Thank you!

The first burnt 500e I've seen & it has nothing to do with the battery!

It would be great if you could post a pic inside the hood.

The Power Inverter Module (PIM) is what supplies power to the motor, so if it fried the first thing that should happen is the car would stop. It's also sealed in a water-cooled metal box.

By any chance does it have LED headlights? If so, you might want to swap OEMs back in before any insurance inspection. They're in a heat-trapping flammable plastic box, & my LEDs get pretty warm. Not warm enough (yet 🤞) to even come close to melting the plastic, but as after-market parts, every brand & model is different, so some would get hotter than others.

 

 

hope this forum accepts big pics...

 

QUOTE="jimairth, post: 1318769, member: 124260"]
hope this forum accepts big pics...
[/QUOTE]
Can you post some pictures of the burned hole? Looks to me like the fire started in the daytime running light. Did you have the DRL enabled? Thanks.

 

QUOTE="jimairth, post: 1318769, member: 124260"]
hope this forum accepts big pics...

Can you post some pictures of the burned hole? Looks to me like the fire started in the daytime running light. Did you have the DRL enabled? Thanks.
[/QUOTE]
Wife always uses headlights, so yes headlights were on

 

Thanks for the pics! It does look like the fire originated in the DRL/headlight assembly, as I suspected.

I drive with my headlights always on because it seems to help people see this tiny car. I wouldn't think an LED DRL would create enough heat like an LED headlight might, but an easy driver-side pic like this would show us if the headlights are OEM or LED:

The cover twists off easily by hand, rotating counterclockwise as viewed from the driver's seat.

& maybe a pic of the headlight switch, to see if they were on.

 

I would be willing to bet his STOCK headlight connector torched. I just had to replace BOTH the connectors on my 500E last month. one headlight went out I bought bulbs. Went to replace and could not get connector out of the dead bulb. It had melted together and it was a OEM connector. I noticed the driver side one had been replaced at the time, so I bought a pair(thankfully) of new connectors. Replaced the pass side and both bulbs. A week later the drivers side went out. opened up and the replaced connector had failed at the solder joint. Pulled the second connector out, made sure to interlace wires and solder and use heavy heat shrink for strain relief.

BOTH connectors I removed showed obvious signs of excessive heat/burning with stock oem bulbs in place. Damage on this car in thread looks centered around the headlight so based on my experience and what I see it looks pretty clear to be headlight/connector/wire failure.

 

I've had the same experience. Both bulbs have gone out and when they did, they were melted into the connector. I found high-temp connectors and haven't had the same melting issue since.

 

Sorry for your lost there. Glad everyone made it out safe.

 

Think I'll add a fire extinguisher to my back seat after seeing this! Also going to read about the battery disconnect under the rear seat. Just picked up my 2014 500e last week and already disconnected my humidity sensor based on this forum! 10 mm wrench is at the ready, too.

 

Congrats …. A great bunch of friendly helpful people inhabit the forum … enjoy your 500e.

 

OOPS! I forgot to mention that before HV disconnect you must open the hood & left door & don't open or close anything else for the entire process (to avoid the "wake up" signal) remove the key, & wait 3+ minutes for "sleep" mode. Then the official service procedure is disconnect HV, disconnect 12V, reconnect HV, reconnect 12V.

 

I’ve never seen any EV 500’s start on fire. Chevy Bolts, and smart car ED’s. A few ICE 500’s, have been toasted crispy!

 

 

 

More pics, looks like an A/C line rupture from condenser and headlight connector looks fine. DLR is completely missing/
melted/burned up

 

Which charts? Electric car sales? Because overall the Fiat 500E couldnt lead the overall car sales, only if it would include the ICE sales

Not sure what your asking there!

 

Can somebody post a pic of the battery disconnect under the rear seat? It sounds like this a good thing to know just in case. Thank you.

 

"Click to enlarge" version here:

If possible, before disconnecting try to go 2 minutes with the key out & no door/hatch opening, so the car is "asleep":

 

So do we really know what caused this car to catch fire at this point, given that he H/L connector seems intact?

 

Long-shot, looked at the pics. What do the wires going into the headlight connector look like? When mine melted, it wasn't immediately obvious from the outside. Maybe stuff got hot at that interface and the fire spread down the insulation on the wiring?

IDK tho, just sayin' my headlight connectors were melted to f* when I took them out thinking I was about to replace some bulbs. Had to replace them both, and used ceramic.

 

so shoudl the front headlights be replaced from oem? suprised this isn't a recall item?

 

Any one have a part number for headlight connector ?

 

My Fiat 500e had the same issue only I caught it in time. The wiring harness connector shorted out and when it finally blew the headlamp, it was damaged beyond a simple light replacement. The entire mechanism has to be replaced to the tune of $1,100. The car is a 2013 and so far this and the constant parasitic drain it caused have been my only issues. This situation looks incredibly similar to me only yours caught fire.

 

This looks like it might be a much less costly way to fix it, if you catch it in time:

Headlight short? The bulb is fused to the jack