'08 Impreza headlight caught FIRE????!!!!

[Twinklz]

SWMBO Drove her '08 R-Spec Impreza through a puddle, she says it came past her 17'' rim, and blew her RHS headlight a few days ago. I didn't pay much attention as it didn't sound too serious.today i went and bought some more globes from Repco as her LHS headlight had "gone out" on the drive home on friday. I swapped the LHS out with no trouble, but when i pulled out the RHS headlight I immediately smelled a burnt and plasticy odour. The - and + wires are split and have a white chalky powder on them and the splits are black and bubbled. The part where the wires go into the plug (My descriptive prowess is amazing tonight, I know) is almost too hot to touch and smells like burning plastic. It's unplugged at the moment and isn't going to be plugged in until someone with a trade qualification can look at it. The headlights both had all the protective plastic covers and everything on it, and there is no evidence of water getting in. does anyone have any ideas what caused it? As far as i can tell, water hasn't breached the engine bay at all, thanks to the rather massive plastic splash guard Subaru put on.



(I've checked my insurance policy and it does cover fire, so if it does catch fire, we'll be upgrading to a turbo Impreza wagon :ebiggrin

 

[lefty]

I know an auto-sparky who can have a look for you. He is massively into subies and is building a monster of an XT Foz.
where are there puddles in Perth with no rain?

 

[Twinklz]

can you inbox me his number please?

apparently there was a lot of rain a few weeks ago in her suburb.

 

[Red XS]

Trust you to set a headlight on fire without trying LOL

 

[Twinklz]

I'm getting pretty sick of this car, it's way too fiddly and modern for my tastes!

 

[Red XS]

I'm starting to understand that alot more now. I had just one tiny little internal problem with my electric window switch, which burnt out my motor and could have been a fire hazard. Repairing it all was so over complicated and over priced if I didn't do it myself. Bring back the manual winding windows!

Then again, modern cars are nice to drive when they are working properly...

Good luck with fixing it, hopefully it's not too pricey.

 

[Twinklz]

For insurance reasons I'll have to get it repaired by a qualified auto sparky. Other wise I'd just cut and shut some new wire in there and silicone it all up, but the auto sparky I talked to today quoted me a small fortune to fix it. So I'll be shopping around!

 

[lefty]

Bram accepts massages as payment...

 

[Twinklz]

..... No happy endings, sorry Bram!

 

[Ratbag]

Gidday Twink

does anyone have any ideas what caused it?

What is the wattage of the bulb?

When I first put Narva bulbs in my Impreza, they had a habit of the high beam element breaking and falling across the low beam terminal post in the bulb. This caused that headlight to draw around 130W (nearly 11 amps). The non-thermoset plastic bulb connector and the rubber water guard both fried in one headlight.

Two things:

1) I have never bought Narva bulbs since ... ; and

2) I immediately cut the soft plastic connectors off the loom and soldered on some thermoset plastic ones.

After that, I ran 90/55W bulbs in it for the next 180,000+ kms without any problems.

 

[Twinklz]

I run oem spec headlights with a completely separate high beam bulb. Not sure about the wattage or anything but the car is literally stock all the way down to the front brake pads.

 

[kiwifoz]

I'm getting pretty sick of this car, it's way too fiddly and modern for my tastes!

I know exactly what you mean, we had an early 2007 model 2.0R Sport for 2.5 years until this May and honestly, my 2002 SG Foz is built and designed much better IMO. It's like Subaru gave up with this model. To replace the parking light bulb you have to take off the front bumper and pull the whole headlight... Really annoying. And the interior was crap, all black plastic. Not to mention it was actually longer than my Foz by 5cm, despite having a tiny boot and similar interior space? The bonnet is so long it's ridiculous. There's about 20cm in front of the radiator from memory...

 

[Twinklz]

I absolutely detest the electronic gear in this car, the power steering pump screams really loudly at full lock and I've replaced all the belts!

 

[Kevin]

It's fairly common for those OEM connectors to melt (if the same as my Foz)

 

[Twinklz]

Really? That's shocking...

 

[havachat]

Twinklz, that is bad luck and should not happen.

It's fairly common for those OEM connectors to melt (if the same as my Foz)

I note in both my 2002 & 2004 SG Fozes the OEM headlamp globe connector plug has been made redundant and a second plug wired in. Guess I know why now.

The thin wiring in the cars worries me !!

 

[Twinklz]

If you compare the headlight wire thicknesses between the Impreza and my Jackaroo, the Jackaroo has way thicker wires AND draws less current than the Impreza....