Re: Headlight upgrade harness - where?

[EKellock@aol.com]

THOMAS J. SMULL wrote:

>I bought the 55/100 headlight upgrade from (name escapes me) the co.
>that has the ad in AutoWeek.
>They include a new wiring harness for Audis (I have a 1990 200q 10V).
>Has anyone installed one of these things?  I see no room to run the
>harness between the two headlights.  As you probably know, the left
>headlight is inside the shroud around the radiator.
>Do I have to cut a hole in the plastic surround?
>Will I melt the wires if I just put the bulbs in as is?
>Any advice would be appreciated.

I bought my bulbs from Competition Limited (there are usually two different
ads in AutoWeek).  When I installed the bulbs without the harness, the common
lead in each headlight connector melted.  In one case the bulb was also
damaged.  These happened at different times after a period of about 2 months
and took some extended periods of high beam usage to bring on.  Then I bought
the harness and it took almost a year but the same thing has just recently
happened again to the connectors of the "upgrade" wiring harness.  The
supplier said to check the grounding of the harness at each bulb.  They look
sufficient to me.  I was told I could *buy* replacement connectors for $7.50
a piece (they are constructed with heavier guage wire than the stock
connectors).  I was a bit put off by this and have returned to the stock
headlights for now.  I will try to find the connectors locally and try to
figure out another way of grounding which might be better.

Interestingly, I have had no trouble whatsoever with a similar setup in my
Coupe.  The major difference is that the Coupe doesn't have the AutoCheck
system so the harness is for both high & low beam which allowed me to use
80/100 bulbs.

As for routing the harness, on my 5kcstq there was enough of a gap left where
the shroud meets the front panel to get it through.  I just had to remove the
top cover as you would to replace the bulb anyway.

I think I'm in the early stages of the PITA that Bob Myers related.

HTH

Ed Kellock
Lansing, IA
87 5kcstq
87 cgt 2.3