Fire In The Engine Bay
 

So I was driving home yesterday from my girlfriends' house when I noticed that "burning electronics" smell. Knowing that there's not too much on the car that could be going wrong it didn't surprise me that a few seconds later the tach needle started jumping around then just failed completely. Then I knew it was my car for sure and pulled over right away. I popped the hood an sure enough the tach amp was spewing white smoke out of the bottom of the unit. I burned my hand unscrewing the cap and then I found the silicone on top of the pcb was actually charred into a white powdery mess, and the black plastic housing was completely melted and mangled. So my questions are: Is this how the tach amps fail? Because if it is that's not friggin safe at all, if it wasn't me driving then someone probably wouldn't have noticed anything. Also why the hell would a fuse not blow?

Forgot to add, the car is an 82 300D T

Did you check the fuse? Lots of idiots like replacing them with fuses of a higher amp rating.

I replaced all my fuses when I got the car. All correct

Ahh thats good, maybe a short somewhere?

I have seen some crazy things with fuses, nails for example seem to be popular!:eek::D

Did you make sure to extinguish the cigarette butt after reading it can be used as a temporary fix for the tach amp? :D

Bullets are usable as fuses, but they are loud when they pop.

...Don't use bullets as fuses.

[QUOTE=94mgm;.

...Don't use bullets as fuses.[/QUOTE]

Yah, 22cal bullets WONT work when you go frog giging at night and your headlight fuse fails.:D:eek:

If you do use the .22 cal bullets, which you must not under any circumstance, make sure they're pointing away from the passenger compartment!;)

I seem to recall a story going thru the news a few years back about a guy that did the bullet fuse thing in a Chevy pickup, and subsequently took out his knee when the "fuse" blew.

-Here's your sign-

The way I heard it, he lost his "family jewels", The Darwin
Awards usually only "honers" those that DIE in the pursuit of something really stupid but they made an exception for this bozo.:D

I also read that one in a "Darwin Awards" book, funny stuff.