A bright spark!

Forum / Övrigt / Off Topic / A bright spark!

Forum / Övrigt / Off Topic / A bright spark!

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    • november 1, 2010 at 10:49 #23033

      I thought I would write this up in case there are other people out there with a similar lack of knowledge of headlights and save you from the problems I faced with our Pontiac Transsport.

      As the Pontiac is imported from the US the headlights have a H4 conversion, which also means 4 individual H4 bulbs instead of the normal two as the car has 4 separate headlights. Two bulbs wired to low beam and two to high beam. The high beam was acceptable but the low beam was very weak and didn’t light up the road in front of the car, especially if the road was wet.

      To try and improve the low beam I first changed the wiring so that it used the high beam filament, this didn’t work as the light pattern was completely wrong and would have interfered with on coming cars.

      I then got a pair of stronger H4 bulbs, 80/90, and this was perfect, the low beam was very bright in front of the car and it had the correct light pattern and didn’t interfere with on coming cars.

      I thought my problem was solved and last night I had to go out in heavy fog on country roads (no street lights, or any lights) which meant using the 80 low beam and the normal 60 high beam. Everything was perfect, until I had been driving for about 15 minutes, then suddenly all four headlights went out. Talk about a shock, thankfully all the other lights were working and I was just able to see the side of the road and stop, luckily there were no other cars on the road.

      When I stopped I turned the hazard lights on and the about a second later all four headlights came on again, so it wasn’t a blown fuse. I turned the lights on and off a few times and there were no further problems. I started to drive again with all four headlights on and everything, other than my nerves, was fine. Then about 10 minutes later it happened again. This time they came back on again within a second or two.

      I then turned the high beam off and continued to drive, there were no problems after that. As it wasn’t a fuse I can only think that it was the relay overheating because of the extra load from the 80/90 bulbs, if it had been the fuse they would never have come back on again. Before driving the car again I will replace the bulbs with the standard 55/60 but till I have had a few longer trips with all headlights on for more than 10 minutes I will be a little wary about the lights failing.

      Maybe I am wrong in assuming it was the relay overheating, maybe there is another fault that is only showing itself under load. Any ideas as what should be tested would be appreciated, and hopefully anyone else thinking of doing what I did will think twice about it unless they know their electrical system can handle the extra load. Believe me, loosing your headlights on a dark country road in the fog is not a pleasant experience.

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