When installing my downpipe i accidentally came in contact with the alternator and the oil return line, and sparks flew and it burned a hole in my oil return line. sounds like it was a short, if so something might have a hole

 

does that mean that there is oil residue or something that is flammable just sitting on the oil return line??? because if i had a short somewhere....i would never think a spark or two would cause a fire lol...i'm gonna check out my turbo outlet pipe...and what should i look for guys if the outlet did cause the short? damage to the electrical harness?

 

that happened to me on my 95 GS-.T I came to a stop and my gauges were sweeping, power cutting in and out, then smoke comes out the hood. I pulled over and fire was on top of the engine. after i got it out ( acc-cable fried)
I saw that the battery hold was not on (never was there) . when I came to a stop..the positive cable hit the strut tower bar..and there your go..I would look under the bottom of everything to see where the black residue is..that will point out the contact location.

good luck!

 

yea, i believe my oil catch can hit my battery since they are right next to each other, but what explains the boost cut feeling that when i floor it, it just stops at 20 psi-ish....can the ecu be reset...i loaded my map on there as i had it saved on my comp...and it still does it..help!

 

Yeah definately a dead short. I once was tuning a car when all of the sudden the car broke up and shut off. Then came the bellowing of smoke from the battery. Here the battery dead shorted to the chassis via the starter lead. It got so hot that the stainless steel brake lines he had melted the nylon insert right through the braid!

The boost cut you are feeling could be because the battery is now not holding a charge from the alternator causing the ecu to drop into the low voltage mapping which might be limiting boost. I would measure the batteries voltage standing and while the car is running. If the battery got stressed bad enough to do what you said it did then there is a good chance it is toast. Just a thought....

 

You arc'd the alternator on the turbo outlet pipe. Get it fixed.

 

Sell it. Sell it right now! Carmax.com

 

Stupid is as stupid does Mr. Gump


As far as your oil lines I would suggest doing a full replacement because it sounds like there was a small leak which was exposed to heat and ran in through the line probably causing some bad damage. Also make sure that your battery is tied down and the + and - are covered with some sort of rubber so they dont hit the firewall or your strut tower and cause sparks to fly, which may have caused this fire as well.

 

What do you mean I "arc'd" it? So to fix it, would i need a new alternator or what??? I have a turbo timer which measures the voltage and it is the same as before the incident...mid 14's voltage. How do i know if it was the alternator touching the outlet pipe for sure???

 

You arc'd the power from the starter to the turbo outlet which is why the battery was about to explode. You need to address that issue asap before you burn the whole car to the ground.

Mitsubishi should have put in a smaller amp fusible link as the 100amp will put your car up in flames before it blows the fuse.

 

O ok, thanks, so do I have to get a new fuse? Or a brand new starter? please say fuse lol! and i just checked out my starter and turbo outlet and there were no signs of burning or anything in that nature...fyi

 

How is that possible without him physically taking off the outlet pipe and touching it to the hot lead to the alternator or a metal object falling between the pipe and the hot lead. There is some distance between them and the boot would have have to come of the lead. Seems highly unlikely since he was driving the car not working on it.


To the original poster:
Did you install or do anything to the car lately? I would first take alook over all your major hot lead connections inside and out looking for anywhere a lead could bump or touch ground and look for streaking and a wire with deformed insulation. I would pull both battery terminals off, get a Multimeter and test for continuity between all major hot leads and chassis ground. I know I could never feel safe driving or leaving the car with the battery hooked up ever again.

 

Yep, fixing the car at the moment, was up till 3 last night playin around and saw that the turbo outlet did rub off on the starter wire and caused the starter wire to touch the outlet directly and cause the short, and there was a little burn mark on the turbo outlet pipe....and second problem is also fixed..when i said there was a leak, it was cause the valvecover bolts loosened up and caused a little leak from the valvecover....and i think ttp meant to say i arc'd the outlet and "starter" together...

 

That is what he and many other people told you!

 

He did say alternator...which didn't make sense but i believed he meant to say starter....