I bought some new Hella driving lights and installed them. At first they were working great with the factory wiring harness, but after 1 hours use they are blowing the foglight fuse. I upped the Amps from 15 to 20 to 30 and all it does is blow out as soon as I turn on the lamps. I've had other cars that can use the factory harness, but the Maxima can't. Has anyone faced this problem? The Hellas only run 55-watt bulbs which are what's stock. I guess I'll have to run the aftermarket harness.


Dave

 

My friend had this exact problem with his Hella 530s. On his, the bulbs were a very tight fit inside the housing once all the wires were in there. Make sure that the leads on the bulb and socket arent grounding themselves in there somewhere.

I know its kinda vague, but thats all I remember.

 

Check for a bad ground too... but if you're using the factory harness wires... dunno...

Do NOT increase the fuse ratings(15A is enough for 85W even) ... unless you want to burn something else in the car that will be expensive to fix... especially if it's a short like mzmtg said might be the prob..

 

My best guess is that you are shorting out the lamps somewhere. An H3 bulbs ground is the body of the bulb itself, with the hot signal comes from the tail-like lead sticking out of the back of the bulb that has the spade connector. If this lead is contacting anywhere inside the case of the foglamp it will cause the short. In this case the ground is the lamp case. The factory foglamps provide a teflon sleeve that wraps around the tail lead from the H3 bulb...you might want to find something similar. Also, check the installation diagrams that came with your lamps...Hella is usually pretty good about these types of things.

 

It appears that it is a bad ground. I grounded the lamps to the bumper and they are currently working...we'll see how they last. Thanks fellas.


Dave

 

You mean I was right?!?!?!?

LOL... I should be grateful I can even remember that problem 16 years ago..... hehe