Exhaust melted wiring

So I discovered that the loom and jacket for my rear facing Ridgid SRQ lights completely burned away in a few spots. Last year I had an exhaust leak at the flange where the catback connects - that must be when the wires melted yeah? Wiring 8”+ away from the exhaust tubing shouldn’t melt under normal circumstances right? There is stock wiring there after all.

Just wanted to get an opinion before I go replacing that run of wire.

 

I would guess it melted from the exhaust heat or you're overloading the electrical fuse for that connection.

 

Yeah I doubt it was overloaded since the lights were wired to their own, properly sized fuse. But it is strange that that loom melted when the stock harnesses right next to it didn’t. Perhaps Toyota uses heavier duty loom than what Rigid ships with their lights. Regardless, I’m going to completely redo the whole harness with high temp sleeve and good wire.

 

That's an electrical fire my dude. The zip tie is untouched but the exhaust melted the wire under it?

 

This...

Did the lights still work?

 

Use this hi temp heat sleeving when routing wires or hoses near exhaust or turbos

https://www.jegs.com/i/Allstar-Performance/049/ALL34282/10002/-1

 

Do you sit in traffic stopped or leave the truck idle for 30 minutes or longer at one time .

Then that exhaust leak had to be so loud even the best audio system would not be heard at full volume .

you have another issue sorry

 

Good point, you may be right. I just can’t think of what the issue could have been. Maybe I’ll find out when I pull the harness out. And yeah the lights were still working until I disconnected them from my fuse box. The jacket melted but the copper is still in tact.

 

Only thing i can think of is, you had them on for extended time and the wire isnt right gauge. If no short or blown fuse...

 

I used the harness that’s supplied with the lights, which is 18ga so that shouldn’t be the issue. I’ll have to see if I can find a short somewhere, but that’s still questionable since those lights are never on for more than a couple minutes - and never while driving cus they’d blind anyone behind me haha.

I dunno, now I’m just curious. Super weird.

 

18 guage wire is designed to handle 16 amps max load and that is on a short length of wire

 

Def

 

My bad I meant 16ga. But the total draw is only 4.6A

 

While you are replacing the wire., place the new wire in the black plastic tube/hose (whatever its called). You can get the black plastic tube/hose from the store for the rest of the wire.. So it won't happen again. Or you can get full length tube/hose from front to back separately...

 

Wire Loom Tubing or Flexible Conduit... I think

 

It was in conduit that burned away.

 

If you look at the location of the wiring loom, you will see the black exhaust smoke that looks like it came through the point where it leaked, so yes. I believe that's what happened just by looking at the picture. Id go ahead and replace the wiring and loom if you have repaired the exhaust leak

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-4-x-14Ft...-Conduit-Protective-Wrap-Sleeve-/272124400575

 

Yep exactly. I’m probably gonna go with something like this across the bottom of the truck:
https://www.techflex.com/high-temperature/insultherm

Right? It would be too coincidental that the wire melted at the exact spot where it was leaking. Glad I’m not crazy thinking that was what happened. Whatever the cause, I should be good after wrapping the new wire in high temp sleeve just in case.

 

hopefully thats all it was