sascuderi

I have had the Eurolite 9006 low beam bulbs in my 2000 I30 for two years without a problem until tonight. These are the same wattage as the stock bulbs (55 W) and on the package are labled "street legal" "DOT/SAE".

Tonight the right light went out but the bulb was fine (worked on the other side). After checking all the fuses, which were fine, and alot of head scratching, I took a closer look at the harness. Since I was using the same wattage bulbs as the originals I have never been concerned that the bulbs would burn the harness so it was the last placed I would have expected to be the cause of the problem.

From the outside, the harness looked fine. No sign of melting plastic. But them I looked closer and looking down the negative slot of the harness I noticed a very small amount of brown plastic which looked melted and coated the silver connector. I took a pin and carefully picked out tiny bits of plastic from over the silver connector, plugged the bulb in and it worked!

I am no longer using the Eurolites and back to the Sylvania bulbs which came with the car.

Has anyone had this happen with normal wattage aftermarket bulbs??

If the harness gets completely destroyed, can you just buy the connector and splice it in?(Does PepBoys or Autozone have them?)

Sorry for the long post but I figured it may be important for many others!

HitManSE

iTrader: (1)

I dont understand how that would happen. Ive had 80watt bulbs in my 01 since may of last yr and no problems what so ever.

gtr_rider

iTrader: (50)

Wow, I was looking for some new bulbs too.

sascuderi

I don't understand it either. Obviously the aftermarket 55 watt bulbs in my case drew more current than stock causing the damage to the harness.

I would suggest you look down the neg. side of the harness and see if it looks damaged. On the side that was still working, I could see that the harness was just starting to melt down the neg. side, but wasn't as bad as the side that went out.

samoosa

yeah, i learned this the hard way...my harness are burned like shia. got a matrix upgraded harness. works great

GundamWZero

Yeah, I keep burning up my connectors!

Funny thing is, it is only one pin that is melting the connector. I actually think it the bulb because I switched lights around after I fixed the harness and it did the same thing to the other connector!

kj043

iTrader: (1)

from my experience, i've concluded that eurolite bulbs suck ****. i went through 2 sets of them, and both burned out and blew my harnesses. if you need new harnesses, they have them at pepboys, i bought two new ones and spliced the wires to install. i'm using plasmaglow bulbs now.. they have a 10 year warranty that i hope i'll never have to use.

sascuderi

Thanks. I am going to upgrade the harness since it is damaged but still works.

I still can't believe that an aftermarked bulb of 55 watts did this. I had always read that if you stick to the stock wattage when you install an aftermarked bulb you will never damage the harness. I guess its not true!

ZuMBLe

iTrader: (1)

The same thing happened with my Narva Range Power bulbs. Had them for about 3 years. Driver side harness melted. I thought it was a bad bulb. Then short time later, the passenger side went out too. I'm running Cool Blues now.

ZuM

darrick

hey guys the sockets are going to mealt after awhile anyway it has noting to do with the blubs even a stock bulb will melt the harness after a few years thats why you can go to the autoparts store and buy the harness's off the shelf this happens to all cars t,they just go bad after so long ,you know?

Phoenix1911

How can that be??? None of my past cars melted a wiring harness, none of my parents cars have melted a wiring harness, none of my friends cars have melted a wiring harness....... And some of us owned these cars for quite a few years.....

If the bulb is rated at 55w, but is a faulty bulb, it will draw more amps and melt your harness.... Your harness was able to take it for a while like others on this board have gotten away with, but after time it'll melt..

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

I've said this before and I'll say it again.

It's not the higher current draw that's burning sockets, it's bad connections or dirty contacts that increase resistance which makes HEAT. Thats what causes meltdowns. If the contacts were clean, and there was no resistance to current flow in the socket, there would be no heat or meltdowns.

Your more prone to that happening with higher wattage bulbs, but the bulb isn't what's causing the problem. It's the condition of the contacts in the socket that's causing the heat build up which leads to them melting.

sascuderi

If that is true then it means that the stock harness from Nissan is defective since they are not providing proper contact with the bulbs in fairly new cars. I suspect the stock harness is obtained from the same supplier as the MAFs!

ThurzNite

iTrader: (13)

if you don't care for an upgraded harness, call http://www.southwestautoworks.com
Talk to the owner Alex. Tell him ThurzNite from Maxima.Org sent you...He'll give you the hookup. I bought some from him before and they're real easy to install...takes 5min or less per side.

Jae

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Metal contacts corrodes.

Nissan puts no protection or anti corrosion in their headlight harness sockets. Look at a Honda, their sockets are full of dielectric grease which keeps out moisture and assures good electrical continunity. If you were to put the same grease into the sockets in our cars, these melt downs would not be happening. I ran 80/100W bulbs for the first 3 years I owned my car. Never had any problems with the sockets. I used WD-40 as a lubricant and protectant against moisture and corrosion, my sockets still look like new.

AznWontonboy

Can you explain where to spray the wd40?

ThurzNite

iTrader: (13)

spray them in the harness, on the contact points. I don't like wd40 cuz it runs. I used di-electric grease.

Jae

sascuderi

Where can i find Di-Electric grease? Does Sears have it or Home Depot?

Naija

iTrader: (1)

you can get it from an auto parts store they sell it by the tube for 3-4 dollars or you can get it on a small condom packet for a dollar.

ThurzNite

iTrader: (13)

if you need a pic of dielectric grease, lemme know... I put my can of grease in the car cuz I was helping someone w/a sporatic antenna problem...after some contact cleaner and grease, problem solved!

Jae

spiritman

I believe my situation would apply here, but I'm not sure. When I was inspecting my maxima, I noticed the passenger side headlight was out. I figured the bulb was blown and I'd put in a new one. However, I noticed the plug appeared to be slightly melted. I confirmed the bulb was blown. Since I just got the car today, I'm not sure what happened first: the bulb blowing or the harness getting too hot.

Being a new toy to my wife, she wanted to drive it tonight. I didn't want her out driving with one light. I've never dealt with this so I'm not exactly sure what to do. Here are the pics.

dee.signs

Sounds to me its just a loose connection. If you have a loose connection that will cause the connection to arc when the two contactors make there connection.. Did the bulbs seem tight in the connector?

and by the way

Watts = current * voltage

voltage = current * resistance

spiritman

Now that I think about it, it was connected but not tight.

ThurzNite

iTrader: (13)

Remember to lube the connection when u fix this.

At this point, you need a headlight harness. If you want the same one, goto your local parts store. They're cheap, $2.99 or so. Part number 85810 at autozone.com

If you're paranoid about melting, and you've already greased your connections, then get a high-temp socket, like part number 84790 at autozone, $11.99

Both those sockets are Dorman product, good for lifetime. More info on their website, just google the part numbers to find them online
www.dormanproducts.com

Dr J

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

To add to that, make sure you put regular wattage bulbs in the car. higher wattage bulbs will melt the connectors. they don't do it instantly- usually take 3-6 months before they burn up, but they eventually will.

spiritman

Good thing I know how to solder. I hate the fact the wires are so short in there. Should I cut the wire right at the connector?

spiritman

I'm going with a HID kit. I took my 9006 HID kit out of my Accord hoping I could reuse it. I see that Maxima's don't take 9006.

Mr. Blue Sky

iTrader: (1)

if you go with HID kit spirit, I would definitely recommend a wiring harness. If anything goes wrong, it is easier to replace the 15$ wiring harness than to go searching for a melted/burnt/damaged wire in your stock harness(or replacing all of your harness).

on the halogen front, I think suvlights dot com and others possibly sell h4 halogen harnesses(or beefed up harness extenders).

infinimax96

My passenger side has been melted for a while. I have to wiggle the harness sometimes to get the light to turn on. Driver side is fine though, with same bulb. I think I'm just going to pick up some new harnesses and an HID kit. It's time to move on from the Halogens.

spiritman

I picked up the 84790 from autozone 2 days ago. I will put wire them up sometime today. I wish I could pick up a set of HIDs locally (for a reasonable price).

Mr. Blue Sky

iTrader: (1)

the advantage that an HID harness would have(if you got HID's) is that it only uses the vehicles bulb plug(drivers side) to get the signal for when to turn on the bulb. It would get its juice directly from the cars battery(don't damage your wiring in case of a surge, or short, just the HID harness would get damaged(usually).

spiritman

The colors of the new high temp socket are red, black and green. However, the factory colors are blue w/black stripe, brown w/black stripe and light green w/black stripe. Can anyone assist?

DAlastDON

If it were a 6thgen then i could tell ya exactly. Someone with a FSM for the 5thgen should chime in here soon. If you orientate both the new and old sockets so that the plug in's and retaining clip line up, the wires should match up too. If that made any sense.

spiritman

Yep, I'm waiting on a response too. I just stripped back some insulation and looked at the leads they are going to. Hopefully I can get them lined up. It's starting to get dark in my neck of the woods. I would like to have it done tonight.

High Temp socket Stock socket
Black <-------------------------> Blue wire w/black stripe
Green <-------------------------> Brown wire w/black stripe
Red wire <-------------------------> Light green wire w/black stripe