For you wiring gurus...halo went out but not burnt out

[MillerPKA]

I'll try and get pics if it will help. For now just grab a cup of tea

I have ccfl halos surrounding my projector lenses

If you can see, the halos are composed of a tube starting and ending at the bottom, so there is a void of light where the end caps are. These are simply spliced into the corner lights so they come on at the same time. To preface this thing I've had these lights for a year now with absolutely no problems and am trying to keep it that way.

About a month ago the driver side stopped working. When the halo went out, only the corner portion was getting lit and barely. Anyways, didn't worry about it for a week or so because its not noticeable when the HIDs are on. Finally popped the hood one day and checked the wiring and nothing out of ordinary within the whole setup. I leave it alone and every time I turn my lights on since I'd always check with no luck. The corner light has always worked as well so just the halo is out.

So this evening I'm leaving the house and hop in, check real quick and both halos were on! I was stunned so got out and looked, driver side was lit and just as bright as before. About 15 minutes later I check and the halos out again and behaving the same way as it did before, barely lit but only in the bottom corner. The weird thing is if I turn the light mast all the way off for a few seconds, then go to corners the halo comes on full power then recedes back to its small corner. If I leave it off longer it stays lit a little more when i turn it back on. The distinct symptoms lead me to believe there's something able to be pin pointed as whats causing this and hopefully fix it without having to reopen the lens and replace the halo.

Its windy and rainy up here so no looking at it now, if you have any ideas lets talk.

 

[the great him]

check the ground for that halo... every inch of the ground, even though the point at which it is "grounded" to the body/frame may be secure and tight, you might have a lose connection some where else. the fact that you say it is getting lit, but very dim and hardly noticeable tells me there is power to it, but the ground is week. use some dielectric grease in your connections, the stuff works wonders

 

[the great him]

what is the bulb lighting the halo? is it an LED? if so then it could also be that the LED is has gotten too hot and some part of the contact has melted. my cheep LED dash lights did the same thing, and they would flicker for a few days before going out.

 

[MillerPKA]

check the ground for that halo... every inch of the ground, even though the point at which it is "grounded" to the body/frame may be secure and tight, you might have a lose connection some where else. the fact that you say it is getting lit, but very dim and hardly noticeable tells me there is power to it, but the ground is week. use some dielectric grease in your connections, the stuff works wonders

I'll recheck but as I said the wiring looked good on first run through, and the 2 wires from the halos travel about 4 inches to mate with the preexisting corner light wiring, and the corner hasn't faltered through all of this.

what is the bulb lighting the halo? is it an LED? if so then it could also be that the LED is has gotten too hot and some part of the contact has melted. my cheep LED dash lights did the same thing, and they would flicker for a few days before going out.

Its a ccfl so no led

 

[the great him]

what is a ccfl?

 

[dave_mcmillan]

Do these devices use ballasts? If so the solution may be a simple issue with the ballast getting too hot and causing a thermal shutdown. When you said it would come on and the shut off that is a sign of this. Its a protection mechanism to keep it from getting to hot and catching fire. Contact the manufacturer for a warranty replacement of the ballast.