my driver side harness had melted due to aftermarket bulbs, should i take it back to the dealer or is there other cheaper ways to fix it?

thx for the input.

 

Where's Tony (OneMax2NV) when you need him?

I believe he said it cost about $300 to replace his sockets and some wiring when his melted. The post is somewhere in the 4th gen forum, IIRC. I'd post a link but I'm tired and need my beauty sleep now.

 

Here's what I did ... Put the Factory Bulbs back in!
Goto Dealer and act DUMB ... say I didn't touch them ... I just Drove around with my HIGH BEAMS on DURING the DAY!!! Did it for eversince I got the car!
and say something stupid like "I guess I shouldn't do that"

BUT ... my car was still new and under Warrenty!!!

If not ... JUST get a APC Harness and slap on even BETTER bulbs!!!!!!

 

APC Harness, they dont melt, and some APC Plasma bulbs

 

What wattage/bulbs were you running?

 

i was running 100/130 bulb about 4 years ago, after about 6 months the lights starts to go off somtimes and i had to "shake" the sockets to bring it back on. When i took it to the dealer they told me the bulbs were too hot, so i went back to the stock bulbs and every thing was okay except somtimes i still have to "shake" the sockets to bring the lights back on. About a year ago i bought a set of focuz R hyperwhite bulbs which claimed to have the stock wattage. But starting recently, the lights goes off almost every time. When i check the inside of the socket, that thing had almost completed melted.
damn, that thing cost $300 to replace? i had ordered my APC harness 4 months ago from carparts.com, still waiting for them. i probably will cancel my order, any other good places to get APC harness?

 

Those bulbs are way too hot to use on the Maxima without upgrading the harness. If it is just the light socket part then you can go get one from Nissan for like $15 and replace it yourself. Just cut the wires going to the burnt socket and connect the wiring back on the new socket. Just make sure you match up the color wire together correctly. This should fix your problem. Now make sure you get some reliable aftermarket bulbs like PIAA (right wattage) for future use without any harness melting.

Ken

 

Yeah I have been waiting forever for my harness too. I have the APC bulbs but then Carparts.com sewnt me a second set instead of the harness, so then I found out they are backordered. I know a place that sells the harness. I will get the address and post it.

 

The site to get the APC harness is http://www.autodynamic.com
They have a harness for the 9004 bulbs but I am a little confused because if you look at the closeup of the harness it says "for Toyota only". I don't see why it wouldn't work on any 9004 bulb. Check it out and tell me what you think.

 

I told people to get the harness, but few people didn't believe me. You should feel lucky it lasted 4 years =). 6 month to 1 year is the average. But hey, Thanks for speaking up. Most people that melted their stock harness don't say a word.

 

That was on my old car. A Ford, but I learned my lesson.

 

haha, yep..i am glad the harness still last for four years. i guess it's because i switch back to stock right after i found out it's over wattaged. Back then, colored aftermarket bulbs are very rare, so i was like "mmm...new aftermarket bulb? let's plug it in!"

i went to the dealer today and found out each socket is gonna cost me 21 bucks, much better than the $300 dollars we were talking about.

thx again for the inputs guys, and remember GET HARNESS and DON'T ORDER FROM CARPARTS.COM!

 

guess people won't listen to good advice and start doing their own deal.
lucky it didn't start a fire or something.
Dan