Melted H1 harness.....
#1
Melted H1 harness.....
Now before anyone mentions it. Yes, I searched the forums specifically for this problem and found several threads dated back to 2007 addressing this issue. I have found the answers on how to resolve this issue. I've decided what better time than to just upgrade my low beams to HID.
However, while scanning all the threads pertaining to this problem. It appears there isn't a direct replacement available that's just like the 2 wire harness. From the looks of it, most are using a generic 1 wire harness and rigging the ground to something more solid such as the frame or the outside of the bulb housing. But I did a little googling "2 wire H1 harness" I found this website here.
Now, the question is has anyone heard of/used this website before? Is it really that serious when the intentions are to convert to HID anyways? I know the HID kits for bulb specific come with the options of just plug and play to the factory harness along with all the other goodies that come with it, but from what it sounds like these factory harnesses have issues with connectivity, creating resistance, creating heat, and eventually melting the socket. My concern is actually cutting, doing the hardwiring and if something happens within warranty time, it wont be honored. BTW, the current vehicle is a 2003 X-Type AWD you guess it melted harness.
Thanks for any input on this. Who likes warranties anyways.
However, while scanning all the threads pertaining to this problem. It appears there isn't a direct replacement available that's just like the 2 wire harness. From the looks of it, most are using a generic 1 wire harness and rigging the ground to something more solid such as the frame or the outside of the bulb housing. But I did a little googling "2 wire H1 harness" I found this website here.
Now, the question is has anyone heard of/used this website before? Is it really that serious when the intentions are to convert to HID anyways? I know the HID kits for bulb specific come with the options of just plug and play to the factory harness along with all the other goodies that come with it, but from what it sounds like these factory harnesses have issues with connectivity, creating resistance, creating heat, and eventually melting the socket. My concern is actually cutting, doing the hardwiring and if something happens within warranty time, it wont be honored. BTW, the current vehicle is a 2003 X-Type AWD you guess it melted harness.
Thanks for any input on this. Who likes warranties anyways.
#2
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Great Mills, MD
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MrSublime, having done a few HID conversions, I can probably answer most of your questions that you may have now and in the future.
As for the 2 wire/1 wire aspect, you really only need the 1 wire from inside the headlight harness. You simply need to get the power back out of the headlight assembly. Sure, you can pull the ground from inside of the harness, but the issue comes that the factory HID system adds a second ground wire. This tells me that the factory wiring is not adequate to handle the starting surge of an HID light (can be up to 20 amps per bulb). So, using the ground wire inside the headlight housing would not be advisable. Yes, it will work. I am not arguing that fact. But, long term survivability may be put into question.
If someone questions the warrantee of the vehicle, ask them this one simple questions: "how does my headlight having HIDs installed cause the component in question to be not covered?". If you have an engine problem, having HID headlights has nothing to do with it and therefore the warrantee is still in effect on the engine. If the headlight harness melts, then ok, that might not be covered.
If you have any questions, let me know.
As for the 2 wire/1 wire aspect, you really only need the 1 wire from inside the headlight harness. You simply need to get the power back out of the headlight assembly. Sure, you can pull the ground from inside of the harness, but the issue comes that the factory HID system adds a second ground wire. This tells me that the factory wiring is not adequate to handle the starting surge of an HID light (can be up to 20 amps per bulb). So, using the ground wire inside the headlight housing would not be advisable. Yes, it will work. I am not arguing that fact. But, long term survivability may be put into question.
If someone questions the warrantee of the vehicle, ask them this one simple questions: "how does my headlight having HIDs installed cause the component in question to be not covered?". If you have an engine problem, having HID headlights has nothing to do with it and therefore the warrantee is still in effect on the engine. If the headlight harness melts, then ok, that might not be covered.
If you have any questions, let me know.
#3
If someone questions the warrantee of the vehicle, ask them this one simple questions: "how does my headlight having HIDs installed cause the component in question to be not covered?". If you have an engine problem, having HID headlights has nothing to do with it and therefore the warrantee is still in effect on the engine. If the headlight harness melts, then ok, that might not be covered.
If you have any questions, let me know.
If you have any questions, let me know.
#4
#5
Join Date: May 2008
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Larry, atleast from my experience with LEDs in my house, LEDs throw great light, but the amount of light that seems to make it back is very poor. Maybe in the automobile world it is different (I am hoping so). I want to see what the LED headlights are like before I make a final decision.
As for less power, I need to do more looking into that. Again, based on experience with house LEDs, for the amount of light, while they are better than halogens, HIDs are going to give them a run for their money I have a feeling. The other problem I see is that when you start getting into the high power LEDs, they need a good heat sink or they just are not going to last all that long. So, if you are retrofitting them into your factory headlight housing, you can plan on changing those bulbs quite often. HIDs are a lot more forgiving. YOu would end up changing the whole reflector and backing to allow a proper heat sink to be placed into the headlight assembly. I Played with four 10W LEDs for some home lighting. I had them on a CPU heatsink rated for 50W with a fan on the back of that. The LEDs still got too hot and after about 3 months, the LEDs started failing.
As for less power, I need to do more looking into that. Again, based on experience with house LEDs, for the amount of light, while they are better than halogens, HIDs are going to give them a run for their money I have a feeling. The other problem I see is that when you start getting into the high power LEDs, they need a good heat sink or they just are not going to last all that long. So, if you are retrofitting them into your factory headlight housing, you can plan on changing those bulbs quite often. HIDs are a lot more forgiving. YOu would end up changing the whole reflector and backing to allow a proper heat sink to be placed into the headlight assembly. I Played with four 10W LEDs for some home lighting. I had them on a CPU heatsink rated for 50W with a fan on the back of that. The LEDs still got too hot and after about 3 months, the LEDs started failing.
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