Schister66

This seems to be a recurring problem with my 99 GSR. I keep burning out headlights in the driver's side.

It all started this summer. I had a set of McCollouch HID's (6000k) and had run them for over a year without problems. One day in the middle of the summer, the HID on the driver's side burnt out. I had planned to get a new ballast for the HIDs, but since i'm in school right now, its not a priority.

I replaced the HID's with a set of Sylvania SuperStars that i had sitting around. At first, the Sylvania would hardly light up. We attributed that, and the failure of the HID to a bad ground. We then grounded the headlights directly to the frame. They worked just fine after that. About a month later, the driver's side burnt out.

I figured the lights were old...they had been sitting in my garage for over 2 years. I took another set of lights i had sitting around and popped them in place. This time they were Nokya Yellow bulbs. They worked just fine until today. I got about 2 months out of them. Again they were old, but when a light burns out, its ALWAYS the driver's side. I want to get whatever problem fixed before i replace them with another set of HIDs and burn out another $100+ ballast.

Any advice? I'm not a good electrician so dumb down your answers...

boostedcivicsir

look at the sockets and see if they are nuked. i know honda has replacement pigtails.

Schister66

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boostedcivicsir &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">look at the sockets and see if they are nuked. i know honda has replacement pigtails. </TD></TR></TABLE>

do you think they short within the sockets themselves?? I can take them out and take a look....

Dogginator

Silverstars are inherently short lived. Does the housing have any water leaks?

Schister66

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Dogginator &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Silverstars are inherently short lived. Does the housing have any water leaks?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I dont believe so...as for the Silverstars, they may have already seen their "brighter" days. I had them in for a long time before the HIDs. Their burning out may have been somewhat of a fluke occurence. The thing that troubles me is i dont want to buy another set of HIDs and burn them out...they aren't cheap

Schister66

I know its a bit of a last resort, but what do you guys think about this:

Taking a relay and wiring it onto the stock wiring harness. Then running new power and ground to each of the headlights using the single relay to tell them when to turn on and off. I was looking at a set of Hella foglights that i have and that's the method they use for turning them on and off.

Thoughts??

wrx-killer-Sti-eater

iTrader: (1)

That would work and is really good solution. Aftermarket hids put a burden at start up on the stock wires. BUt it should not be that bad. I do it this way on aftermarket bulbs for customers that want brighter lights.

Schister66

Yay! My idea works!! I AM NOT good w/ electricity/electronics so i was skeptical whether or not my idea would work. I think i'm going to get 2 new headlight pigtails from Honda and run new wires.

Thoughts on 1 wire for both sets with inline fuses or should i run seperate wires for each side?? I'll run inline fuses regardless, but what method would be better??

Schister66

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Schister66 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thoughts on 1 wire for both sets with inline fuses or should i run seperate wires for each side?? I'll run inline fuses regardless, but what method would be better??</TD></TR></TABLE>

Padawan

What do you mean by 1 wire for both sides?

You can get away with a single relay drawing power directly from the battery, but I'd run twin positive leads from the relay (one to each bulb), and ground the bulbs individually at the chassis.

wrx-killer-Sti-eater

iTrader: (1)

wrx-killer-Sti-eater

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Padawan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What do you mean by 1 wire for both sides?

You can get away with a single relay drawing power directly from the battery, but I'd run twin positive leads from the relay (one to each bulb), and ground the bulbs individually at the chassis. </TD></TR></TABLE>

If you need a write up just let me know. Its real easy.

Schister66

This is my idea so far...you're welcome to correct it if it is wrong.

Padawan

Looks good. You won't need the negative wire from the stock wiring though.

BTW, did you make that drawing just now? If so, I'm impressed.

Schister66

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Padawan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks good. You won't need the negative wire from the stock wiring though.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

I was told i needed that and i had to ground the relay. Are either of those necessary?

Padawan

Yes, the relay definitely needs to be grounded.

The four wires that you need to connect to the relay are:

- 12V battery voltage
- chassis ground/earth
- trigger (in this case, the stock positive headlight wire)
- output to the bulbs

wrx-killer-Sti-eater

iTrader: (1)

Do you have a relay?

Look at the pins on the relay

And here you go.

Pin 85 from relay goes to the 12volt output from the stock headlight wire. This will be the relay trigger.

Pin 86 from the relay will go straight to ground.

Pin 30 from the relay will go to the battery. Make sure you put a fuse on it next to the battery of the proper amp rating. 25amp will be fine.

Pin 87 from the relay will be split and go to both headlights.

The ground wire from the headlights will go straight to the chassie

Dc2FaN

do what i did, i just got new sockets from the autozone up north and re-wired them to my stock wires...