Hi,
I noticed last night that my steering column was getting warm... I thought nothing much of it.. However when i was driving today I noticed the same thing...

When the car isnt running, its nice and cool. But after the car has been running a while it starts to heat up... Particularly the left hand side where the full beam stick is... As far as I'm aware there are only wires behind it.

I've not noticed this before, but at the same time I've never been looking for hot spots on the steering column. I was just wondering if this was normal or not. I don't really want to unscrew the covers there as I've got my alarm wires in there (which too ages to tidy up).

Thanks


Adam

might be worth popping the covers off ,just to check none of the wires are overheating.better than a fire :0

You've not got your heater vent pointing that way have you?

Definitely have a look - better than your car going up in flames !!!

I would put money on it being because you are using your heater. If it was dodgy wiring you would know about it. Either would have fired by now or the alarm wouldn't work properly

Hmm... My heater is on, but I have it blowing up by the windscreen.. ie. not coming out from the front vents.... My alarm works perfectly and nothing has blown or stopped working...

I'll probably take a loot inside tomorrow.

Yeah my car is the same, its just the blowers. There not exactly air tight ducts so you tend to loose some warm air through the entirety of the dash.

My Cinq doesnt do it....

Just had the covers off around the steering column... The heat appears to be caused by two thick wires. A while and red one, and a green. I believe they are both related to the full beams for the headlights... If I turn my lights off then they cool down... Don't know whether this is may be a problem or not though... They are very hot if you touch them when they've been on a while.

Any wire that gets hot under load is a problem !!!

Think you need to do some more investigating.

minislapper said:

Any wire that gets hot under load is a problem !!!

Think you need to do some more investigating.

Click to expand...

Have you fitted higher wattage bulbs. This would lead to higher current draw and the wires heating up.

Michael

They are whiter ones... I dont think the wattage is any different...

However, I don't understand why there would be a high current going to the switches themselves.... As far as I understand the switches just turn on relays for the lights.

Adamski said:

They are whiter ones... I dont think the wattage is any different...

However, I don't understand why there would be a high current going to the switches themselves.... As far as I understand the switches just turn on relays for the lights.

Click to expand...

Whiter ones should be no problem plus thinking about it your probably right about the relays DOH!

Well whilst driving through the b/pool illuminations on saturday it got the the point where the entire dash around the blowers was far too hot to touch for more than a few seconds. I had the windows down and the bloweres on full at full heat cos i was sick of the fan cutting in every 20secs. Decided i can cook things on the dash when its that hot.