I used to drive a tow truck and towed more than a few burned VWs. Reaching underneath them to hook them up was always fun as it was usually still dripping with sooty smelly water from the fire dept.
Depends upon the actual cause. If you are able to find out what shorted out and it is economically feasible to fix, then I would fix it. All joking aside, yours is the first post that I have seen with an electrical fire in the fuse box.
User error. Since I get accused of being a Prius Apologist, I thought I should be the first one to start the accusations. Tom
Re: car fire, short in wires No big updates. I filed a claim with the insurance company and they said they only cover second hand damage not the reason for the damage. Therefore it is up to me for the repairs. The dealer can't find the short in the wiring and just wants to rewire the car. To replace the wiring would be several thousands of dollars and seems to me overkill instead of finding the short. Sure one solutions is to replace everything but that doesn't answer what the short was or where it is at. The $400 charged to determine that the car has a wiring problem is a poor statement on the dealers part, dah, I know the car has a wiring problem that is why there was a n electrical fire. I thought they would of used a volt meter and at figure which circuit is was that failed. now I have an expensive brick that just sits there...
I would try another tech if possible. I agree that isn't a very good answer from the dealer. If it is a dead short and they actually saw it when you brought it to them, they should be able to find the component that is shorted or trace it to the section of harness that is shorted. However, this type of troubleshooting can be very time consuming.
Re: car fire, short in wires You said that the fire and smoke came from the main relay/fuse box that is located near the inverter. Can you remove the cover and take a look inside? When looking at the box, is it obvious where the source of the fire was? If so could you take clear digital pictures, and post. If you can figure out which circuit caused the fire, then you can start to narrow down the areas that might be at fault. If the fire was severe enough and the wires leading to the main relay/fuse box were destroyed, I can understand the dealer wanting to replace the entire wiring harness, which would cost several thousand $s as you indicated.
You have a LOT to learn! Try to hang around me more often The Ford work truck at my hobby farm, I had to rewire absolutely everything around 10 years ago. Put in an aftermarket MSD ignition system, suddenly it ran way better
Re: car fire, short in wires Why not try calling Toyota Customer Service? I believe the toll free number is listed in your Owners' Manual. You could complain about the dealer's lack of a diagnosis for $400 and the fact that our car simply went up in smoke for no apparent reason. Beyond that, maybe a free chat with an attorney might be worthwhile.
Wild nice person guess: Heck, it might not even be a wiring problem. It could be a problem with the inverter sending too much juice down the line or something.
Of course if someone *did* have any aftermarket electrical stuff installed, that would be the first place to look.
