Headlight plugs melted

[BigRed76]

Last summer I upgraded my headlights with Hella headlight housings and 100W/80W H4 bulbs, and wired relays into the headlight harness for low beams and high beams. Fast forward a year later and my passenger headlight is out because the headlight connector has melted, bad. After looking at the driver side I noticed it's melted too. Are there any connectors I can used as a replacement that won't melt again? or is this just a consequence of too much current flow to my headlights?

[Square_78]

The headlight connector is melted at the back of the headlight? That's odd with a relay harness. Did you make the harness yourself? What gauge wire did you use? Did you just wire relays into the existing headlight wiring or did you make an entire new harness? The factory headlight plugs can't handle that kind of power so you need to make a whole new harness that takes power direct from the battery to the headlights and use your factory headlight plugs as the trigger for the relays. LMC sells these harnesses.
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[Square_78]

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[Hawssie]

check this listing I just bought on ebay 140984076348. But I agree if you upgraded your wiring with thicker gauge wire and added relays you shouldn't have a problem. I use 12 gauge. The problem with doing it yourself is the pigtails you can buy to make your own harness come with such small gauge wire you really need to start out with the bare connectors so you can start with 12 gauge right at the terminal.

[cdowns]

clean tight connections and establishing a great groound path for electricity to flow aare good for better operation and less heat

[71sixgun]

Do they run that hot temperature wise. It almost sounds like a high heat issue from the bulb rather than a current flow issue. What size fuse are you running? I would think the fuse would blow before you start melting wires. Keep us posted, I was going to install these headlights in mine. I want to know all about these things now!

[BigRed76]

Yes I wired relays into my factory harness. The relays are powered from the battery with a 12 gauge wire with a 20 amp fuse. And yes it's the connectors on the headlights themselves that are melted, but the wires are fine, none melted. I haven't double checked the grounds yet. I assumed it wasn't just heat from the bulbs causing it since each headlight has a rubber boot on the back and both of them are fine. It seems that the only weak point with wiring relays into the factory harness is the connectors.
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[Stocker]

The OEM headlamp wiring including switch is not designed to handle the current draw of your overwattage bulbs (which we all know, hence the relay upgrade), so maybe the connectors aren't up to the task either. Try something like these NAPA connectors: http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Ca...479_0334573974

[Hawssie]

did you look at the item number on EBAY 140984076348 ? I would paste it but I dont know how.

[BigRed76]

I would think the napa connectors are just an oem replacement, and would probably melt again. But I did just do a search on eBay for h4 connectors and I like the sounds of the ceramic connectors, that might be what I need.
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[BigRed76]

I think I'm going to order a pair of these, anyone see a reason they won't fix my problem?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ceramic-Auto...74016a&vxp=mtr

[68c10airstream]

Originally Posted by BigRed76

Last summer I upgraded my headlights with Hella headlight housings and 100W/80W H4 bulbs, and wired relays into the headlight harness for low beams and high beams. Fast forward a year later and my passenger headlight is out because the headlight connector has melted, bad. After looking at the driver side I noticed it's melted too. Are there any connectors I can used as a replacement that won't melt again? or is this just a consequence of too much current flow to my headlights?

Hi, your melted plugin is the issue and point of resistance. Resistance = heat. As a dealer mechanic and ASE master tech what i would suspect is connections of insufficient tension, causing resistance from not enough contact area. What i did through the years in situations like this was this, i would perform what i called connector drag test. Remove the male terminal from the harness, or in your case use only one terminal of the bulb and push it in and out and feel for a snug fit. Many times i had to squeeze the connection tighter. That way you know for sure each connection is adequate. I live in the rusty north so corrosion is another factor. When you are satisfied with the connections use dielectric grease to prevent tarnishing from oxygen exposure. I used to use pin gauges to test barrel connections. Mike the terminal diameter, say .030 and use the same size plus run a .035, and .025 into the barrel connector and you would know for sure the connection condition. Do your hella's have the rubber boot on the backside between bulb and harness? I suspect it keeps water out and routes heat away from plugin as the bulbs allow air to pass around the outside of the bulb. Good luck, Brian F.

[skorpioskorpio]

80-100 is a hot bulb, I'd use a ceramic connector if I were you, now if I were me, which I am, I'd also look for unassembled ceramics and use a high heat wire to the relay. It's not the high beam that is the problem it's using that hot of a low beam. Also make sure when you did your relays you didn't wire it to keep the low filament on when the highs go on, they should be *or* not *and*, the reflector will not handle 180 watts of halogen heat, no reflector can dissipate that much heat, even the best of the European reflectors. So which Hellas did you get convex or flat?

[BigRed76]

Originally Posted by skorpioskorpio

80-100 is a hot bulb, I'd use a ceramic connector if I were you, now if I were me, which I am, I'd also look for unassembled ceramics and use a high heat wire to the relay. It's not the high beam that is the problem it's using that hot of a low beam. Also make sure when you did your relays you didn't wire it to keep the low filament on when the highs go on, they should be *or* not *and*, the reflector will not handle 180 watts of halogen heat, no reflector can dissipate that much heat, even the best of the European reflectors. So which Hellas did you get convex or flat?

If you're referring to the front of the housings they are flat. I can find the part number if you'd like. I wired my relays so that when I turn my low beams on the headlight switch energizes the low beam relay, and when I hit the dimmer switch for my brights the headlight switch energizes the high beam relay. So as far as I know both relays aren't energized when my brights are on, unless the factory headlight switch is designed to leave the low beams on when the high beams are on.
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[skorpioskorpio]

Don't need the part number, I just got a full set of Marchal quads for my Jimmy project, was just curious, though I'd love to see pics of the flats on your truck. The Marchals I got are the dedicated meeting (lows) outer, main (Highs) inner lights, so no 2nd filament in the outers.

And no the factory wiring would use the shielded filament for lows and the open filament for high and on an E2 Hella it should be a completely different beam when you go from meeting to main with one focused flat with a ramp up the right side and the latter focused into a long range beam.

[70cst]

I am glad it didn't cause more issues.

Keep us updated

[Stocker]

Originally Posted by skorpioskorpio

I just got a full set of Marchal quads

Interesting, I didn't know they were still available. Do you mind saying where you bought them? I had a pair of 7" Marchals back in the day, very nice lamps. Sorry about the thread hijack but others may be interested also.

[BigRed76]

Originally Posted by 68c10airstream

Hi, your melted plugin is the issue and point of resistance. Resistance = heat. As a dealer mechanic and ASE master tech what i would suspect is connections of insufficient tension, causing resistance from not enough contact area. What i did through the years in situations like this was this, i would perform what i called connector drag test. Remove the male terminal from the harness, or in your case use only one terminal of the bulb and push it in and out and feel for a snug fit. Many times i had to squeeze the connection tighter. That way you know for sure each connection is adequate. I live in the rusty north so corrosion is another factor. When you are satisfied with the connections use dielectric grease to prevent tarnishing from oxygen exposure. I used to use pin gauges to test barrel connections. Mike the terminal diameter, say .030 and use the same size plus run a .035, and .025 into the barrel connector and you would know for sure the connection condition. Do your hella's have the rubber boot on the backside between bulb and harness? I suspect it keeps water out and routes heat away from plugin as the bulbs allow air to pass around the outside of the bulb. Good luck, Brian F.

I have no doubt that those connectors had more than the desired amount of resistance since they are original. As for corrosion, I never noticed any before, but I didn't thoroughly inspect them. And the rubber boots on the back seal around the back of the headlight housing and around the exposed part of the bulb right next to where the terminals are. So they are definitely there to keep out water/contaminants, and they seem more like silicon rather than rubber.
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[BigRed76]

Ordered a pair of ceramic connectors today, so hopefully they will take the heat.

[JellyBeanDriver]

Originally Posted by BigRed76

Ordered a pair of ceramic connectors today, so hopefully they will take the heat.

They will - they're made in a kiln after all.

Hopefully the terminal is high quality and the wire decent gauge. Everybody is getting cheap and skimping on quality and copper.

[BigRed76]

Originally Posted by JellyBeanDriver

They will - they're made in a kiln after all.

Hopefully the terminal is high quality and the wire decent gauge. Everybody is getting cheap and skimping on quality and copper.

Yeah depending on how the terminals look when I get them I may just get some OEM terminals and crimp them onto my existing wires.

[Hawssie]

I bought bare terminals from the same place I got the heat resistant plugs from. They say they will take 12 gauge wires. By the way don't try typical female spade type terminals you see at the hardware store. Not only will they not stay put in the plug ends but even if you ditched the plug ends and decided to hook them up as 3 individual connectors, they are not wide enough to fit onto the spade of the headlight.

[BigRed76]

Originally Posted by Hawssie

I bought bare terminals from the same place I got the heat resistant plugs from. They say they will take 12 gauge wires. By the way don't try typical female spade type terminals you see at the hardware store. Not only will they not stay put in the plug ends but even if you ditched the plug ends and decided to hook them up as 3 individual connectors, they are not wide enough to fit onto the spade of the headlight.

I did look at the ones on eBay that you posted, but decided to order some from a seller in the US so that I can get them fairly quickly.

[Hawssie]

I here ya. If I had seen the ones you found first, I would have done the same. At the time I was only looking for the terminal ends, and I added the plugs as a second thought just to make the shipping more sensible.

[BigRed76]

So a little update on this, I installed the ceramic headlight bulb connectors with a new pair of the same headlight bulbs I was running. Now 3 months later my passenger headlight is out again After inspecting it I found that the headlight bulb itself melted enough to cause the low beam terminal on the bulb to come apart. Since the connector is ceramic it was unharmed, but the plastic sheath around the ceramic did melt a little too. What is the deal here? Am I just not supposed to be running 100W bulbs?