Please help!!!

[Leeboo]

I've had some problems with my 1.0 OHV Nova lately, it began to chug and cut out and got worse and worse. I took it to work one morning earlier in the week and it died altogether. As I towed it with the ignition on, smoke rised from the dashboard. Anyways, I got a guy to come to work and look at it, he got it started by just holding the key til it fired up properly. I got it home, and found damaged wires in the engine bay, they had shorted.

The first sign of damage was here, below the wiper motor. The burnty wire is clear coated, and seems to join to a black wire, indicated by my finger:



Here's the offending wire, split from its clear coating:



Ans so the wire runs through here...



To the inside of the car:



And follows this batch of wires:



And continues up to here, where the wires were more badly burnt:



The wire seems to back on itself a few times:



And connects to the black wire again here:



Does anybody know what these wires are for? It looks like a previous bodge? Does anybody know the cause of the shorting?

I thought I'd ask on here before stripping any further.

Thanks in advance!

[Leeboo]

Any ideas? Someone on here is bound to know! :D

[AlexW]

That looks like a pervious bodge... but try and find out where each end leads... Multimeter would be a good place to start. But as its a 1.0 i would suggest finding another loom, otherwise it just makes it worse.

It could be looking at it... Anything, but heater motor? Did it work? did it make any noises etc?

[mowgli]

the clear wire is the coil feed wire for the 1.0 ohv. a plain black wire will be some aftermarket thing... maybe someone tried fitting a different coil to your car in the past.

[Leeboo]

Thanks guys, help and advice is greatly appreciated.

Mowgli - why does the clear wire run up past the wiper motor? The coil wires run down the passenger wing direction? So, if its the coil wire feed, why did this happen? If i fixed it, it might happen again? Or is it a one off?

AW06 - The heater worked fine! It only works on the top setting, but thats due to a resistor or something I think?

I was hoping I could repair this loom? Instead of sourcing a new one.

Thanks a million...

[AlexW]

In most cases its better/easyer to replace. But try and find out where the wires goes. If it does connect to the heater motor its prob shorted on the curruant running through it too get the motor working... I dont know im just going on what ive learnt off my brother over the years.

[Leeboo]

Thanks AW06, I will scratch my head at it tomorrow and report back , cheers lad.

[Leeboo]

I traced the wire today. One end goes to the starter motor, and the other end joins to several wires which go on to the ignition barrel area.

I am going to replace the damaged length of wire, as it has not really damaged any sorrounding wires.

Is there any particular grade or type of wire I should be using?

Thanks.

[AlexW]

Try and use what was there already (same thickness)... Check the right size fuses in the fuse box just to make sure, iirc its on the back of the cover.

Cant think what could have caused it to go though... Only things that i can think of is a sticky igniton but even that dosnt seem right.

[Leeboo]

Yeah I'm gonna take in some of the wire and get more at a motor factors tomorrow.

Yeah I don't know the cause! But all I can do is fix it and tidy the loom up again. The reason I think its been messed with before, is because that clear wire kind of went back on itself a few times (excess wire - not factory like), and that is where it had burnt the worst, it all melted together. So I will replace the length of wire with new stuff, make sure its tidy this time, and bolt my little fire extinguisher in the car .

Thanks for the help, you sir are a legend.