Help! Burnt Wiring Harness

cbpa40 · 09-30-2008, 12:51 AM

I just bought a 2000 Sportage with a partially burnt wiring harness. It happened a year ago and the prevoius owner parked it and did not have much info. I am working to replace the burnt sections but wondered if anyone would know what caused this in the first place so I don't have a repeat with the new harness. The main area which burnt is behind the battery.

kiaracer · 09-30-2008, 01:25 PM

sounds like someone shorted the battery cables or there was a wire that was rubbing somewhere and it eventually lost the insulation and grounded out. was there any accessories hooked onto the battery without a fuse such as a amplifier, alarm, aftermarket lighting, etc?

bubbashrimp · 09-30-2008, 07:00 PM

I would suggest that as you replace the burned wires that, with the battery unhooked, you measure between each wire and ground and find out which ones are shorted. Could be that only one was shorted and it heated up, melting the insulation and shorting out the other wires.

cbpa40 · 10-20-2008, 11:59 PM

Thanks for the info. I replaced both wiring harnesses and the Sportage is running fine. I was told that someone had installed a remote starter which may have caused this. Although I don't know why it would, having installed dozens of remote starters, unless it was installed improperly. The only problem I have now is the speedometer/odometer is not working and the "hold" light is flashing so I have to recheck all of my connections.