Not a good start to the Saturday night just

Driving along and I could smell a funny smell( no wise remarks lol) so I just put it down to something in the nearby area what was causing the smell.

Anyway after about 3 mile its getting worse and im starting to think that maybe its actually coming from the car, at this moment I start to get a little concerned so I pull over and get out with the engine still running.

I pop the bonnet and take a look under and all seems fine so I shut the bonnet.

Upon popping my head thru the window to turn the engine off I notice that the smell is now unbearable and its starting to resemble burning.

SH1T I think so off goes the key, then to my horror I see small clouds of smoke coming from around the steering coloum.

At this point im getting a tad concerned to put it blunt lol but im standing there thinking fcuk fcuk fcuk fcuk

Anyway the smoke dies off and the car is now outside the house.

Headlights wont work so its deffo a wire whats earthed I reckon and burnt

Hopefully it wont be too much of a pain in the arse to fix tomorrow

For a small moment though I thought my pride and joy was going to be no more

 

dont sound good, need to get that looked at asap!

 

Dont worry I plan on getting to the bottom of it tomorrow, seems like its deffo being caused by the lights as I had it running without lights on and no smoke etc and no smell.

Soon as I turned lights on you could hear a very faint humming noise and it started to smell again, then the lights packed in.

Checked the fuses and they are fine, which is worrying really cos aint they supposed to blow to prevent shit like this ??

Took all the casing off around the steering and there was a couple of wires that looked like they had rubbed thru and touched, so I have taped these up to cover any naked wire

Only worry now is, all fuses look fine etc, I cant see any wires that have completely burnt thru but I still have no lights at all on the dash or headlights

Just hope it dont turn into a dash out job as I could do without that lol

 

I used to have an Orion 16i Ghia years ago and exact same thing happened. There is a bracket type thing which gives support to the dash and there are about half dozen wires that run past it. If you have been fitting a new stereo or have disturbed them slightly they may have been rubbing on this bracket and caused the short. That's what happened to me I lost headlamps as well although my side lights would work. Burnt all the insulation back for miles. Had to repace all the burnt wiring.

Good Luck mate

SMG

 

Problem located

The arm on your steering column what turns your lights on etc

The wires what clip into that on a yellow clip, Ive unclipped it pulled it off and the red wire is still stuck in the plastic hole all melted and fcuked

Smells aswell lol so its deffo that, and I cant see any other wires what may have caused it so it looks like problem solved

Just gota try sort it now on a sunday afternoon with nowhere open for spare parts etc

 

Problem now sorted

Just glad it was a simple thing and not a dash out job