TWillz

My dome light fuse recently blew and I just got around to replacing it yesterday. I looked up the location in my owners manual, pulled the blown fuse and put in a new replacement of the correct size (#10 red)

After putting the fuse box cover back on, replacing the engine cover and the plastic rivets that hold it on etc, closed the hood and went to open my driver's side door to make sure lights etc were working which they were.

Then I started smelling burnt plastic, and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I thought it was somewhere in the interior, but then realized that it was coming from the running board! I closed the driver's door and that's when I noticed that the rear running board light housing had smoke BILLOWING out of it very thick.

As fast as I could, I popped the hood, removed engine cover and then the replacement fuse (which didn't blow by the way) and a few minutes later the smoke stopped.

Talk about a heart attack! I'm not sure what exactly caused it to start on fire as I have never had any problems with the running board lights etc...

I disconnected the power from the running board assembly and re-installed the fuse and all other components are working correctly. I guess I will have to pull the running board off and get in there to replace the light housing etc. Does anyone happen to know that part number off hand?

Any help appreciated!

NTH

Wow, that is scary. Did you ever find out the cause?

ace911

I would be interested to know what started melting/burning first? was it the light in the running board, or the wires going to it? So the dome light is ok? but possible the running board elect was shorted and caused the og problem....hey just throwing things out there....gonna have to go buy a fire extinguisher now.

TWillz

I haven't had a chance to take the running board off yet - so the cause is still unknown. It was in the rear light housing though. I just have it disconnected from power right now and everything else is working fine ( dome light, door chime, etc.). I will post pictures once I get a chance to pull it and investigate.

allwheels

There must be a wire shorted to ground in there. I don't really know how the wiring is routed through the running board, but it shouldn't be too hard to find once you take it apart! Good luck, post up some pics, i'm curious to see it!

rico501

Same thing happend to me ... so now I'm scared to replace the connector just in case it happens again.. connector was melting ! It happened as soon as I replaced fuse for some light