We Needs Us A Wirin' Specialist!

[Johnny&Ruby]

Hi all. So the right side headlight went out on me AGAIN! You may or may not remember that I had some fun times with it during the summer, actually broke the housing while trying to replace it in July and eventually just let Glen at CCAutos do the job. He put in a whole new unit.

Well, with the recent rains a leak has apparently formed. Carpet on the drivers side is soaked. Ran into mararmeisto at Lordco yesterday (I was buying a replacement headlight) and he told me where I should seal... I've done that with Vaseline for now (borrowing a page from Ruby's leaky moonroof on her Golf, perhaps someone could recommend a more permanent type sealer?) but when I went to replace the light I found that one of the connective wires had rusted away, ah-like so...

wire.jpg (122.28 KiB) Viewed 4283 times

Sadly, it is not the wire that comes with the replacement halogen bulb. What do I do next? Crossing my fingers that the answer is not "get a whole new headlight assembly!" Thanks!

[jessef]

Just clean the contact area and replace the wire with a new one.

[fishslapper]

After you are done You can coat the connector with liquid electric tape and that will seal out any moisture. Then you won't have any further corrosion issues.

[Green1]

recommend soldering the connector, those were a bad crimp job (cheap manufacturing on the headlights, i had the same issue)

When properly soldered they should stay working

[mararmeisto]

recommend soldering the connector, those were a bad crimp job (cheap manufacturing on the headlights, i had the same issue)

When properly soldered they should stay working

And then goop it with liquid electrical tape (sealant).

[delica 304]

Ah, my bread and butter!

Inspect the remaining wire. If the wire looks cooked (brassy and black), you will need to replace the whole wire run. Probably not a bad idea, you can use a higher gauge wire that will be able to handle the amperage better- I've read some where that the factory wire is a little under rated (you'd have to do both sides then)

If the wire is still good, crimp and solder a new tab on it, cover the exposed metal bits with a bit of heat shrink tubing. If you want to go for extra points for style you can put some carbon conductive grease on the tab, which will not only help keep water out, but also prevent corrosion between dissimilar metals.

I have a bunch of the things I mentioned, you can PM me with you want a hand.

[Johnny&Ruby]

Thanks for the advice folks; sorry for taking so long to check the thread, it's been some kinda weekend.

Delica304, I will PM you regarding your offer, as I have no soldering / electrical skills. Will be interesting to see how it's done so I can prep for the next time / other projects.

[Johnny&Ruby]

Just to let y'all know, problem solved thanks to an assist from delica304 the soldering god! Course, now Juniper has one blue headlight (excellent) and one yellow headlight (still good, but not as good as the blue one - will have to replace that one later)... also, the application of windshield silicon has fixed up that leak nicely. Thanks all!

[delica 304]

It was my pleasure to help! It's good to hear that the silicone fixed the water ingress

Happy motoring!

(Soldering god, that's funny!)

[Create768]

Is your Halogen bulb Consumes less power than the other bulb that you are using/

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LED Flashlight

[Erebus]

Is your Halogen bulb Consumes less power than the other bulb that you are using/

Short of the HID, all headlights in the last 20 years are halogens. But there are 55w and 100w bulbs out there. Colour isn't really relevant to current draw.

[Green1]

But there are 55w and 100w bulbs out there. Colour isn't really relevant to current draw.

but wiring is... I wouldn't try a 100w bulb in our delicas... you might start a fire unless you've replaced all wiring from the battery to the bulb... (oh, and it's also illegal...)