my bike caught fire...

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L

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I had reinstalled my normal lights after removing the HID and somehow managed to plug the lights in the wrong way round. After realising the error of my ways, I started to replug them back in and suddenly smoke appeared. A panicky turning off of everything and unplugging what I could before taking the tank off and the smoke stops.

Upon closer inspection, the lighting loom has melted itself. Not sure how far back, but it doesn't look like its got to the ECU, but a strip back is required just to be sure.

Does anyone else have experience of this and recommendations for the way forward? Replace the lighting loom? fix what's there? wat do you suggest???
 
depends how bad it is - has it melted other wires in the loom ?

take it to any bike shop and they'd replace the loom for 2 reasons.

Quicker and easier.

Less ongoing problems.

depends on how skilled you are at wiring and repairs - and how much money you have :)
 
I might be new to bmw ownership.. but why the hell would plugging the lights in the wrong way round cause a melt down of the loom? By the wrong way round i presume you mean the dipped to main and viccy verky? Replace the loom if so... surely theres something dodgy with that! Theres loads of cheap secondhand ones on ebay or im sure motorworks can help for a few quid.
 
HIDs are controlled by a box of tricks called a ballast - like many bits of electronic circuitry, plugging them in the wrong way round generally blows the circuitry and, as it fails, it turns into a short circuit. There's a chance that there is some protective circuitry inside the ballast, but at the moment, the prognosis isn't good there either.

L - check the loom very carefully, from other recent posts on here, a lighting fault at the headstock has caused multiple hotspots in the loom.
 
Golden rule

always disconnect the battery before electical works what happend to the fuse?
you have a short somewhere there.
 
all traces of the HID are gone. we were just plugging the old lights back in. My guess is a weak spot in the wiring insulation somewhere which I managed to then short out...
 
thats for a "new" one!

get a secondhand one haha

might be easier to lop off the front part of the loom that damaged, lop off the part of the new loom and get a nice big serial connector to plug em together. MOD style :D
 
To reiterate the earlier point - There is a simple solution to prevent too much current from damaging the wiring due to short circuits and that is the FUSE! If the fuse didn't blow but your wiring melted then there is something seriously wrong! To melt those types of wires (assuming standard lighting wires) you will need something in excess of 70A @ 12V or about 850W. If you short the battery you can pull in excess of 300A.

Check someone hasn't put a nail in your fuse holder.
 
L said:
Does anyone else have experience of this and recommendations for the way forward? Replace the lighting loom? fix what's there? wat do you suggest???
Click to expand...
Yes, I've done exactly this but shorted the lighting whilst fitting the HID. This appears to have happened in the housing in the back of the headlight.

Anyway, it melted right back to the fuse box and up to the light switch on the handlebar. Happily, all the wires are nicely bound together causing it to melt any that were near by. I ended up replacing all the wires to the right hand controls, the indicators, horn and lighting wires. It took me several hours to get the insulation tape and purpose made wrapping off that runs down the frame. My bike's got ABS and getting at the wires properly would have meant taking the pump off (as far as I could work out) which I didn't want to do so it took me ages working in that tiny space down the side of the frame. Also, the junction where the two looms are joined was a bloody nightmare jumble of wires crimped and plasticoted. I spent a day taking it apart and working out what wiring I needed. I then spent another day and a half putting it all back together replacing the wiring as I went. The hard bit was trying to find out how to connect two wires together securely. Not being into this sort of thing and I ended up soldering each connection and covering with heatshrink after at least one dodgy crimped connection came loose and caused me to have to take it all apart again. I did put a fuse inline when I put it back together to avoid having it happen again though if you do this make sure it's accessible otherwise you might have to take it all apart to replace it (I made all these **** ups especially so you won't have to).

If you have shagged the switches at the handlebar, you can take them apart and resolder them (thanks Steptoe). I'd nearly ripped mine apart before discovering a screw hidden under a sticky label I seem to remember. I think they're 200 odd quid if you buy them.

Anyway, it now appears to be non the worse for it and has done 20k since. It was a pain in the arse but beat forking out shit loads of money and being without the bike for ages. Getting the train to work was a great motivator. Also, you can't be more shit at this sort of thing than me so it should take you half the time :augie :D

PS. How much did you shit yourself when all the smoke started billowing out from everywhere?
 
hey L. I have a spare back for the headlight lying around in the garage if yours is damaged.
 
DollyRocket said:
To reiterate the earlier point - There is a simple solution to prevent too much current from damaging the wiring due to short circuits and that is the FUSE! If the fuse didn't blow but your wiring melted then there is something seriously wrong! To melt those types of wires (assuming standard lighting wires) you will need something in excess of 70A @ 12V or about 850W. If you short the battery you can pull in excess of 300A.

Check someone hasn't put a nail in your fuse holder.
Click to expand...

....but there is no fuse protecting the headlight circuit :mmmm
 
yep,my heart certainly got some exercise when the smoke started pouring out!

I'm hoping that the damage is limited to the couple of visibly melted wire spots... the bulb holders etc. are not damaged. There is evidence of a few hotspots in the loom, but not melted...

Gut feel says "new loom", bank manager says "fix it!" :nenau
 
I think you will find that fuse #9 is for the headlights - I had a problem whilst modifying the dash to LEDs, and couldn't work out why there were no volts at the LEDs. Checked Haynes manual, and Owner Handbook, and on-line diagrams for this site etc etc. NONE of them showed fuse #9 as an active fuse, merely a spare fuse holder.
Finally a kind tosser came on & said -check fuse #9. I always thought fuse #9 was just a spare fuse, but apparently on some 1150 GS's , it's the headlamp fuse. I had been rather concerned that there didn't appear to be any power protection for just such an event as explained on this post, so relieved to learn that there is in fact ( in my case any how ...1150 GSA 2003 vintage) fuse protection. Sadly, maybe not in "L"'s case though -worth a rummage around with the voltmeter just to find out.

Good luck -Maplins sell heat shrink, and sleeveing etc - I'd also take this opportunity to ACF 50 all the older connections you can find ! :D
 
Hi "L" -think I need to modify my post above - not having bike or handbook close by, I wrongly stated Fuse #9 - this, in retrospect, should be FUSE #8:blast. From memory there are only normaly 7 fuses in use, so the next one along(which is shown as a spare) is......Fuse #8.

Sorry for confusion :blush
 
Hi L

Do you still have those volvo roof rails for sale? May be interested are they the black ones, can you e mail me at [email protected], can put the money towards the wiring job!!

Ta
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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