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View Full Version : What's wrong now? lol



Chantastic
10-28-2011, 06:23 PM
Ok, so I am selling some extra pop up assemblies tomorrow and I wanted to double check that they still work. That meant pulling one of mine out so I could get to the plug. Everything was going smoothly until I tried to unplug the rubber connector from the back of the head lamp. It was stuck! Beyond stuck! Now I should mention that I am running Bosch H4 conversion units. After a minute of struggle, I had a look and found the problem. The rubber/plastic housing around one of the prongs has MELTED!

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k437/b000stin/DSCN1547.jpg

Closer look with the rubber cup pulled back
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k437/b000stin/DSCN1549.jpg

I tried to cut through the new bond, but with no luck. I worked around everything and got what I needed to do done. But what happened/why did it melt?? A not so brief history first:

Around two years ago now, my car was hit on the driver side, while parked in front of my house :(. Anyways when the car was fixed, I milked the situation dj_rice style. Before the accident, neither of my headlights would come up, unless you hit the button to pop them up and just lock them in place. The bodyshop owner noticed this, and sent the car off to get it fixed at an unknown electrical shop. Now, after one click of the lights, they both pop up which they shouldn't but the driving lights come as they are supposed too. Two flicks of the switch, and the headlamps light up too. One switch off, and the headlamps go off but the motors stay up along with the driving lights. To be honest, this is fine by me, as long as they work.

Then I went and got me an hid kit. Everything was jolly except that my driver side was way brighter than the passenger side. I thought it just needed to be aimed properly, but after fiddling with it with no changes, I determined it wasn't the aiming that was off. Soon after, the driver side head lamp died. I replaced the ballast and all was good. Then it died again. I'm not sure if this was related but the lamp had a crack in it, and water had gotten in. Instead of trying to fix it again, this time I ripped the whole kit out and switched back to the H4 bulbs.

The driver side H4, like the hid was, is way brighter than the passenger side. And now I found out stuff is getting melted. What's going on? I am not good with electronics/wiring but will try my best to understand whatever you guys say haha

RickDaTuner
10-28-2011, 09:34 PM
The connector where it plugs into the back of the head light bulb is worn out or loose.
This is common on older cars, and they sell replacement pigtail wiring just for this reason.
With it being loose like this, it created a great deal of resistance, and where there is high resistance, there is heat. I'm sure that if you were to record a video of that harness while the car was driven, you would see sparks coming out of that connector every time you hit a bump.
It doesn't take long for it to heat up and melt the rubber and the plug itself.

Using the higher watt bulb, and HID ballast only made things worse, more amps + the resistance = way, way more heat.

So like I mentioned, you will need to go and buy a H4 headlight harness repair pigtail, cut the old one out and solder in the replacement.
Make sure that you also use quality heat shrink tubing with the built in glue cores, so it makes everything water tight.

Best of luck

dj_rice
10-28-2011, 09:45 PM
I believe they are places that sell a heavier duty H4 harness plug for these kind of occasions

Chantastic
10-29-2011, 01:54 AM
Thanks for the info guys, helps alot! I don't remember exactly how the wiring works, but I have a suspicion that the harness has a short wire length and connects to a plastic connector thing (not sure what they're called lol) not too far down at all if memory serves correctly. Rather than repairing it, I suppose I could just replace the entire unit with with another oem one. Of course it might not last long either, but it would be easier than soldering in a new one (or at least it's something I can do myself).

Anyone got one of those kicking around? I used to have one but I'm pretty sure I threw it out a long time ago now...

Chantastic
10-29-2011, 01:55 AM
Originally posted by dj_rice
I believe they are places that sell a heavier duty H4 harness plug for these kind of occasions

Would NAPA and those kind of places have them? And would they need to be Nissan specific?

sr20s14zenki
10-29-2011, 05:48 AM
Wouldnt neeed to be car specific, just need to solder in as mentioned. Its just the plug and a short set of wires.

take your bulb to make sure you get the right one

Chantastic
10-29-2011, 11:47 AM
Ohhh sorry I took that the wrong way. I thought dj_rice meant I could get a full harness with the 3 prong holes on one end and then connector on the other end that would plug into my oem stuff