Simple clean the headlight project ... YIKES !

[roodog911]

First off it's an 84 Carrera , One of several simple winter projects, clean the fog from inside the H5s, lead to a scare and another project.

When pulling the H5s and unplugging the sockets I found that the sockets on both headlights had melted(?) . I"m sure these were not original equipment, by the way they were wired in it was done by a PO.

Left ...



Right ...




The socket wiring was soldered to the harness and wrapped in electrical tape.



There are three ground leads one of which has (had) an unused female connector wrapped in a fabric type tape, which had grown stiff from age and heat, I presume. These connectors have now been eliminated.




The damage is limited to the center (low beam contact) with heaviest damage to the right (negative) contact.

There is no evidence of any heating on the wires at the fuse panel.



I have replaced the plugs with new plugs designed for the Sylvania 9004 (45-65w bulbs which are in the lights) or 9007 . The mfr claims a temperature rating to 482* F.

The connections were made using inline butt connectors with shrink wrap for moisture and insulation protection.



Could this have been caused by the unused female connectors, wrapped in the fabric type tape, shorting against the headlight bucket or do you have any other thoughts on what I should be looking for.

Thanks for any of your thoughts on this and your guidance.

BTW the headlights cleaned up great thanks to the help from this forum.

Willie

[JeremyD]

Make sure you have relays on the headlights - even with stock wattage bulbs.

Look up marcus suco or daniel stern lighting.

They are a weak point on these cars.

[roodog911]

"Could this have been caused by the unused female connectors, ... shorting against the headlight bucket "

Thinking about this last night , after posting I feel a bit dumb, this could only have added an additional intermittant ground, correct?

Thanks for the response Jeremy, I actually have a JWest relay here, from our host, which I'd planned to install as part of the headlight project ... the melted and burned sockets got me side tracked.

I hesitated, because I've read in various posts that the relays, while reducing the the current to the stalk, might actually supply a bit more power to the bulbs. I feared that might exagerate another undiscovered problem .

One of the first repairs, when I purchased the car, was to replace a mal-functioning dimmer/turn signal stalk, possibly the socket issue was related to that.

I'll get the relays in this weekend and hope they resolve the issue ...

Willie

[partrin]

roodog,

I had this happen a couple of years ago when I put in some 'hot' bulbs. I thought that I was being conservative at 64W/45W.........but I ended up with melted / burnt sockets. I was able to source the replacements - but don't recall if it was a new or PartsHeaven deal. Back to stock bulbs for me!

Oh, by the way - FS: One pair 65/45 W bulbs..........caveat emptor!

[avendlerdp]

That burning is not caused by the heat of the bulbs. It's due to a dirty or corroded connection getting hot due to increased resistance. If it was the heat from the bulb, the whole plug would melt, not just one contact. If it was due to the bulb drawing too much current, you would fry the wire long before the plug. This happens a lot on out cars because the h/l bucket is not well sealed allows moisture to enter and promote corrosion.

Use a dielectric grease when assembling and this problem should not reoccur. Oh, and use a relay kit so your headlight switch lasts more than a year.

[JeremyD]

One of the reasons that I upgraded to H4's was the metal bulb retainer. I think it makes more sense.

Daniel Stern lighting has a bunch of these connectors -

[roodog911]

Sorry for the delayed follow up - work , a swap meet and some family obligations kept me away from the forum Friday and Saturday ... Sunday was Porsche time.

I got the JWest relay in yesterday, thanks to avendlerdp's suggestion I used some dialectric grease on the contacts.

I agree that the whole socket would have had burn marks if the issue was just heat from the bulb, and there are way to many owners using higher wattage bulbs to think that heat would have caused the problem with an all Bosch install.

With fingers crossed the problem won't reoccur.

A change over to H4s is not in the budget at this time, I spent a bit more than I'd intended at the swap meet and still want to flush my brake system and install braided lines before the driving season gets into full swing.

As a side note I've been having a devil of a time getting the trim ring to fit properly over the new gaskets I installed. The ring does want to fit down over the raised rib of the gasket properly. By trial and error I've adjusted the location of the headkight frame in the bucket and it's better, but not perfect. It seems as though the trim ring doesn't want to fit over the raised rib of the gasket, along the sides. Possibly I need to put a bit of lubricant on the gaskets and keep trying.

Willie

[roodog911]

Just found a thread with some sugestions regarding the fit of the trim ring and gasket ...

H4's keep popping off. What can I do?

Willie