burnt wires (pics)

[bcr4d]

Hello again: I posted a thread about a month ago about my headlights not working on my 88 carerra. Car has been stored all winter and now I'm in the process of fixing little things before it gets warm. I removed the head lamps and noticed the wires looked like they probably overheated. If you look real close, the black part of the wires appear to have soot on them. What would cause this and what is the proper name fore these wires, cost, etc. thanks

[Zeke]

Hopefully that's not what it appears to be. sometimes dirt appears in such a way as to look like smoke or a burn. Just remove the lights and check the wires carefully. Check your ground connections. Unless you're running some bodacious amped up lamps, I wouldn't worry. That's not the end that usually sees the smoke. A headlight relay is a good investment.

[Ron.G]

Thats just the rubber leaching into the wire jacket. Mine looked just like that. I see no problems in the buckets from your pictures.

[autobonrun]

It's hard to tell from the photo, but check the end of the rubber grommet where the wire comes out. If it is overheating, the rubber doesn't have near the temperature resistance as the wire coating and the end of the rubber grommet will be disfigured and brittle. The rest will be soft.

If so, it depends on how close the connection is to that spot. One cause of a wire heating up is corrosion at the connection. The corrosion increases resistance and heat gets generated. You may want to go in and clean the connections removing any buildup.

I think the black stuff on top of the grommet is just dirt buildup.

[bcr4d]

thanks for all the quick replys. I'm just trying to narrow down every possibility before I take it to my independent.

[Grady Clay]

Billy,




The only sign of heat I see is at the lamp connection (green arrows).
That is fairly common and can be addressed by cleaning the terminals
and connector. No big deal.

I agree about the contamination from the “gummi” rubber
(black arrow). That is from the rubber and not burning.

I would be interested in what is under the tape (blue arrows).
Are those splices?

Best,
Grady

[Zeke]

Good eye, Grady. But that's not really why I'm responding. I like what you have in your sig line. I think correct answers are worth a bit more than that. And, you have a lot of them.

[bcr4d]

Grady: the reason I placed the tape there was because the wires in that location had the same appearance of being overheated. I placed the electrical tape there so the wires there wouldn't rub. Chasing electrical problems is a pain. It all started by my left tail light not working. I replaced the fuse and the tail light started working, at the expense of the headlights not working. I'm totally