so im driving down the road and all the sudden my stereo shuts off, my lights all blink and then my truck shuts down...

so im like what the F? pull over, turn it back on and all is well. so i drive another 300 yards and it happens again, this time smoke is coming out of the engine bay and down under my feet!

so i shut it all down and hop out, pop the hood and there is a ground wire coming out the back of the engine (pass side) that is all frayed and smoking. what is this ground wire??

i got AAA to tow it to a toy dealer and theyre keeping it till Monday good news is im driving my sister's 06 x5 4.4i

sorry for the huge pic, but i think it may be the one in the bottom right?

not sure... memory is fuzzy now... damn beer last night

http://aarc.epnet.com/application/93.../86823p16L.gif

any help?

 

First off...you had 1 beer and your mind if fuzzy? what a cheap date!! only if you were a female..LOL

I wouldnt let the stealer touch it. Have them write up an estimate or wahtever and maybe pay for the diagnosis. Im sure you can do it for much cheaper. Just have them find what the problem was.

mMmMMm 4.4i

I drove a buddys ML55 AMG...wowwwwww

 

thats what i did so far... problem is, none of my normal reliable shops are open on weekends and i needed it towed.. so it had to be done. its $44 for a diag... so i told them to do that for now then call me. theyre swamped today though so i have to wait till monday

i will use this time to arm up on info!

its funny cause they looked real quick and the guy says "there are a LOT of aftermarket wires everywhere"

so i looked at him and said "you mean... the 4 wires for my front fog lights?" what a retard... thats the only aftermarket wiring i have up there...

 

may be he had one too many

are you still under warranty? if so, do not let them pin your foglights as the cause of the wires fraying. stick it to em!

P.S. as usual, I have no advice for you.

 

hahah

no warranty... im at 91K miles

id love to see them prove to me that my foglight wires (which are all intact and on the opposite side of the problem wire) are the culprit

 

i dont what specific ground that is, believe its the accessory ground to the frame. try putting on new crimp lug and reconnect it (solder it later), before they look at it.

 

Lee,

Judging by the gif image, looks like youre talking about this (marked "-") in the pic:



If so, that is sooo easy to fix yourself. it would just be a matter of you unhooking the negative battery terminal, removing the original terminal, removing the ground (frayed) O-ring, and then replacing the frayed wire with a new one. Then recrimp on a new neg battery terminal as well as a new o-ring.

id say the only difficult part would be finding a battery terminal crimper. looks like a bolt cutter.

bob

 

bob,

if it was that ground, believe me i wouldve fixed it! good info.

however, its in the rear of the engine bay on the pass. side... it goes to a bolt above the firewall.. i believe. the thing is, i saw the smoking wire and called AAA immediately knowing i didnt wanna start the thing again.

since its easter weekend they were not busy so a truck arrived in literally 10 mins... in that 10 mins i had called my family to tell them i couldnt come to meet up with them and not spent the time looking at the problem figuring i had the usual 40-60 min wait to do that

then at the dealer i towed it to, i got wisked away to get my name put in the computer etc while they wheeled my truck into the service area....

so yeah i didnt get a great look ...but its the pass side rear of the engine bay for sure.

 

ok heres an update...

so i get to the stealer... they used the same f-d up ground wire and reconnected it. i see this, and demand to speak to a tech. tech comes over and is basically like "i didnt wanna touch anything".

so i said what the hell is that, change that wire like i asked please... no dice. they dont charge me and send me on my way. i get maybe... 3 miles away... TRUCK DIES. all electronics gone. i pop the hood, that ˟˟˟˟˟˟ wire is snapped in two now.

call AAA again. this time i dont tell them where i want it towed yet as i have a plan... i call the toy dealer to speak to the service manager. i tell him my story tell him this is amazingly ridiculous that they sent me out into the streets with such a faulty wire despite my protests. anyway after he talks to the tech and calls me back we come to an agreement... they will cover all repair costs to get my truck going.

so i take it to this exxon station by my parents house because my dad knows the owner.

the owner takes one look and laughs that they hadnt replaced the wire.

anyway, he took care of it, it was apparently a power wire that goes under the oil pan ( ) whose casing had worn away due to age and caused a short. ill be taking the bill to toyota today to get reimbursed. jesus this is a hassle!

this is the top of the wire... bottom didnt come out




had my dad come by because my flashers werent working and i was under a bridge on a 35mph rd where people do 50 easily... so he parked behind me with his flashers


the dealer ened up charging me $0.00! but that was just ridiculous... but the service mgr was very nice, very attentive, very fair and in the end worked it out with me in a calm manner while respectfully asking me questions about it.

we'll see if he really covers it all in the end, but anything will do fine.

 

yet another example of how the stealership does such OUTSTANDING work that you should ALWAYS take your truck there to get worked on!...

 

yeah. the service mgr kept saying "THEY DIDNT LIE TO YOU / THEY COULDNT HAVE KNOWN IT WAS GOING TO BREAK DOWN"

so i kept telling him "sir, i told you from the start of this phone call that they did not lie and that they in fact were quite nice to me. However, they allowed me to leave your dealership in a truck that did not make it even 3 miles away instead allowing me to break down in a VERY dangerous, high-traffic area. Had they informed me of this potentially quick breakdown situation, I would have had the truck towed away. I had indicated to them that I was concerned over the state of the wire as they had "fixed" it, and they indicated it was fine and they sent me on my way."

he said "I see.. ok, well get the bill from the other shop and come talk to me about it. It shouldn't be a problem."

so we shall see.

 

shouldve fixed it yourself....

 

i didnt know what the source was, and i have nowhere to do such work (i live in an apt in the city)... so chances of me diagnosing and fixing it in good time were low.

 

Couple things that would concern me. If it is a power wire, why is it grounded to the firewall. It would need to be insulated from the firewall if is was a power wire. I would say it is probably a engine to ground wire, just guessing without being able to see much in the pic. If it is a ground wire, then there should have been no smoke if it touched something in the engine bay. My guess, and this is purely a guess, is that somehow you shorted the positive side of your power, either the positive battery post or a large power wire, to the truck body. The easiest path back to the negative post was through that ground wire, which was too small to handle the amperage and melted like a fusible link. If that was the case, you still have a problem somewhere that could do the exact same thing again.
Check first to find out if the wire is a power lead or a ground. If it's a ground, check your battery to see if it is loose, and if so there should be scorch marks on a body panel close to the battery positive post, probably the underside of the hood.

 

it was a large power wire that corroded and made that ground wire short...

 

Got it.