and locked the car...wrong, another crack from the bonnet area and the central locking/alarm fuse blew.

I had a lengthy call with DD and we thought either water ingress to the back of the fuse box or a major short. The following day, I investigated in daylight to find a dry car but a rather large scorch mark behind the passenger footpanel light. I then proceeded to remove the centre console, foot panels, stereo etc to isolate the loom.

This rather poor photo shows the razor blade metal bracket that support the footwell panel and the centre console. the scorch is shown, indicating where the main loom got sliced through. I had to cut the top of this metal back about 3cm with a Dremel to bend it out of the way to get to the loom, 2 wires were cut through with another 4 frayed exposing about 2cm of copper, all were shorting out through the metal support!

The good news is that fuses do work and after a repair to the wiring everything is back to normal I have now wrapped the loom in a hard plastic ribbed cover similar to the yellow one shown in the picture for the other part of the loom (missing on the wiring affected).

Learnings:

This metal is sharp! really sharp! I have a number of cuts just from rooting around in the console area and trying to expose the wiring.
My loom had no protective cover and was in direct contact with the metal bracket and the wiring is really tight pushing the loom against the bracket, so it was not possible it had fallen there, but had been positioned in this place. Fuses are critical and if they hadn't blown is possible the whole loom could have burned up behind the centre console with more serious consequences.

So why make this post?

Please check your loom and see if my car is an isolated case and not an impending issue for yours! it takes 5 mins,2 screws to remove the footwell panel and torch to check up behind the bracket. Be careful with your fingers and make sure the loom is not pressing against the sharp edge, if it is check for fraying and then repair.

TB

The yellow 'protected' loom is airbag /restraint wiring. Sounds like a lucky escape, I'd have stopped far sooner!

I would have if i'd known the full extent of the problem. " ignorance is bliss"

TB

Thanks for the tip.
I'll be protecting my loom around those brackets next time I'm in there.

Hi,
This problem is not just F/TF related,my ZR also had the same problem.3 loom routing clips were not located allowing the harness to rub against the bracket at the rear of the radio.The harness clips could not be relocated so I resorted to fitting thick insulation between the loom and the bracket.
Regards Neil

Top tip. I guess you could slip a rubber protection strip along the sharp edge if you can find some... Or make one up like out of a piece of windscreen washer pipe slit down the middle?

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