Melted Headlight Harness

[UnderFire]

So, I just put in my HID's yesterday, 35W Bulbs with the Morimoto H1 kit, 3Five Ballasts.

Opened the hood to find the harness coming off of the factory headlight plug on the relay harness was melted together, blue and white. so I rebuilt the harness and tried it, and it started to melt the factory headlight harness after that, does anyone know what could be causing this?

 

[the great him]

why are you putting HIDs in... ?

yeah bad ground or insufficient ground, to small of wire.... lots of things

 

[TheDurk]

You do know '97's (and all 4Runners without DRL's) are switched grounds at the headlights which is different from the majority of cars? This can lead to major mis-wiring if you are following instructions for a standard switched hot circuit. Feel free to post the instructions/schematic and how you wired them if you want an opinion.

 

[D Farms]

He's putting his cause he wants more light, are you using a wiring harness or is it running off the headlight plugs directly? You should probably run a harness, and also you need to disable DRL if you are going to run hids, I know for my truck it was as simple as cutting a wire In the DRL plug under the dash, some of the 4runners you can simply unplug the DRL circuit, http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/29681-how-disable-drl-your-3rd-gen-earlier-models.html.

 

[Quadsbc]

If you are using the factory harness it will melt every time. It is not designed for the amp draw hid's use to light off. Use an aftermarket relayed harness like this HID Projector Headlight Retrofit for Subaru, Honda, BMW, Scion and More | LightWerkz.net

It will use the factory harness to control the function of the light while using the battery directly and a larger gauge wire to handle the amps.

 

[UnderFire]

why are you putting HIDs in... ?

yeah bad ground or insufficient ground, to small of wire.... lots of things

Thought it was a good idea, but clearly it wasn't, hell the headlights were the most complex thing on the truck.

HID's ain't for me, I'll stick to AUX lighting from here on out.

 

[BlackCat914]

He's putting his cause he wants more light, are you using a wiring harness or is it running off the headlight plugs directly? You should probably run a harness, and also you need to disable DRL if you are going to run hids, I know for my truck it was as simple as cutting a wire In the DRL plug under the dash, some of the 4runners you can simply unplug the DRL circuit, http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/29681-how-disable-drl-your-3rd-gen-earlier-models.html.

97's don't have DRL's.

 

[BlackCat914]

Thought it was a good idea, but clearly it wasn't, hell the headlights were the most complex thing on the truck.

HID's ain't for me, I'll stick to AUX lighting from here on out.

you need to post a picture of how you have it wired like [MENTION=10169]TheDurk[/MENTION] said. I've had my projectors/HID's/Ballasts in my truck for 2 years and haven't had a single problem. I did, however, use the M37x wiring harness when I did my swap.

 

[the great him]

He's putting his cause he wants more light, are you using a wiring harness or is it running off the headlight plugs directly? You should probably run a harness, and also you need to disable DRL if you are going to run hids, I know for my truck it was as simple as cutting a wire In the DRL plug under the dash, some of the 4runners you can simply unplug the DRL circuit, http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/29681-how-disable-drl-your-3rd-gen-earlier-models.html.

Well then a plug and play HID kit is not what he needs... HIDs don't give more useable light... Sure they give more light, but its not focused like it should be and the glare is terrible especially if they are in the 96-98 headlights... For HIDs to work correctly they need to be in a projector... And I won't say any thing on the matter of its completely illegal to put HIDs in our 4runners...

A good halogen bulb will perform better than any HID kit you can buy for the comparable price. And getting a good set of aux lights will help and be a cheaper investment than doing a full on projector HID swap(which is still questionable on the legality standpoint BTW)

 

[UnderFire]

Well then a plug and play HID kit is not what he needs... HIDs don't give more useable light... Sure they give more light, but its not focused like it should be and the glare is terrible especially if they are in the 96-98 headlights... For HIDs to work correctly they need to be in a projector... And I won't say any thing on the matter of its completely illegal to put HIDs in our 4runners...

A good halogen bulb will perform better than any HID kit you can buy for the comparable price. And getting a good set of aux lights will help and be a cheaper investment than doing a full on projector HID swap(which is still questionable on the legality standpoint BTW)

I was using H1 projectors, I just have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to HID stuff, too damn complex. I don't necessary need them either with LED DRL's, Fogs and a 42" Lightbar I should be covered, if not I'll throw some spot lamps on the bumper.