Loose Battery Cable + Heated Seats = Almost Fire on the Highway

Driving to dinner last night with the wife and noticed a strange putrid odor in the cab of the Disco II. Didn't think anything of it because we were driving along a woodsy road - next to a river bed. We both agreed that the smell was emanating from either the river beds or the nasty Philadelphia water flowing in the sewers around us. As we were trying to determine the root of this smell, my hand was resting on the emergency brake handle. All of the sudden - the "E" brake handle started to get really hot.

I should interject and mention here; that the Negative battery cable was cut and repaired by the previous owner. He cut the original cable (for some reason unknown to me)- thus making it shorter and stretching it to the battery's terminal post. Additionally, during our drive last night the interior lights and headlamps were flickering - indicative to me of the loose cable. I told my wife I should "probably" pull over and check on it. Never did! Meanwhile, my wife had her seat heater on (gotta please the princess!).

So, we're driving and driving and the "E" brake handle was getting hotter and hotter and the smell was getting worse and worse. Moments later as we started to merge on to I-76 the release button (on the front of the "E" brake) shot off like a ballistic missile and collided with the dash! I quickly grabbed the "E" brake handle (don't know why) and the rubber melted off and fused to my hand! WTF!!!! I quickly pulled off to the side of the highway, started grabbing everything in sight, that we didn't want to peril, in what we thought was going to be a "Disco-Inferno" . As soon as the doors "fly-open" the interior lights "spot-lighted" white smoke pouring out from the center console/"E" brake area. It was NUTS!

After getting the wife to safety, I morphed into a fire investigation chief and ran back to the truck to see WTF was going on. I quickly deduced that that cause of this had to been the loose battery cable. The seat heaters and the ENORMOUS amount of Amp draw had over loaded the conductors and started melting off the wire's coating of insulation - thus, the putrid smell we witnessed moments earlier. Sorry to disappoint you guys, but there was no actual flames. I caught it just in time.

We let things calm down a bit, as the "E" brake handle cooled down, further leading to me to believe my quick-acting fire chief investigative like theory had proved true. I "fired" the old pig back up, went around to the battery terminal and made sure the cable was secure. All looked good so, we hopped back in the Disco (with the seat heaters off) and proceeded to Chickie and Pete's on Broad Street in Philly to share our near death experience experience and drinks with friends. Grey-Goose Vodka never tasted so good!

Long story short, I had ordered a new negative battery cable from AB two weeks ago and never got around to installing it. ****, I almost didn't get the chance too! So, guess what I am doing today? False! I'm taking the wife and the Range Rover down to Baltimore to meet some friends. I'll do the cable tomorrow.

Can't wait unit Monday morning when my co-workers ask, "So, how was your weekend"?

 

Was the cable loose? I've got a gut feeling there is something else going on there...maybe more related to the seat heaters...

Hopefully, you get it fixed with minimum effort and cost!!

Glad you weren't fried on the Schuylkill!!

 

not to hijack, but I had a battery catch on fire under the hood once. I run optima bat. in my rovers and somehow the side terminal cap fell off and started arcing on the battery tie down. while i was going down the road all the lights in the dash started flickering so i pulled over and noticed the smoke coming from under the hood. I live in the desert, so i carry 2 gal. of water in the truck at all times... disaster avoided. since that little jewel I slip rubber vac hose on the tie down bars now.

 

Yeah I dont know if I'd swallow that it was the neg cable causing that... All be it a neg cable loose will cause a lot of strange issues.. I dont know how it would cause the seat heater to fry it's self. Unless it was causing the heat timer to keep resetting which essentially kept the element on non-stop... even then I dont know what it'd have to do with the e-brake etc. Her butt should have caught it before your hand did.... hmm..

 

ROFL..I seriously lol when you said the brake handle button shot off and the plastic melted to your hand..sorry to laugh at your pain but I know how you feel. My D1 had a ground issue and started smoking under the hood, I jumped out and tried to remove the ground..burnt the s**t out of my fingers. Not sure what caused your problem but is it just me does it seem discos can have some weird electrical problems without blowing a fuse?

 

Update: tightened the cable and have been driving with the seat heaters on without issue. Replacing the cable tomorrow.

FYI there is an enormous among of amp draw from the seat heaters. The alternator alone cannot keep up so it relies on the battery as well. I still have no idea why the fuse for the heaters didn't blow?

 

lmao... at least you are both safe.

 

 

In that photo it looks like some one REALLY wanted greasable u-joints and was willing to take some with "slight" heat damage!

 

Can I get the rubber boot from your "E" brake?