The Rivi almost burned up if I wasnt on my A game. I came home my buddy opened the p***enger door manualy to get out noticed it was not closing and latching. Puzzled at this I thought it was a mechanical problem with the cables in the door. I walked inside thinking I deal with it later but I turned grabed the tool box and walked back out side good thing too. I opened the door faint smell of wire fire. Started following the conections noticed smoke coming out of the window edge and it was increasing volume. Went to pull one of the battery wires **** I need a wrench what size **** ****. Smoke is billowing out of the door by now. Was able to get to the relay and pull the power to the selinoid. After pulling the door skin Nothing looked even remotely burned but the seliniod was hott and I mean hott the cable going to the latch got so hot it melted the bike cable it was running through. Now Im scared there still is one of them in the drivers door and its the only way in. What to do.
Could this have been a freak accident or something wired wrong? I am going to be all paranoid now..better go out and check it
Do you not have the power wire fused? Maybe the fuse is too big? I think I would be looking for a spot where the mechanical linkage rubbed on the wiring or somehow shorted out the solinoid. Also sounds like it's time for a backup system for entering the car. What would you do if the battery died? Geed luck. Gene
JEEZ! Hope you havent got much damage...... I have had good luck with screw motors instead of the solenoids......seems this is a more common thing that they get hot and or cause a fire.
I have a fire extinguisher in the back seat that was last resort. Im gonna dig in tomorrow to try to figure out what happened. What size fuse do you guys run I had a 30 in there and it didn't burn out.
Don't know what size wire you have run to the solenoids but 30 amps requires #10 wire, 20 amps requires #12 wire and 15 amps requires #14 wire. Check your wire size and fuse accordingly.
30 amp is too big. I would run a 15amp. This post got me thinking also, the size wire youre using. Its possible the wire gets too hot and will cause a similar result. This happened to me at FLYRITE when I first moved here.
even better would be the little circuit breakers the factory uses, that way if it's just a temporary overload, it will automatically reset.
You say the actuator bicycle cable melted? That tells me the circuit was hunting for a good ground. Perhaps with a good ground at the soleniod, the soleniod would have clicked off but more than likely, the solenoid simply stuck "on"... I'd run a 10 gauge ground strap from the body shell to the door at the hinge as a rusty hinge pin won't always make enough contact to establish a good ground. I'd also replace the solenoid. Ever have a starter solenoid stick ON? Sounds like this may have happened to your door solenoid....
wow, I guess this decal on my extinguisher is full of ISH and I should sue for false adverti*****t. Is your extinguisher a traditional one or what?
Its a self grounding bracket but that could be the problem. I haven't been in the mood to mess with it today. The reason the cable that runs from the selinoid to the door latch got so hot is because its all metal the heat just traveled out the selinoid to the cable. It got hot enough to stretch itself out a good quarter inch. Im also thinking my buddy that was riding with me may have kicked the relay its under the glove box and made the power hit the lead to the selinoid.
This is why I've always used circuit breakers and power lock solenoids from factory applications (my favorite has always been early '70s GM) to actuate my latches, with purely mechanical means to exit from inside. Always strong enough to do the job, and has been standard equipment in so many modern cars without much in the way of fire...
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