So, I just spent all Sunday performing a complete headlamp change to Halogens, complete with relay control. All went well...intitally.
On completion I went trhough a set of tests, checking that 4 high beams / 2 Low beams worked BUT not at the same time. The flash worked. All was good.
I waited for it to go dark, then went out for a drive. I went to the prom where its pitch black and got out to study the beam aim etc... spent a while doing this, decided the offside main beam was out, got back in the car and came home via a shop. while in the shop the lights were on park. By this time I had been out 15 mins or so. Came out and drove back to my house which is about 0.5 mile. Within seconds I could smell burning, looked at the dash board and the alternator light was flickering on and off... I pulled straight over and smoke poured out from the front of the bonnet. Worse, there were flames coming out from the outer headlight and round the indicator lens.
I quickly turned off the discarnect battery connection removing all battery power only to find the flames would not go out. Yikes.. I did not have an extinguisher.... and the flames kept coming.
I then rang the local fire brigade.... my wife as by then I was only 150 yards from home. Got her to bring a CO2 extinguisher out. That quickly put out the flames.
I then thought it must have been something I did with the wiring which I new was a separate circuit, so I made sure it was completely isolated, and started her up... to my suprise no problem so I drove home.
Once I had calmed down I went back out to survey the damage. It quickly became evident it was something to do with the offside headlight as all else looked OK. Then when I removed the headlamp all was revealed. I could see that behind the main grill all my wiring was exatly as it was, no signs of any damage or anything, which was a relief as I feared the main loom would be melted. But the headlamp was a mess.
It was clear the problem was totally in the bowl, as outside the bowl all was normal. When I made the change to the headlights, I purchased a H4 loom from Paddocks. It turns out this loom was the problem. The pins on the back stick out and are not insulated. As My bowls are original and metal this was a problem as clearly they were mm's away from touching and of course that was that.
I can't believe they supply a harness as poor as that. On the one hand the metal bowl caused an issue as it was a great ground that a plastic bowl would not have been. On the other, the metal bowl acted as a great firewall. The plastich bowl would just melt and created more fire.
What was the main fuel of the fire? The rubber boot that goes on the back of the reflector. Nothing left of that.. quire flamable... also not very clever. Which leads me to a question. Is that boot really meant to go round the bulb? Those bulbs get very very hot and as the boot is flamable, thats a bit poor.
IMG_1805.JPG
IMG_1804.JPG
IMG_1806.JPGIMG_1807.JPGIMG_1808.JPG
Hopefully my paint is not too bad... can't really tell at the moment due t all the soot.
Next weekends job is now lined up but not what I thought it would be...
Dave
On completion I went trhough a set of tests, checking that 4 high beams / 2 Low beams worked BUT not at the same time. The flash worked. All was good.
I waited for it to go dark, then went out for a drive. I went to the prom where its pitch black and got out to study the beam aim etc... spent a while doing this, decided the offside main beam was out, got back in the car and came home via a shop. while in the shop the lights were on park. By this time I had been out 15 mins or so. Came out and drove back to my house which is about 0.5 mile. Within seconds I could smell burning, looked at the dash board and the alternator light was flickering on and off... I pulled straight over and smoke poured out from the front of the bonnet. Worse, there were flames coming out from the outer headlight and round the indicator lens.
I quickly turned off the discarnect battery connection removing all battery power only to find the flames would not go out. Yikes.. I did not have an extinguisher.... and the flames kept coming.
I then rang the local fire brigade.... my wife as by then I was only 150 yards from home. Got her to bring a CO2 extinguisher out. That quickly put out the flames.
I then thought it must have been something I did with the wiring which I new was a separate circuit, so I made sure it was completely isolated, and started her up... to my suprise no problem so I drove home.
Once I had calmed down I went back out to survey the damage. It quickly became evident it was something to do with the offside headlight as all else looked OK. Then when I removed the headlamp all was revealed. I could see that behind the main grill all my wiring was exatly as it was, no signs of any damage or anything, which was a relief as I feared the main loom would be melted. But the headlamp was a mess.
It was clear the problem was totally in the bowl, as outside the bowl all was normal. When I made the change to the headlights, I purchased a H4 loom from Paddocks. It turns out this loom was the problem. The pins on the back stick out and are not insulated. As My bowls are original and metal this was a problem as clearly they were mm's away from touching and of course that was that.
I can't believe they supply a harness as poor as that. On the one hand the metal bowl caused an issue as it was a great ground that a plastic bowl would not have been. On the other, the metal bowl acted as a great firewall. The plastich bowl would just melt and created more fire.
What was the main fuel of the fire? The rubber boot that goes on the back of the reflector. Nothing left of that.. quire flamable... also not very clever. Which leads me to a question. Is that boot really meant to go round the bulb? Those bulbs get very very hot and as the boot is flamable, thats a bit poor.
IMG_1805.JPG
IMG_1804.JPG
IMG_1806.JPGIMG_1807.JPGIMG_1808.JPG
Hopefully my paint is not too bad... can't really tell at the moment due t all the soot.
Next weekends job is now lined up but not what I thought it would be...
Dave
Comment