My truck caught on fire, need help

Nissan11

Nissan11

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2005
Location
Marston, NC
This evening I was towing a trailer with my 02 frontier and about 20 minutes from home I noticed the left blinker would not work when I applied the brake. The blinker would blink, but when I touched the brake the left turn signal light just stayed on. I thought that a light on the trailer was out and it was no big deal. When I got home, I dropped the trailer and went up the road to CVS and I noticed I was experiencing the same problem. As I pulled into the parking lot, a green light came on in my dash that said "set" which is for my cruise control. I thought this was impossible since my clock spring is broken and no controls on my steering wheel work. ( I still dont know how or if this is related to the fire)
Anyway, I pulled into the lot and walked back behind the truck and saw a small fire. I turned the truck off and the fire burned out quickly before I could even grab my fire extenguisher. But for a few seconds, that little box burned like it was full of gasoline. This is the damage:



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What is that box and how could it have caught fire? Isnt this what fuses are supposed to prevent?

I cut all the wires (4 or 5) going into the box (there were only 2 that werent burned through) and wrapped them in tape to keep them from touching. My brake lights and reverse lights still work, only the rear driving lights dont work now. Also the lights for my guages dont work but the warning lights do because my ABS light is still on. How can those wires affect my guages? Should I be safe if I just replace that box/module/whatever it is? What is the purpose of that box?
 
The box is for your trailer lights...They would be tied back to signal wires
 
because your guage lights share some of the same circuitry as the turn signals....and the trailer box is connected to them. It sounds to me like something shorted and never blew a fuse.......lots of current equals lots of heat...and fire.
 
see under your bed where the harness for that box plugs into those 2 gray connectors........ now unplug those and remove the box then connect the 2 connectors on the truck together and that will get the truck lights back to normal.the reason you have no gauge lights is hopefully the tail lamp fuse has blown. that black box is a turn signal converter for yor trailer plug. you most likley have a short on the trailer that started it all
 
That box looks like an aftermarket one as well.. Shouldn't be too hard to get a replacement.

Once you get the truck sorted, ya may want to check the wiring on your trailer with a standalone power supply, something on there may have caused the issue in the first place.. make sure the supply wire is fused (or use a circuit breaker, since I have a feeling you're going to find a short)
 
I went to napa and bought a new "wiring kit which comes with the 2 plugs, the box and the 4 way flat plug for the trailer. It was 50 bucks! All the kits for chevy, toyota and ford were only 20 bucks and didnt have the box.The old kit had a fuse between the box and the trailer plug but it was not blown. The new kit I just installed does not have a fuse. I checked the wiring on the trailer which is easy since its an open trailer, and all the wiring looks fine. The ground up front has some rust, could a bad ground have caused the problem? Also, my tail light fuse was blown, I replaced it and they work now.
 
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