Im hoping someone has an expert eye to cast over my dliemna. One of my NLs has a dead short in the highbeams. I removed both headlight units from the car. If I install just the left headlight it works fine, high and low beam and parker, no odd behaviour at all.

When I plug in the right headlight, low beam and parkers work, but highbeam sends the system a tad mental. At least one relay starts buzzing and the right highbeam lights (left does not if connected) but very dim and sort of pulses, but low and parker no longer work. When I drop off highbeam, the system takes a moment or two to settle, and then I can use low beam and parkers again. I have to turn it all off first, or at least I wasnt prepared to leave it all on and wait to see if it just went back to low beam by itself without switching the headlights off.

Using a multimeter I found that with the right headlight connected, every pin on the left headlight loom side connector is an earth (tested each one using the beep and connected the mm earth wire to the engine). Unplug the right headlight and the same left loom plug tests as it should, three earths, and three pins with power at the appropriate positions of the head light switch and stalk. ie: parker position gives me 12v to one pin, headlights on gives me 12v to the parker pin and another pin. Pull the stalk, highbeam gives me 12v. Testing the right loom side connector and it tests as above. The loom appears to be fine and after unwrapping a length of it, its visually good too.

I opened the headlight caps and found the plug to the H4 globe is melted at the earth on both L and R assemblies. But the right one is far worse having fused two wires together, one being the earth, the other being the highbeam power feed presumably.

I dont have higher wattage globes, I know better than that but maybe 3 months ago I did fit some Repco +30% which state they are still 60/55. Its what the servo had when I was doing a long run at night (Byron Bay to Sunshine Coast at 2am). Prior there was no headlight dramas at all, I just wanted to change to new globes and +30s seemed like a good choice, Ive never had dramas with the Narva versions of the same type, +30's, std wattage 60/55. I dont bother with the +90's etc.

My question, do these +30s etc, draw more power? Is the claimed 60/55 a lie? Now I have to replace both headlights.

Anyway, a genuine Merry Christmas everyone. Be good, or be good at it.

 

 

Attachments:

File comment: The right headlight assem, note the area where two wires fused together. DSC_0109.jpg [ 96.3 KiB | Viewed 235 times ]

File comment: Note the erosion of the bulb material around the pins. DSC_0106.jpg [ 75.58 KiB | Viewed 195 times ]

File comment: The other bulb. DSC_0104.jpg [ 93.69 KiB | Viewed 307 times ]

File comment: Melted loom connector, headlight side. DSC_0103.jpg [ 92.13 KiB | Viewed 216 times ]

File comment: As above. DSC_0102.jpg [ 91.19 KiB | Viewed 237 times ]

Hi,

It looks like you have had some resistance there, which causes heat. The hotter it gets, the more resistance. The insulation may have melted which let the wires short. You will have to replace the globes, and see if you can get a heavy duty wiring kit to fit. They are made for many 4x' which have similar issues. If you do fit one, make sure all the connections are clean and tight. Losing your headlights is not a good thing.

Thanks ELGLi and youre right losing headlights is not fun.

The high spec lights in EL/NL/DL series (and older too) have a loom inside the headlight itself, and the loom on the car it plugs into. The looms in both headlights are toast, the car loom is fine. I had the dash out today to check there and it all looks good too. My guess is Ford built the headlight loom weaker than the car loom so it would damage the easily replaceable part as the wires inside the light are noticeable thin.

I guess the question Im asking is where is the short, or added resistance leading to a meltdown of wires and the the unavoidable short that brings. Everything was fine (but thats always the way, things are always fine until they arent), until I fitted the 30+ globes.

Running the +30 should not have caused your connector to melt if they are 55w
Usually ive seen that happen when running higher wattage lights. On my EB I recently changed the whole internal wiring as I had a similar issue melting the connector but was using 90/100 lights. It was pretty straight forward changing the headlight loom. Hopefully you can do the same on your lights and all is good.

Thanks Kermit, yeah they are 60/55's. And the globes I pulled out where the same wattage, just not +30's. I dont run higher wattage in standard headlights as it burns the reflectors, not to mention the loom. I havent used higher wattage bulbs in headlights since I ran 55/100 in Hella 7" inserts, or 100w in the inner lights of twin 5 3/4" rounds. I just fit spotties instead and run them off a relay and isolation switch.

Id pull the lights apart and fit a loom, but they dont want to come apart. Ive popped the clips but the lens seems stuck and being plastic it feels like it might just split. I actually have a nice low K silver Concorde too, Im thinking of a set of twin lights for it, and use its stockies on the white NL (the white one has the headlight issue). Then again, I think given the heat sink (trip) set up these use, the loom being weaker in the light itself seems like a design, not a fault. Not sure I want to up the chances of the loom itself burning next time lol. I guess I could fit a couple of fuses, one for HB and one for LB. Or just swap the heat trip for a large fuse. What I dont like about that idea is a fault in any light and you lose all light as the heat trip feeds both lb and hb. With individual fuses to each light, in each phase, you still have most of your light if one phase on one light has a fault.

Hmmm, still would be nice to know why this happened in the first place.


Theres a by the way, anyone used the twinlights from twinlights conversions in Brisbane? They any good as lights?

Apparently the Twinlights are pretty good.
Are your lenses plastic ? Maybe pm Mad. He has pulled headlights apart to retro fit HIDs and did an awesome job. Although not the same car but he may have a few pointers.
My EB lights allow the lense to come out once the clips are removed.

Yeah the EF/L series Fords had plastic lenses sadly. but they have the same clips to hold the lens in place like EBs etc so they should come off the same way i would have thought.

Well I thought I should clarify some things posted here.

I purchased two good headlights today, genuine Hellas, they are in perfect condition. Plug in the right hand headlight and all connections on the left side loom connector are earths. Unplug the right hand light and only 3 are earths. WTF?

So I decided to pull the headlight out of my silver concorde (its an unmolested low K car so I was reluctant), and guess what, all pins on the right loom connector are earths when the left headlight is connected. I didnt bother pulling the other headlight to find out if all the same, I assume it should be so I concluded thats normal then.

At this point I decided to 'smoke' test the white cars new lights, plugged in both lights, and lit up the lights. Parkers fine, low beam fine, high beam fine.

So are these things negative switched? Ive not played with negative switching before so havent quite got my head around how the wiring and readings should behave.