I must admit this one has me stumped. Corolla low beam headlight socket burning out, with clear evidence of overheating in one contact only. Headlamp and socket have been replaced twice. Any ideas?
Kevin Gallimore
Same lot number on socket?
Socket not fully seated on pins or blades?
I'm winchester now.
Wes
-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller
mattathayde had written this in response to
------------------------------------- axolotl wrote:
if your replacing the socket and it keeps burning out i would look towards the fuse/relay because it may be incorrect or bad and allowing to much current passing to the socket
-matt
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Can't be. The lamp determines the current draw. Are these OEM bulbs or did someone put in overwatt bulbs. This WILL fry sockets as they are designed to be "adequate" for the stock bulb - but not with a lot of safety margin.for "super-brite" replacement bulbs.
On Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:16:09 -0400, the infamous axolotl scrawled the following:
Which contact? If it's the ground terminal (suspected), check the grounding on it. Does the wiring get hot, too? See if someone put a junction in it with a crimp-on inline jumper after an accident or something. When I worked as a wrench in a body shop, I soldered and taped all splices, but I saw re-wrecked autos where other body men had used crimp terminals. Fools!
Can you get to the headlight switch? If so, does it get hot when the lights are on?
What year model is it, and what bulb?
-- It's a great life...once you weaken. --author James Hogan
On Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:13:09 +0000, the infamous matt_at_athayde_dot snipped-for-privacy@foo.com (mattathayde) scrawled the following:
So you think that fuses and relays can pump too much current to a normal bulb, do you, Matt? That's really interesting. Where'd you learn your electrical theory?
I = E/R. (I=V/R) It's the law!
-- It's a great life...once you weaken. --author James Hogan
Poor crimp at the terminal for the bulb socket - possibly a few strands hanging out, restricts current flow, gets hot, is dissipated in socket and cooks it. Has it been in a crash and badly repaired . "Assemblers" dont have much electrical knowledge. Do a visual on the wiring of the affected pin, you will see if its cooked, replace the wire, back to a good length in the loom. And as someone has already said, solder then heat shrink the new wiring. Andrew VK3BFA. Oh, and ask the Toyota dealership if there has been a service bulletin on this problem...
Lamp is the basic current determining unit - but if you have a bad cable going back and it comes on / off on bumps - it would blink the beam and the surge current to light - about 10x run current would then overheat the socket.
That is my take.
Mart> >
Have both been replaced at the same time? An overheated socket can burn the lamp contact pin to a higher resistance state, so it will overheat the new socket and burn it, and so one.
Other than that -- have you tried a clamp-on DC ammeter to see what the current are through the wires -- and compared them to the ones in the other headlamp? It might be that someone put a high-wattage lamp in that one side -- higher than the connector was designed for.
Good Luck, DoN.
I've had this effect before, also on fuses, etc. where there is significant power draw.
solutions:
Make sure that when you install the new bulb, you are pushing it straight in, not at an angle. You could be angling it in and distorting a contact enough to cause a bad connection.
axolotl wrote:
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