Burnt harnesses, squirrel spotters, and common sense.

[MAP1234]

Okay, so not to :spamo: and : but i want the damn HID's in my car. In fact, they are already in my car. Here's what I got and they work awesome...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GENUI...4159QQtcZphoto

Now here's the deal...I hooked them up directly to the front headlight clips as they are designed to do (plug and play) and now many of you have got me worried about burning wiring harnesses . I've read many forums and even seen pictures of burnt harnesses. So obviously it happens, but 1 thing I dont understand is that if there is a 15 amp fuze on the system, shouldn't that be the safety bottleneck and the least common denominator in the system to prevent any over-current that could burn harnesses? ...Thats something that doesn't make much sense to me.

Anyway, disreguarding my fuze ponderings, I refuse to believe installing extra relays to prevent system failure is the ONLY way. I have a few unanswered questions/idea's I haven't seen yet in setting up a non-extra-relay system. I invite you guys to constructively criticize my ideas of course. And before I start, I wanted to say, yes, I have read this...
Real HID on 07' Camry SE
and this...
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/sh...t=glare&page=2
and many more outside of TN.

Idea's of Ways to Prevent Burning Harnesses w/o Installing Extra Relays:

Idea #1: Bypass/assist the wiring harness by splicing a detachable low gauge wire connecting from the front end to the back end of the harness. 50 cent fix?

Idea #2: I may need to consult an electrical engineer about this one, but I see no reason why I couldn't just put a capacitor on the front leads right before the ballast. For those of you who do not know what capacitors do, they slowly build up charge and then quickly release electricity on demand. So since the harness damage has, in the past, been caused by the ballast/igniters starting up and pulling massive amperage, my reasoning is that the capacitors (one for each headlight lead) would quickly/efficiently supply the ballasts when starting up, while only pulling the normal amount of power through the wiring harness.

If these ideas do/could work, I would prefer them over dealing with extra relays and wires all over the place.

Those Damn Squirrel Spotters...

So, again, I know there have been many threads about this, but I have had a different experience with the "blinding glare" they produce. After reading all the 'blinding oncoming traffic' complaints, I decided to go out and look at my headlights from various distances (up to 100 yards) on a very flat parking lot. In all honesty, I really do not think they are nearly as bad as people say they are. The brightest I could find was at a 45 degree angle to the car, about 10-20 yards away, and slightly kneeling (to where a driving point of view would be).

Anyway, my next test will be calling up a few cops I know (who wont bust me for aftermarket HID's), have them drive oncoming in the same parking lot, and ask them if they think the lights are too bright. I'll let you know when I get the results lol.

If the cops say they're too bright, then I'll just have to cover the spotters I guess. In that case, I'll just buy some halo headlights, do the spotter fix on them, and switch out the OEM so if I ever needed to sell the car, I can easily put the stock halogens/headlight assembly back in.

What are your thoughts?

[JSM1284]

I can hook you up with a TSX retro....

[touringcamry]

Originally Posted by MAP1234

Now here's the deal...I hooked them up directly to the front headlight clips as they are designed to do (plug and play) and now many of you have got me worried about burning wiring harnesses . I've read many forums and even seen pictures of burnt harnesses. So obviously it happens, but 1 thing I dont understand is that if there is a 15 amp fuze on the system, shouldn't that be the safety bottleneck and the least common denominator in the system to prevent any over-current that could burn harnesses? ...Thats something that doesn't make much sense to me.

The fuse ratings don't mean that they'll blow immediately after after the current reaches the rated value. If you put 16A through a 15A fuse, it might never blow. Even if you put 20A through it, it could take one or several hours (I don't know what the time actually would be - just for example). If you put 30A through it, then it might blow after a few minutes.

[MAP1234]

Originally Posted by touringcamry

The fuse ratings don't mean that they'll blow immediately after after the current reaches the rated value. If you put 16A through a 15A fuse, it might never blow. Even if you put 20A through it, it could take one or several hours (I don't know what the time actually would be - just for example). If you put 30A through it, then it might blow after a few minutes.

I see. So, even though the ballasts may be pulling more than 15A, it doesn't pull over 15A long enough, when they're starting up, to get the 15A fuze to blow.

So what do you think about my harness bypass or capacitor ideas?

[ebumdude]

Originally Posted by JSM1284

I can hook you up with a TSX retro....

In a couple of mos., I will be contacting you for a tsx retro...

HID's done right!! LoL.

[desentrix]

Glare isn't as bad coming from halogen projectors as it is reflective. Go find someone with reflective hid, and then talk again. Also, make sure you look @ your headlights in pitch dark, when your eyes have adjusted to darkness.

[danorthface]

Idea #1: Not sure what you're trying to do here. Are you just attempting to save your original headlight wires? The method will probably protect the wires, but it does not protect the factory relay/switches

Idea #2: This idea will do the opposite of what you are thinking. An empty capacitor is like a short to ground. You will cause more damage to your factory harness than help it because MORE current will be drawn through the stock harness. And if this method did work, you'll need one big capacitor to power the ballast. A relay harness will just cost less.

Your hids are 3 times brighter than stock. This means your squirrel spotters are 3x brighter than stock. I would just cover the squirrel spotters.

[touringcamry]

Just curious, but why do you have an aversion to relays? These things are fairly easy to install (4 wires), water resistant (certain models) and can handle 30A continuously. If something does go wrong, you won't melt factory wiring because there is less than 200mA on the factory wiring and the higher current will be on wiring you put afterwards which can be bigger than the stock 18 AWG wiring. The factory wiring will only be used to trigger the relay and Bosch type relays have 75 Ohm coils.

[w203]

Originally Posted by MAP1234

I see. So, even though the ballasts may be pulling more than 15A, it doesn't pull over 15A long enough, when they're starting up, to get the 15A fuze to blow.

So what do you think about my harness bypass or capacitor ideas?

no, the fuses used are the quick acting ones not the slow delayed ones so if the current is greater than the rated fuse it will blow instantly the ballasts themselves acts as like a capacitor so it wouldn't be helpful not sure on the harness bypass though with the s.s still intact with an hid kit its not as bad as most people say they are, i've seen worst. its just common courtesy to other drivers mtec hid kits are good, not sure why your harness has issues its the temperature you should be more worried about since heat is one of the major causes in harness melting