Rangerover 2.8 TD caught fire....

[simon15]

Only had it a day took it out round some local lanes and lost all electrics and the engine would not shut off so had to stall it.

opened bonnet which was filled with smoke and the accel cable has melted and optima Red top battery caught fire and has melted.

any ideas on what this could be and how to fix/repair it??

Also the gearbox was hissing after towing it for a couple of miles? and smelt of burning..

sounds like a large bill coming my way  :(  :(

[gtomo2]

yea sounds like a big bill first thing i would do is have a good look at the wiring and do a full rewire on it. then have a look at the acclarator cable and see how its routed you may find its been rubbing on a wire somewere and shorted it out to ground which has shorted and over heated your battery which would course it ti melt and catch fire. did you have the tranfer (hi/low) box in netruel when you towed it if not you may of seen your transfer boxx off as well.

[thermidorthelobster]

Could the Optima have been discharging through the accelerator cable for some reason?  Anything else significantly damaged?

What's the engine from, out of interest?

[gtomo2]

or thinking about it could a bad earth course the acclarator cable to become a earth and melt as its not really designed to do that

[simon15]

exactly what a few fellow lane users suggested it could be the earth.

ill get the accel cable off tomorrow and have a good look round.


Its a 2.8 Isuzu TD.

Any ideas how many earth straps there should be or where they should be attached.

hopefully a new earth a new cable and a new battery it may be back on the road then. most probably after replacing a few fuses no doubt.

[Jason2985]

:?
Blimey, hope you get it sorted.
A bit scary too.

Jay

[gtomo2]

Normally i would fit two good earth straps to the engine down on to the chassic and one from the body work on to the cahsic and make sure the earth cable from the battery is making a good ground to engine and chassic. plus throw another strap in near the rear from body to chassic for good measure

[simon15]

it certainly was a bit scary.

Got some pics ill get up at some point.

First smoke started comin in the car then i turned the ignition off but the engine was still running. stalled the engine, opened the bonnet loads of smoke then the battery caught fire but after about 10 mins the smoke stopped.




Is it just a case of bolting a solid strap to the engine to a good point on the chassis?

not too good with electrical side of things...

[Jason2985]

:)
Well at least you are and the occupants are ok, thats the main thing.
Hope you get the Rangie up and running soon.

Jay

[gtomo2]

Yea what i did with mine (as its something they seam to forget when changing engines is earth straps) Is i ran one from the inner wing to the engine mount then one from the same engine mount to the chassic then one from the chassic the other side to one of the bolts for the starter motor mount as they uses a lot of power. then put another one in from the chasic near the fuel tank onto the seat belt mount bolt near the back

[simon15]

excellent sounds pretty straight forward enough..

shall get some decent wire to use and get the other bits and see what happens when its fitted.

[gtomo2]

Yea good luck and like its been said before at least no one was hurt and the car is not a wright off.

And you can get lentghs of earth straps for most car parts shops pritty cheap

[simon15]

yeah at least cars can be fixed.

seems like there is only 1 earth strap from the engine to chassis to battery negative terminal. doesnt really seem like a sensible route.

shouldnt battery negative be earthed seperatly to the engine earth?? and its all 1 wire just tacked in the middle to the inner wing.

[gtomo2]

no not the best way of doing it. but think i can see the logic in doing it that way but not good. best bet is separat straps all round with the battery one going to the chasic

[simon15]

Right think imay have kind of sorted the problem.

It seems to have been running 2 batteries at some point so an earth is still attached for the 2nd battery which i have now connected to the engine itself.

and im going to replace the current earth lead from the battery to engine block via the inner wing with a small clip as an earth.
replace that with 2 seperate straps. battery to chassis and engine to inner wing.

hopefully that should sort out the electrical problem and be back up and running tomorrow night :):)

[gtomo2]

yea most had twin batteries just check that the live for the second battery is disconneted this should run from behind the headlights and infront of the rad. as if that is still conneted to your battery it will be a dead short if it touches ground. but yea sounds like the you have the earths covered

[simon15]

yeah all the live etc is dissconnected.

You mentionred about earthing the body to chassis on the rear?

is this advisable?

Just bought 10 ft of Earth cable thinking i would need most of it but all i need is about 2 ft for the battery and other engine earth...






oh and a pic of a lot of smoke  :lol:

[gtomo2]

nice somking rangy Is it old enough to smoke . I did mine just to help the back lights and tow bar out etc its not inportant but if you have any spare strap left over it wont hurt it to do it

[simon15]

Cheers for all your help mate :)

got it working now just hope its a permanant fix  :lol: