Almost had a Fire

[Maxil]

Maybe I should say, did have a fire. As I was coming home tonight, nasty smelling smoke started filling the cabin. I rolled down the window and looked for a place to pull over. As I was doing that, I see a small flaming...thing hit my floorboard by my feet. I managed to get over and see under my dash is a red hot spring attach to the brake.

To make a long story short, the guy who originally had my 4runner did not fuse the line to the KC headlights. The line was run above the brake pedal and wore through. It heated up the spring that pulls the pedal back to red hot. Thankfully I managed to get it taken care of before the thing burned up. It did however seem to kill the spring that retracts the gas pedal. It also singed the line that ran to my brake controller. The gas pedal and brakes work fine but I need a new spring put in.

It shorted so bad, the terminal on the battery was very hot.

My question is, do you think it has done any damage to anything else that I may not notice right now? Should I take it to a local dealership or would a good mechanic shop be okay to check it out?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[the great him]

start checking other fuses and any other wiring that the previous owner did asap! if no other fuses are popped to other things(and even if they are) i dont think you have hurt anything else. your battery might have had its life shortened a little bit but if all seams to be working fine just go with it.

 

[Maxil]

I think I have already weeded out the last of what he screwed up. It was my fault for not checking behind him when I first got it, had I done that I would have noticed the hot wire was not fused at the source. Had it been fused, I probably never would have noticed a problem at all.

Going to see if I can't get that spring later today that got cooked. Without it, the gas pedal it super loose. Maybe that explains why the 1997 4runner at work has so much play in the pedal, the spring is probably dead hehe.