luftpirate

I recently installed a MSD Blaster coil with the ballast, I thought I had the ballast mounted out of the way from the headlight linkage, apparently not.
Tonight on the way to dinner I flipped my lights on, instantly I lost engine power, smoke started coming out from under my legs, engine stopped running, I shut the lights off and coasted into a corn field.

Cursing my car at the time and not knowing that this time it was MY fault, I grabbed my spare DME relay out of the glove box after noticing no tach bounce. I figured the car wasn't getting spark, replaced DME relay and still no tach bounce. I put the old one back in at that point, popped the hood and noticed that the headlight linkage had picked up one of the wires off the ballast and shorted it out. Ahahh, plugged the wire back into the ballast, still no tach bounce. Swapped in the new DME relay, crossed my fingers, and she started right up. Called AAA up and told them I no longer needed a tow.

I smelled the original DME relay, it didn't stink that bad, and couldn't have been the source of the smoke/smell that was emanating from he fuse/relay area.

When I got home I pulled the key out and she wouldn't shut off, ended up having to stall it to shut the engine off, then disconnected the battery so It didn't set my yard on fire.

I'm guessing maybe I have another bad ignition related relay or the DME itself is damaged, but no clue as to why the car will now not shut off.

Tomorrow I'm going to tear everything out, check wiring and maybe pop up the DME and check for burned out resistors, chalk one up for my own stupidity, I guess I've learned my lesson.

Mike C.

Ouch... Hopefully it's not the wiring harness that's fried.

Ronin-951

Fried your wallet dude. Could have melted the insulation off the wire-and those next to it-any where from the grounding point to the battery. A fuse should have popped,... more custom wiring?

LP944

When I replaced my steering wheel with the wrong adapter, smoke poured out too, turned out to be a fried harness because of it, the car did not smoke unless I had the lights on. Also my starter would try to start the car when it was running and wouldnt shut off even when the key was out (the starter not engine).

Mark944na86

Unfortunately, one of the poor electrical designs for these cars is that all the current for the headlights goes through the wiring from the dash switch, rather than just a low relay switching current -- you may want to check that circuit out in case there's been a short.

luftpirate

Not so much my wallet as time. Looking at all the wiring behind the relay/fuse block I don't see any melted wires, the smell seems to be coming from the relay block itself I have pulled all of the relays out and none of them smell individually.

Thanks for the advice I will check out the headlight circuit next. I plan on replacing the whole fuse block, just trying to source one at the moment.

* Edit, somehow I missed the first time around that #6 fuse on the primary block was blown and I think thats where the smoke/smell came from. I don't think that explains the ignition issue though. I'm wondering if maybe a damaged DME relay could be keeping spark/fuel on when I turn the ignition off.

luftpirate

I put my original DME relay back in and it works, so I think maybe when I was fussing with it on the side of the road I may have just not had it seated correctly. Checked all the wiring possible and no sign of melted insulation. The burn smell seems localized to the fuse. Everything works including headlights, it just won't shut off, I have to pull the DME relay or stall it to shut it down.
At this point I'm guessing ECU. I don't think its the ignition switch because when you turn the ignition switch off all the dash lights and gauges shut off with it, the engine just stays running. Its also possible the coil wire has melted through somewhere in the harness in the bay and is continuing to get power that way.

peanut

sounds to me like your DME relay is stuck in the closed position giving you continuous ignition and fuel injector pulsing.
Try using a 3x way jumper in place of your DME. When its running remove the jumper and the engine should stop proving your relay is at fault.

luftpirate

If I remove the DME relay the engine stops.

peanut

there you are then ! if the engine doesn't stop when you turn the ignition off but does stop when you remover the DME relay then either the relay contacts must be stuck in the closed position or your ignition switch is faulty.

The only other possibility is something is shorting innthe base of the fuse/relay box. ? I think you need to dissconect the battery and have a shufty at the underside of the fuse/relay box.

I think that is a favourite place for alarm/immobiliser monkeys to attach their wires. Have a sniff around the fuse relay box.....oh you did already lol.

What does fuse #6 feed ? is it horn and number plate lights ? should say on the underside of your relay cover

luftpirate

#6 Primary fuse is brake/emergency lights. I have tried two DME relays and they both produce the same results, unless I somehow managed to damage both of them in the same way.
I guess its possible for the ignition switch to be partially broken, turning off some circuits and not others when put in the off position since there is probably more than one switch per position.
I'm going try tracing the coil wire tonight and see if maybe its shorting out against another 12v.

peanut

I'd leave one of your battery terminals loose so you can pull it off in a hurry in case you have another cable burn.
Good luck

If you make up one of those 3x way cable and spade connectors like on Clarks you can put it in the DME relay terminals 30 ,86 and 87b the car should run fine like that without a DME relay.

TurboNUT

The wiring harnesses on these things can really be a pain. I rebuilt (and simplified) the entire chassis harness for my track car. I can't begin to describe the volume of issues I noticed when I did this. Burned wires, broken wires (all inside of undisturbed loom), severe corrosion, despite being in fairly modest climates and conditions for most of its life, etc. If you find yourself chasing a ghost, I'd recomend pulling the dash, unplugging the harness from the fuse box, removing the loom from the leads going to the fuse box plugs, and looking for issues. This isn't as big of a project as it sounds, really. You could have the front seats out, dashboard out, and harness unloomed at a casual pace inside of an afternoon.

FWIW, most of the burned wires I encountered were grounds and were very close to the fuse box plugs.

Keep in mind I'm overly thorough and have no concept of a project that is too long by normal standards, so you may want to disregard everything I just said. haha

~russ

luftpirate

Thanks for the advice everyone, Ill keep updating this with results. There are a lot of threads out there with similar issues where nobody ever posted back with the end solution.

peanut

you'd better.... cos we know where you live....