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I have a 2014 xD and my passenger side headlight is extremely dim. The bulb is perfectly fine but the plastic piece holding the wires connecting in melted and burned out the wires.
I purchased a new piece and the same issue is occurring again. The wires are getting hot and I'm not sure what to do next. Car has 195k on it.
Have you checked the to see what wattage they are? Often people will replace bulbs with a new bulb with a higher wattage rating than stock and, oftentimes, that will cause issues with overheating and melting the connector or the harness. There is also the possibility that you've got a wire that is rubbing or chafing somewhere causing a short.
A summary of possible causes:
A loose connection. This will increase resistance producing much more heat. Most of the time a loose connector could be the problem but a loose connector itself is produced by an overheated bulb.
Using a bulb with much higher nominal power (as mentioned above). People do this most of the time however using a 55 watt headlight instead of a 35 watt standard usually get tolerated by wiring system but it depends on other parameters.
Cheap bulbs with higher resistance than expected. Cheap bulbs create more heat. Bulbs must have 2 ohm resistance, if they are 2 ohm, a bit higher or less, then there is nothing wrong with your bulbs. If they are higher than 3 ohm, this is the problem. However, if your bulb resistance is about 2.7 then it may cause the connector to loosen and together they combine to melt the connector.
No air ventilation. Likely not the case but you could always check to see if anything is impeding airflow to the bulb.
If the wiring is melting and the output is dim it could also be a grounding issue. Check your grounds in that area and make sure all are clean and tight to the chassis.
If you wanted to get really crazy, you should try swapping in quality LED's or do an HID conversion with with the relay harness.
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Last edited by MR_LUV; Apr 21, 2021 at 10:52 PM.
Reason: Awarded 5 Yr Badge
@ josh55, Hi, I replaced all front lights with LED lights. Those have high output Lumens like the commercial truck drivers. Consume less power, give more light, and have an small fan to cool themselves.
The best part was that for my Scion xB 2004 a pair (two) cost like $10 with free shipping. I have them like for more than a year and they perform better than the OEM (Original Equipment of Manufacturer).
I can see better than before to drive safe in the corn fields, Farm country roads, and dangerous highways.
Just try those, and see for your self...
I am very happy when I am driving in the night with those lights.
For $10 you got exactly what you paid for...the LEDs aren't staggered for high and low beam, they look to be too big and in the wrong place and there is nothing on them that will provide any kind of 'cutoff'.
Compare your $10 bulbs to a decent set of H4 bulbs, which run right around $50-$80, and you'll see why they were $10. Those bulbs, outside of likely being 'brighter', are probably throwing a worse light pattern than replacement halogen bulbs. Just slapping some LEDs and a fan on a bulb that vaguely resembles an H4 bulb doesn't make them better.
LED bulbs are horrible in reflector housings.
Not to mention illegal because it sprays light everywhere and blinds on-coming traffic.
Creating very dangerous situation for you and them.
Overheating is due to short drawing more power than bulbs alone.
You should learn to measure current-draw going through those wires to know exactly how much power is flowing.
You must replace melted headlight-bulb socket with high-temp ceramic ones to prevent same issue from happening again and again.
2014 xD Headlight wire over heating..
