Headlight bulbs replacement - Fiasco
#1
Headlight bulbs replacement - Fiasco
Decided to replace the D1S bulbs in hopes of better lighting...well, not for a while.
I pulled one assembly, polished the outer surface and was quite happy with the result. Installed a new bulb and while reattaching I noticed a bit of wiring insulation.
I then pulled the assembly and looked at the inner floor of the assembly...many, many small pieces of insulation. A rainbow's worth!
Pulled out the super bright flashlight and found the source.
I guess I'll be busy this weekend, cutting, heatshinking, soldering, heatshrinking and being thankful I didn't turn on the headlights only to see smoke.
wj
I pulled one assembly, polished the outer surface and was quite happy with the result. Installed a new bulb and while reattaching I noticed a bit of wiring insulation.
I then pulled the assembly and looked at the inner floor of the assembly...many, many small pieces of insulation. A rainbow's worth!
Pulled out the super bright flashlight and found the source.
I guess I'll be busy this weekend, cutting, heatshinking, soldering, heatshrinking and being thankful I didn't turn on the headlights only to see smoke.
wj
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#8
Sorry to say that I have too many other things to handle at present, I need to do this quickly and in a hack manner. I'm planning on 'simply' cutting a wire, slide some heat shrink over the length, solder back together, slide hs back and shrink. Since this is a forever fix and not going to be moved about after the initial repair I'm not even going wait for new colored hs...going with white and will touch each one with a dab of the corresponding color paint.
If I had time to do it 'right' I would need to move the wiring so much that all of the remaining insulation will break off and necessitate pulling the hl assembly apart. The wiring has cracks going the entire length of each ...I'll touch those cracks with some liquid insulation.
I suffered an ice storm several weeks back, some tree tops are still falling as we had some good winds this week. Here is a taste of what I am dealing with:
more here
wj
The following users liked this post:
Sean W (02-24-2023)
#9
An alternative suggestion to liquid insulation, which leaves a godawful mess.. Get heat shrink tubing, slightly larger than the wire gauge. Get a soldering iron.
One by one, snip a wire about 1/2 inch from the connector. Push the heatshrink as far down the damaged wire as possible covering it as far as it will go. You should be able to cover a lot of each wire length. Use multiple lengths if you can get deeper into the pod.
Leave the cracked insulation in place unless you need to remove it. Leave at least an inch or more visible on the covered wire, solder it back to the 1/2" in the connector. Make a nice thin splice -- not a blob. Let it cool. Slide the heatshrink back up the wire until it butts to the connector over the solder point. You should now have a very neat covering for one wire, and a very professional job.
Do this the rest of the wires wherever you can, as deep as possible WITHOUT disturbing any wires that don't absolutely have to be moved.
By the way, air is a fine insulator. If they're damaged but fixed in place so they don't touch, be happy with it. Your goal is to fix as much of the wiring as possible, but leave it undisturbed if possible so further wires don't crack.
Had great success with this in my BMW's, which are also Hella pods of the same era and suffer from the same problem.
One by one, snip a wire about 1/2 inch from the connector. Push the heatshrink as far down the damaged wire as possible covering it as far as it will go. You should be able to cover a lot of each wire length. Use multiple lengths if you can get deeper into the pod.
Leave the cracked insulation in place unless you need to remove it. Leave at least an inch or more visible on the covered wire, solder it back to the 1/2" in the connector. Make a nice thin splice -- not a blob. Let it cool. Slide the heatshrink back up the wire until it butts to the connector over the solder point. You should now have a very neat covering for one wire, and a very professional job.
Do this the rest of the wires wherever you can, as deep as possible WITHOUT disturbing any wires that don't absolutely have to be moved.
By the way, air is a fine insulator. If they're damaged but fixed in place so they don't touch, be happy with it. Your goal is to fix as much of the wiring as possible, but leave it undisturbed if possible so further wires don't crack.
Had great success with this in my BMW's, which are also Hella pods of the same era and suffer from the same problem.
Last edited by panthera999; 02-24-2023 at 06:28 PM.
The following users liked this post:
Firm (02-26-2023)
#11
An alternative suggestion to liquid insulation, which leaves a godawful mess.. Get heat shrink tubing, slightly larger than the wire gauge. Get a soldering iron.
One by one, snip a wire about 1/2 inch from the connector. Push the heatshrink as far down the damaged wire as possible covering it as far as it will go. You should be able to cover a lot of each wire length. Use multiple lengths if you can get deeper into the pod.
Leave the cracked insulation in place unless you need to remove it. Leave at least an inch or more visible on the covered wire, solder it back to the 1/2" in the connector. Make a nice thin splice -- not a blob. Let it cool. Slide the heatshrink back up the wire until it butts to the connector over the solder point. You should now have a very neat covering for one wire, and a very professional job.
Do this the rest of the wires wherever you can, as deep as possible WITHOUT disturbing any wires that don't absolutely have to be moved.
By the way, air is a fine insulator. If they're damaged but fixed in place so they don't touch, be happy with it. Your goal is to fix as much of the wiring as possible, but leave it undisturbed if possible so further wires don't crack.
Had great success with this in my BMW's, which are also Hella pods of the same era and suffer from the same problem.
One by one, snip a wire about 1/2 inch from the connector. Push the heatshrink as far down the damaged wire as possible covering it as far as it will go. You should be able to cover a lot of each wire length. Use multiple lengths if you can get deeper into the pod.
Leave the cracked insulation in place unless you need to remove it. Leave at least an inch or more visible on the covered wire, solder it back to the 1/2" in the connector. Make a nice thin splice -- not a blob. Let it cool. Slide the heatshrink back up the wire until it butts to the connector over the solder point. You should now have a very neat covering for one wire, and a very professional job.
Do this the rest of the wires wherever you can, as deep as possible WITHOUT disturbing any wires that don't absolutely have to be moved.
By the way, air is a fine insulator. If they're damaged but fixed in place so they don't touch, be happy with it. Your goal is to fix as much of the wiring as possible, but leave it undisturbed if possible so further wires don't crack.
Had great success with this in my BMW's, which are also Hella pods of the same era and suffer from the same problem.
Thanks for expanding on my shorthand,
“I guess I'll be busy this weekend, cutting, heatshinking, soldering, heatshrinking and being thankful I didn't turn on the headlights only to see smoke.”
The only thing I would add is that I chose to solder a ¼” area on the wire and would snip it in the middle of that area. This kept the strands from unraveling and a little more manageable.
I worked without any issues and it took me almost 4 hours to do all 12 wires. Five of the wires’ insulation literally fell off as I gently moved them around. I used several different heat shrink diameters and did heat shrink (with heat gun) all coverings into place. The base of the plug had several with wiring exposed and I chose to encase the entire bottom in hot melt glue. This does protect against shorting out and it pretty much prevents the pins from ever being pushed out…it is also a forever fix and if anything goes wrong it will be New Headlight Time!
I haven’t driven at night to determine if the replacement bulbs have enhanced the experience of not, but will later on this week and report back.
If anyone else experiences this mess…I wish you well.
wj
The following 2 users liked this post by wymjym:
McJag222 (02-25-2023),
panthera999 (02-25-2023)
#13
[QUOTE=wymjym;2618183]Hey Panthera999,
Thanks for expanding on my shorthand,
“I guess I'll be busy this weekend, cutting, heatshinking, soldering, heatshrinking and being thankful I didn't turn on the headlights only to see smoke.”
The only thing I would add is that I chose to solder a ¼” area on the wire and would snip it in the middle of that area. This kept the strands from unraveling and a little more manageable.
/QUOTE
Cutting through the solder point is a nice idea.
The long explanation is to help those who come after both of us, who do a search because of a similar problem. I saw a guy fix a BMW Hella headlight pod with paint on insulation, the result was unbelievable.
Were you able to get full coverage on the damaged wires?
Thanks for expanding on my shorthand,
“I guess I'll be busy this weekend, cutting, heatshinking, soldering, heatshrinking and being thankful I didn't turn on the headlights only to see smoke.”
The only thing I would add is that I chose to solder a ¼” area on the wire and would snip it in the middle of that area. This kept the strands from unraveling and a little more manageable.
/QUOTE
Cutting through the solder point is a nice idea.
The long explanation is to help those who come after both of us, who do a search because of a similar problem. I saw a guy fix a BMW Hella headlight pod with paint on insulation, the result was unbelievable.
Were you able to get full coverage on the damaged wires?
Last edited by panthera999; 02-25-2023 at 07:09 PM.
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Interestingly, my passenger side light assembly showed the cracks in insulation but was still totally insulated. I can only surmise that someone had their fingers in the one assembly and moved the wires about without much concern. They both had Philip's bulbs, will adjust the beams tonight and report back as to whether or not it was worth the turmoil.
wj
wj
#18
After sanding with 2,000 grit sand paper and polishing with a high speed polisher…this is the end result.
Not perfect but it looks pretty good. The bulbs I used were OSRAM Xenarc 5500K D1S CBI.
I’m happy with the color, as far as lighting they are possibly a tiny bit better than the ones originally in.
Over all a waste of time and energy, but now I know.
wj
Not perfect but it looks pretty good. The bulbs I used were OSRAM Xenarc 5500K D1S CBI.
I’m happy with the color, as far as lighting they are possibly a tiny bit better than the ones originally in.
Over all a waste of time and energy, but now I know.
wj
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