trying to find reason for small fire

Car:2006 Honda S2000

I was poined to this forum and therefore new here. Earlier last month I had a small fire in my car and after finding the source I am trying to not only fix the problem, but also want to eliminate the source of the problem.

Some background: I had this alarm installed by a Clifford approved installer that came with plenty of rec's from S2000 owners. Ever since the alarm was installed in 2008, I've had problems. The car sometimes would loose complete power and shut down while driving, sometimes would not start. It would happen at random, but more often when raining.

Fast fwd to last month, we had a very hard downpour in south Florida. I was driving to work and the car shut-down at a light. I tapped the wires under the dash, and the car came back to life. About a mile after, I started smelling burning wires. I was about 1 mile from work, so I rushed and made it there. After that the car was towed to my house.

I traced the burning back to two black wires that are spliced into the ignition wire (at least I believe thats what that is). Its a BLACK / YELLOW trace wire going to the ignition switch. The alarm install is a mess, and I want to clean it up myself rather than take it back as I lost trust on this installer. But before I redo this, I would like to eliminate the source rather than patch it up.

Here are some pictures:

And these are the type of butt connectors I was planning on using. They are Molex with glue and they shrink when heated:

Its it acceptable to use butt connectors, or am I better off soldering? I think it would be quite a feat to solder this with the tight space in the S2000 under the dash.

Also, here are my thoughts on how this started:

- Installer spliced the loom with a razor and damaged the wire insulation.

J

I guess the pictures did not work, maybe the links do:

http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?act=module&module=gallery&cmd=viewimage&img=703065

http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?act=module&module=gallery&cmd=viewimage&img=706521

http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?act=module&module=gallery&cmd=viewimage&img=705425

J

Just copy paste those links into your browser and they will show up.

J

The BLACK / YELLOW wire is the ignition lead from the key.  The ony reason I can see that they cut that wire was for the starter kill.  Since your car has a manual transmission, cutting the ignition wire and installing Ignition kill instead of starter kill.  Chances are they used wire that was too small to handle the current of the ignition circuit.  I am not in favor of cutting ignition wires.  If you insist on keeping it an Ignition kill, use larger wire, and maybe solder the connections. 

You are correct, the factory wire is much thicker than the one the one that comes/goes to the brain. It looks like its a Clifford wire.

They basically cut the wire and now that wire goes through the alarm brain ... I am going to rewire the Clifford part using thicker wire. Will try to give a shot at soldering this thing.

Does soldering provide a better connection or is it better overall to a butt connector?

Thanks, J

For one I dont see why they would split a ignition wire and run it into the brain.

Normally the brain has starter kill built in and they split the starter wire so the vehicle will not start when the alarm is armed.

Second, The water getting to the connectors is probably  a boot on the firewall removed and not reinstalled properly or at all which allows water to run down the engine harness wiring under the column.

Anyway if you want to do it right factory approved  strip back the wire one inch flat wrap and twist wire back together , Solder and Heat Shrink to Complete.

They cut the ignition wire because his vehicle has a manual transmission.  For maximum security, Ignition kill is the only way you can keep them  from stealing the car.  From a safety and reliability standpoint, there can be problems.

I guess that the next time I hear of a dealership wanting to charge someone 1200 dollars to replace a wiring harness, i should point out the factory approved repair method.