Ah.

"Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell." (oppisitelock) 09/29/2015 at 14:15 • Filed to: None

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That caught fire...

It is (was) the headlight connector that appears to have shorted out or got really hot and melted. When I viewed the car I noticed the headlight was out, assumed I could just pop another bulb in there. Nope. Time for some soldering.

Svend > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 09/29/2015 at 14:26

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Ouch. Thankfully it didn’t get any worse.

Urambo Tauro > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 09/29/2015 at 14:27

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Looks like you might want to hook up a relay.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Urambo Tauro 09/29/2015 at 14:31

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I’m just guna rewire it with some insulated spade connectors. The other stock stuff is all fine.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Svend 09/29/2015 at 14:32

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Yeah luckily it's easy to sort at the moment.

Mattbob > Urambo Tauro 09/29/2015 at 14:35

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I think you mean a fuse.

Mattbob > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 09/29/2015 at 14:36

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No fuse???? If there isn’t one, please for the love of god add a fuse in there.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Mattbob 09/29/2015 at 14:42

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There’s a fuse, apparently this is really common on Micras for whatever reason. Most people replace the connector with seperate spade connectors.

Mattbob > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 09/29/2015 at 14:44

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wow, what junk. Probably bad contact makign resistance and generating heat. I would just get a better relay socket if it is in the budget. It will make replacing the relay Waaaay less of a headache down the line. But I know how it is man.

Urambo Tauro > Mattbob 09/29/2015 at 15:43

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A relay reduces the amount of power passing through the switch.

Switches have been known to burn out from being tasked with handling full headlamp amperage. A relay can be wired in such a way that the switch sends a low-power signal to open up the relay, allowing power to flow directly to the bulbs without stressing the switch.

A fuse will break the circuit if a fault occurs, but a relayed circuit is a better design that helps to prevent such faults in the first place.

Mattbob > Urambo Tauro 09/29/2015 at 16:20

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What he is holding is not a switch or any part of a switch.. Overloading a switch is not the problem here. Also, I’m an EE, so just stop.

Mattbob > Mattbob 09/29/2015 at 16:21

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Reread and realized it’s a connector and not a relay socket.

Urambo Tauro > Mattbob 09/29/2015 at 16:22

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Good point. The back of the headlamp switch on my car looked like this; I intend to install a relay.

This is different though. You’re right; it needs something else.

Mattbob > Urambo Tauro 09/29/2015 at 16:31

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A weak mechanical connection in the connector causing a poor electrical connection. This poor electrical connection essentially increases the resistance at that point. With an increase in resistance at that point, power is dissipated, and heat generated. Since the connector melted, we can assume that it got hot due to power being dissipated at that point. Power being dissipated in a connector is due to poor mechanical connection. Unless the switch at a different point in the circuit somehow walked over and heated up the connector, it wasn’t a switch issue.

If the switch was the problem, usually the switch would burn up, not the connector way down the line.

If in fact the switch did break (I am assuming you were asserting it was broken?), there is most likely a third culprit causing too much current to flow through the circuit thereby taking out both the switch and the connector (perhaps new headlights drawing more current).

Mattbob > Urambo Tauro 09/29/2015 at 16:35

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Sorry to go all engineer... . In your case, a relay is a good idea.