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Topic: Headlight socket burnt

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OkieXJ
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Headlight socket burnt
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A couple weeks ago I upgraded the headlights on my XJ with some autopals from motion offroad and had great improvement. The problem is I noticed a couple days ago that the passenger side was getting dim and it went out on the way home. removed it and the socket the the bulb plugs was burnt/melted a bit. I checked fuses and all seem to be good. Did anyone have this experience with your lights? What was the cause? I need to get this fix so I can be safe during early morning driving.

-- Edited by OkieXJ on Friday 16th of October 2009 06:46:43 PM

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LEAD_NOT_FOLLOW
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Make sure your factory sockets are good and clean. It's common among us in the midwest to have a corroded socket. I've always used a tad bit of di-electric grease on the sockets to help prevent them being corroded.

Also when installing the bulbs themselves make sure that you did not touch them with your fingers. The oil in your skin will put a bad spot on the bulb, causing it to burn the oil and cause bulb failure.

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OkieXJ
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Well should I replace the burnt socket or just clean it and place the new bulb in?

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ChevelleSSLS6
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Depends on how bad it is... run a search on ixquick or your other favorite search engine for "XJ headlight wiring harness upgrade"

do that... it's a probable winter project for me. Factory wiring is known to be on the skimpy side a little bit. And if there's any corrosion that makes resistance, which demands more juice, which heats up and causes melting.

You may be able to get by with cleaning and some dielectric grease (be kinda generous, it keeps water and junk out of the connection) for a while, but I don't think it's a good permanent solution.

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OkieXJ
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Went to autozone and picked up a set of new sockets and wired them in has a little heavier guage wire and got some bulb grease to help with corrosion. Headlight are good to go now. Thanks for the suggestions

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Comet #2
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OkieXJ wrote:

Went to autozone and picked up a set of new sockets and wired them in has a little heavier guage wire and got some bulb grease to help with corrosion. Headlight are good to go now. Thanks for the suggestions


Good move fitting the new sockets and using the grease as suggested.

When you replaced the Headlights ... did you fit higher wattage bulbs / sealed beams than whats OE ???.

The higher amp drain of brighter bulbs through the HL switch and the skimpy factory wiring can cause problems as well.

A good mod ( on any vehicle ) is to set up the headlights as you would a set of driving lights ... using relays and shorter bigger gauge wires for power supply to the bulb / sealed beam.

 



-- Edited by Comet #2 on Sunday 18th of October 2009 06:14:35 AM

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