Allroad almost killed by dog !

[S2central.net]

Long time ago - maybe a year or more - I removed the rear trim panel from the tailgate of our Allroad cos it was somehow damaged and used to squeak and sqwuak like a boot full of demented budgies.

Time passes.....

A month ago we finally succumbed and acquired a 'lovely' family puppy dog - crossbred lab & boxer - great temperament with the kids and lots of fun all round.

Last weekend we had him in the back of the car for his first decent sized road trip. The allroad has a handy dog-guard thing so it was fun to find a use for that after having the car ~5 yrs. He yelped for a bit with the excitement of new sights and smells on the journey. He settled down after 20-30 mins.

After a while he was quiet as a mouse and all seemed well with the world.

We get to destination, and as we are unloading dog, kids and general stuff - one of the young lads we were meeting up with remarked on why the tailgate looked so bare on our wagon. Quickly recounting the budgie story, I noticed the feckin dog had chewed through one of the cables going to part of the lock system in the tailgate - just a two wire cable so I felt myself lucky (for being stuped.

Then as I am about to close the boot, the guy says 'I can see smoke' - I figure he is taking the piss so I laugh it off, but then a more serious tone comes in his voice with 'I am not joking... look' - and sure enough a lil wisp of smoke is coming out of the damaged loom end and the cable is hot as hell.

I tried to pull the two wires apart but they are hot as phook as the insulating is melting and my blood pressure rises. I am wondering why the hell a fuse isn't blowing here to quickly rectify things - so as I try to unpick the thing with burning fingers I send him off to find a 10mm spanner.

After what seemed like an eternity he comes back with the spanner and I disconnect the battery ASAP. Then I set about surveying the damage... Such was the heat from the 2-wire loom short... it had melted about ~80mm of wires further back into the larger loom in the tailgate and I had to slice it open for a decent look.

Four wires fused together - I finally separated them and taped them out for safety... All the lights and locks work perfectly still - which is a bit bizarre.

All is well that ends well with only a small section of loom to be repaired, but if we had just unloaded the car and walked away we could easily have returned to a much bigger problem.

I've not yet looked at the wiring to see how the hell a fuse didn't blow, but I felt a right **** for not having a 10mm spanner in the boot. That is the moral of the story folks!!!!!

[GazzaG60]

and you have a new rug.

[Sonic]

Sounds like you got away lightly!

Makes me glad i keep a fire extinguisher and 10/13mm socket set in the car.

[GazzaG60]

slightly different but one from the past.

went tuning a subaru with pretty special engine.

was doing some cruise then we hit the motorway for a power run. we have a long up hill near us to the highest motorway in the country.

into 6th foot down. 1.9 bar boost on off we go. hit 150, 160 165 and as we neared the top- of the hill we could see some smoke. oh no we thought shes bit the dust.

pulled over quick to see the engine was fine but smoke was coming from the engine bay. popped hud a tad to find out to see exhaust wrap on fire. the wrap was a little old and the frayed bits had set fire.

pulled the fire extiinguisher and sprayed the lot on it. still flames. as my mate is at the front i ran to the back and started to try to wrench out the water tank for the chargecooler. just before i pulled the water my late tried a last gasp "cake candle blow" and it went out.

whilst we were ablaze the rozzers just drove past. we were lucky ther was no damage other than a bit of wrap. must have been a 50k+ car.

[Acidburn]

Not good to hear paul, I just picked up a fully loaded 2000 plate allroad with every toy for a decent price (I won't mention ) so I will warn my parents as i've gave it to my dad and they have small dogs.

On a side note what engines in yours, ours is a 2.5 tdi v6 quattro.

[martinws]

Another story to add to the thread.

About a year ago i was changing the engine mounts on my Coupe and had them all unbolted and the engine was being suported by a jack over the pit in my garage. The front mount was stuck on with all the crap on the side of the engine so i got an old brush handle and 'snooker qued' the mount off. ''BANG, SMOKE, FIRE'' AAAAAAAH. No extinguisher and not really knowing what had happened i just pushed the car out the garage onto the drive and quickly disconnected the battery and put the fire out with a blanket.

It turned out that as the mount fell off it had hit the positive on the starter motor and spot welded itself to the block so burnt through all the main feed cables and knackered all the wrap keeping the cables tidy. luckily i took all the cables from a breakers the next day and had it all running again in no time. Could have been alot worse.

Moral; always diss battery when doing anything and keep a fire extinguisher to hand always!!

[Acidburn]

I had a mate wiring in a car alarm on an old mk3 xr3 years ago, he was at the point of setting the sensors for the doors, as soon as he wired that up there was loads of white smoke and him panicking he'd manage to melt around half a metre of wiring back into the engine bay.

[mcandmar]

Bad doggy! Reminds me of the immobiliser that shorted out in my CQ, turned the ignition on and smoke started pouring out from under the dash. I had that 10mm spanner from the toolkit on the battery within seconds, if it were an Olympic sport i would own that medal!

From that day forward i've kept a fire extinguisher in the boot, £20 from a motorfactors, worth its weight in gold should i ever need to use it

[Trist28]

Mad stories!! Had a MK1 XR2 (great fun car that was too!!) Some idiot previous owner had run a heavy grade positive wire (with no fuse) from the battery for a stereo through the bulk head. Fine(ish) so far, however they had then wrapped the wire once around the steering column itself. All was fine until one day I pulled into a petrol station and did full lock wrapping the wire round many more time which then cut through the coating where it went through the bulk head. Thought the car was a gona, luckily I had a spanner, and 2 staff members were out in seconds with extinguishers and sand lol...

[Acidburn]

however they had then wrapped the wire once around the steering column itself.

I've had something like that with the s2, to the right of the steering wheel should be a thin card that slots in and stops wiring from the fuse box getting to the column. When the opening rear windows was fitted to my car this must have been removed. It was fine for a day or so then I was pulling out from a junction by my mates and the alarm chirped once (aftermarket one that was fitted there) and I thought it a bit strange but carried on, it was only when I took the next corner that it ripped all the alarm wires out plus pulled the pins out the back of the indicator stalk meaning I had no indicators or main beam (not that I used it with hids) right pita and meant I had to stop by the side of the road, un wind all the wiring and remove most of it there and then as it was ruined.