MICTuning Switch Melting?

[MaddoxPics]

I have two MICTuning switches installed in my 4Runner. One to run my LED bar and one to run my Fog Lights. The LED Bar seems to be okay so far, but admittedly I haven't ran it nearly as long as I have the fogs, so I'm wondering if this issue could arise if I use it for a long time.

From what I can tell, if I run the fogs for awhile, about an hour, something causes the switch inner workings to melt. It's not a wire that melts, but rather a plastic piece, which I assume is what keeps the switch either locked/pushed in to keep the connection on/off (this is just an assumption because I'm not sure what the blue actually does).

I'm not running anything like a relay, just directly to the switch so when I push it, it turns on, otherwise the switch is completely off. There's no light to show it, and then another light when it's turned on. It's either on or it's off.

My brother wired up the switch, and he's been working on vehicles for years so I don't believe it's something he's done wrong, but admittedly we did do this at 3am so POSSIBLY we made a mistake somewhere.

Has anyone had this issue before? My very first fog switch went bad on me, in similar fashion, and I believed it had something to do with it being somewhat sticky, but this one clearly melted. So much that the switch button part actually started to come off the switch itself.

I smelled plastic burning so I pulled over and that's when I noticed what was going on. For the time being I have the fuse pulled.

Anyone have this issue? May know what it could be? My brother is on the East Coast so that kind of doesn't help with him being able to look over it, and I literally know nothing about wiring.

Trying to figure out if there's too much power causing stuff to melt, if the switch is just THAT cheap or what. The wires and everything look fine, so I'm confused.

**Correction it IS hooked into a relay**

Here's a photo of what it did.

 

[lbro23]

I'm not familiar with MICTuning, but it appears to be an OEM style push button switch. These tiny things are only meant for very tiny loads! Check the specs in the documentation, because I can almost guarantee that you are exceeding the amperage the switch can handle. I strongly recommend you bite the bullet and do the extra work to run all of your lights on relays rather than trusting the cheap switches.

 

[Heavy_GD]

Agreed, a relay would reduce the amount of current flowing through that switch.

Do you ever wonder how vehicles on the side of the road caught on fire? This is how.

 

[rayofsi]

are you using relays? most of these switches are good for very little amperage. 3amp i believe

 

[e60ral]

wtf, you are running load amps through a switch in your cabin?

those switches are probably rated for a few amps max, you need a relay. you're lucky you didn't start a fire.

 

[Heavy_GD]

wtf, you are running load amps through a switch in your cabin?

those switches are probably rated for a few amps max, you need a relay. you're lucky you didn't start a fire.

Its cool man, his brother wired up the switch and he's been working on vehicles for years so I don't believe it's something he's done wrong. :flypig:

 

[MaddoxPics]

I may have been wrong about the relay thing. Talked with my brother and he said they have them, otherwise he wouldn’t wire it that way because it’d be sending full power to the switch, and as you all said would likely cause a fire.

Said he may have ticked the relays for more space? Probably makes more sense to you all than me. But said if the relay was bad it wouldn’t have worked?

 

[JSparky]

Without any of us having access to see exactly what's going on, pull all your fuses (or disconnect all accessories from the battery) and take it into a shop to check it out.. audio, 4 wheel parts, etc anyplace like that should be able to check it out.

 

[e60ral]

ticked the relays for more space? what does that mean?

you could check amperage to the switch or just completely re-wire everything.

regardless, i wouldn't trust just switching to a different switch manufacturer though without going through your wiring

how are you powering the LED in the switch?

 

[MaddoxPics]

ticked the relays for more space? what does that mean?

you could check amperage to the switch or just completely re-wire everything.

regardless, i wouldn't trust just switching to a different switch manufacturer though without going through your wiring

how are you powering the LED in the switch?

That's what he told me. As said, I literally know nothing about wiring, which obviously isn't a huge help for this.

The LED only lights up when it's turned on, otherwise it's off. I don't have it set to where it is illuminated and then another section illuminates when it's in use.

 

[Bumbo]

I got a bunch of those switches.... none of them get hot, and all of them are pretty much wired the same, including the non Mictuning branded stuff...

4 Wires
Two are the LED (+/-)
Two are the Switch (polarity neutral) Can switch (-/- or +/+) and should be wired in series to the relay trigger pin.

Use can use a multi-meter continuity function to confirm the switching pair of wires...

You either created an electrical short though the switch trying to make the LED work, or you pushed high amp loads though the switch.

The relay side of the equation shouldn't matter because that entire load is isolated from the switch itself unless your brother somehow managed to wire that incorrectly allowing the load current to pass though the switch.

It very well could be some type of manufacturing defect, but my money is on the install.

As an example... if you are switching positive to activate the relay, then the LED + circuit can be wired to the output of the switch so it turns on/off with the load, but the LED negative leg needs to have its own ground.

 

[MaddoxPics]

Yeah it's odd. My brother runs these on his truck too and wired his the same way, hasn't had any issues, so he's lost at why this is happening. I guess I'm safe to assume, being we did this early in the AM after work that night, that somewhere something got wired wrong. Just not sure where.

At least I didn't start a fire. Thank God for that.

 

[Bumbo]

Yeah it's odd. My brother runs these on his truck too and wired his the same way, hasn't had any issues, so he's lost at why this is happening. I guess I'm safe to assume, being we did this early in the AM after work that night, that somewhere something got wired wrong. Just not sure where.

At least I didn't start a fire. Thank God for that.

I've consumed enough Chinese electrical components to give your brother the benefit of the doubt, which is why I included the possibility of a manufacturing defect, but also mentioned testing the component before use.

The key take away from my post should be confirm and test on the bench before use, and use a multi-meter to confirm what goes where before connecting it all up.

Even if the website says for 3 amp loads, I wouldn't not want to pass anything greater than 500ma, or basically use it only to pass a signal to a relay.

 

[e60ral]

at this point i think your best bet is to just pull new wires, at least for this switch part, and double check the wiring on the relay/load side

 

[MaddoxPics]

Being I know nothing, I'll probably bring it to a shop or have one of my local guys check it out being they do this stuff from time to time and hopefully we can figure out what's going on. Hopefully it's something simple.

 

[MaddoxPics]

Think I figured the problem out. The Baja Squadrons wiring don't have a relay, and I guess somehow he thought it did. So that's going to be it I'm assuming.

 

[Bumbo]

Think I figured the problem out. The Baja Squadrons wiring don't have a relay, and I guess somehow he thought it did. So that's going to be it I'm assuming.

Amazing...

I don't think I have ever purchased a 12v accessory that came with an internal relay... it should be assumed that you would need to add one if you didn't buy one from BD

It should have also been obvious just looking at the light, because you probably had no more than a 2 pin connector.

No offense to your brother but with the years worth of experience he has, he should have instantly picked up on that.

 

[MaddoxPics]

We were doing it late at night along with the LED bar which has one. I’m guessing going back and forth between the two is what did it. Regardless he said he should have caught it too.

 

[Bumbo]

We were doing it late at night along with the LED bar which has one. I’m guessing going back and forth between the two is what did it. Regardless he said he should have caught it too.

I get it was a late night mistake but I was just giving you a hard time because these are precisely the types of mistakes one should be picking up. No idea how one runs power/load wiring into a cab, let alone the wire size difference between power cable (16-12 AWG) and signal cable which is generally 20-24 AWG.

Out of curiosity... which LED light bar did you use? I've gone though my fair share of lighting accessories and I have never seen one before that had in integral relay.

Its such an odd wiring configuration to see in a 12v accessory... I know plenty that come with a wiring hardness that has an external relay, but never one with a built in relay which is why I am curious.

You would need at least 3 wires coming out of the light bar in order for that to work... Positive, Ground, and a 12v Trigger that also shares the same ground circuit internally. This is why I said it would have been obvious because you only had a 2 pin connector on the Squadrons.

 

[MaddoxPics]

I get it was a late night mistake but I was just giving you a hard time because these are precisely the types of mistakes one should be picking up. No idea how one runs power/load wiring into a cab, let alone the wire size difference between power cable (16-12 AWG) and signal cable which is generally 20-24 AWG.

Out of curiosity... which LED light bar did you use? I've gone though my fair share of lighting accessories and I have never seen one before that had in integral relay.

Its such an odd wiring configuration to see in a 12v accessory... I know plenty that come with a wiring hardness that has an external relay, but never one with a built in relay which is why I am curious.

You would need at least 3 wires coming out of the light bar in order for that to work... Positive, Ground, and a 12v Trigger that also shares the same ground circuit internally. This is why I said it would have been obvious because you only had a 2 pin connector on the Squadrons.

I have a 30" 2D Pro Series ExtremeLED bar. From what I read on their website it has a harness. I better email them just to double check because now you have me second guessing what I read.