BoarderM

Sorry but I don't have any pictures. This happened in the parking lot at work and rendered the car dead in the water. It was towed to my dealership right away. I'm kicking myself now for not getting any pictures as the insurance co. and the dealership have probably taken everything apart now.

Thanks. Is the NHTSA only for the USA? If so, is there a Canadian equivalent? BoarderM

Hi All, The other day when I went to turn on my ignition, smoke started to billow out from behind the dash on my 2000 outback. I quickly turned it off before a big fire started. It turned out the smoke was coming from the area of my fusebox. I pulled the little coin tray out and took a look inside. There's a thick bundle of wires that I think run from my dash to the fuse box and it was positioned right up against a sharp gold colored metal part of the car. The bundle of wires was basically sandwiched between the metal part and the little pull down tray. I guess everytime the tray was pulled out, it would cause the bundle to chafe a bit more. The chafing caused a big short circuit and burned most of the wires in the bundle. I have lost most electrical functions such as dash instruments, power window, fan, and electronic shift. The car is at the dealership undergoing diagnostics to find the full extend of the damage. I have never had my electrical system worked on before. No aftermarket stereo or alarm have ever been installed. It came from the factory like this. I bought the outback in part with saftey in mind so this is quite distressing. This situation was very dangerous as I could have been driving down the highway with my 2 year old in the back when this happened. Has anyone heard of this happening before? Thanks