Smoked ground

I need some of my fellow tacoma world advice. Today i discovered that the ground wire coming from the alternator had melted off its plastic sheathing from the wire. Has any one ever checked there's to see if its ok? And what would make this happen?

 

whoa. Im going to check mine tomorrow

 

I don't think that's ok or normal. The copper looks corroded, I can see the green color in the picture. Corroded wires, or bad connections make higher resistance, impeding flow and raising temperature. it probably heated up, and melted the insulation off. Good thing it didn't ignite something.
Is that the factory wire and ground location?

 

I had this happen to me on my 95 4runner that I had, wasnt the ground tho it was my power wire

 

It's all factory wire and location, I was replacing the UCAs and Rotha noticed the burnt wire. Guess I will be contacting the dealer. I just hope they don't pull some crap about it being caused from the extra lights or winch.

 

I was interested as well, so just went out and looked at my truck
. Could it at all be from the extra battery draw??

 

This is mine currently.

I'd get that checked.

I have a winch and dual battery system.

 

So you have extra lights and a winch, which are not factory, and you are concerned that Toyota might "pull some crap"?

While it isn't always normal, any time you add things to a vehicle that increase the expected load, you should always check that the power and ground connections are clean and tight, and that all aftermarket items are properly connected. I am curious how you wired up the winch and lights. Every time I add anything to a customer's vehicle that is not factory I check all connections because additional loads increase current passing through both the power and ground connections.

 

After doing a bit of research I think I have figured out what happened. When I had my bumper and winch installed by 4 wheel parts they grounded the winch to the existing factory ground on the fender.

 

It probably was.

People wire up rigs all the time with #4 and larger power wires, and they forget that all of the current going out the power wire comes back on the ground wire.
The alternator has to restore to the battery everything that was pulled from it, so it's not ONLY the battery-to-accessory side of the system that may need an upgrade.

It was probably the winch... lights shouldn't have drawn enough to do that, but the alternator would have maxed out running the winch.

 

wow that's scary! it's supposed to be grounded to the battery, and maybe a secondary ground to the body

 

There's your problem.

 

Looks like another bad install from 4wheel parts. you should call 4 wheel parts and complain to them. Winches ground suppose to be grounded to the battery terminal. Rookie mistake or never read the instructions.

 

Freaking 4WP

 

I will give 4wheel a call to see what they say. I will never let them install a product on my truck again. I am going to order this kit from Bill http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/ma...-electrical-system-upgrade-now-available.html

Also thinking of ordering a sPOD set up.

 

I'm kinda doubting they'll fess up about it.

 

That will do it. Maybe they wanted to recycle your extra copper wire so they just made it to the nearest grounding point...

 

I run a diehard platinum group 31 marine battery, I got a 1500 watt sub amp and 600 watt high amp. There hasn't been any problems, just some voltage drop during bass hits. A cheaper way instead of buying the kit is just buying welding cable(0 gauge), lugs, and a crimper to make the wires yourself. Do the "Big 3" upgrade and if you really think you need a better alt, buy a high output alternator(DC power, Mechman, etc..). I've yet to do the big 3 on my taco, I practically slam my sounds everyday .

 

you should the stock door speakers and tweets suck so much lol. i got sound deadened doors with mb quarts in them along with q logic kick panels with mb quarts too. for my sub i got a 4 cube box with Fi car audio BL 15 sub tuned to 32 hz. All powered by sundown audio. i really should do the big 3, just too lazy lol.

 

thats why people that do big car stereos do the BIG 3 upgrade, usually you beef up the ground wires around the engine and frame to battery, 0/1 gauge wiring to key points