Re: CGT's not so well after all

[Allan Jones <ampj@tiac.net>]

Doug Miller wrote:
> Just my two cents, but whatever was done to the ignition module sounds
> suspiciously like the reason your bulbs popped, not a PIAA error.  And not

	My bulbs did not pop, my lenses did(crack is prolly a better word).
Perhaps I worded that sentence in a misleading manner. My bulbs still
work fine(except for the 1 ion crystal - but those burn out all the time
:-( at a major :-( dollar value).

> to further rain on your parade, but the cracked lenses more than likely did
> NOT result instantly from turning on the lights.  They are likely the
> result of an impact with road debris you may not have felt, or sitting for
> a while with the lights on and no car movement to provide cooling.  

	Not road debris. No way - I know the lenses were fine before I fixed
the car - I looked at them daily while my car was out of commission. Not
the length of time w/o cooling either since it was only one or MAYBE two
seconds from when I flicked the toggle to when I "walked" to the front
of the car to see if either of the bulbs were burnt out. Although read
on . . .a revelation occurred to me while writing this post that I
discuss below.

> amount of heat output required to heat the lense inside surface so fast
> that the outside surface was still cold and cause a thermal expansion
> related crack is IMO not possible with a common bulb even if it's
> overloaded, cause the bulb would quickly fail.

	I did short out something while cleaning the ignition switch female
connector piece(or plug) but I doubt that was it because the PIAAs are
wired directly to a constant power supply in the fuse box. I am clueless
to anything electrical though, so it could very well be the cause. It is
possible I guess that while I had my lower dash apart(and all the wires
below steering column and around the fuse box/relay panels exposed) a
short could have occurred. But a short would not crack both lenses,
would it?  More reasonable, I think, is a contact between two PIAA
wires(or something similar) causing power to be delivered to the driving
lamps while I was working on the steering column/whatever. Thus
unbeknownest to me my PIAA's were on in the daylight and . . your so
mentioned lack of cooling leads to . . . CRACK!      <I wonder how many
eyes will jump to that particular exclamatory word capitalized in the
middle of the post!>
	While on the subject(of shorts, not crack), I believe either my
ignition switch or key warning buzzer is not functioning properly. The
ignition switch module is brand-spanking-new, so is doubtfully the cause
of following problem. . .  The "key in the igniton" warning beep will
come on regardless of whether or not the key is in the ignition. But it
only does this sometimes. When the key is in the ign. and in the off(far
back) position, and a door is ajar, the warning beep will come on as it
is supposed to. But if I pull the key out, it remains beeping. Then if I
shut door and turn ign. on, then pull key out, then open dr. - nothing,
which is good. But if I put key in ign. while dr. is open(it beeps as it
should), then pull key OUT while dr. is still open, buzzer STILL BEEPS
w/ NO KEY! I dunno. . .I cannot seem to find a consistent symptom or
cause. I did a poor job of explaining that, I know. Simplified: The
buzzer is NOT supposed to beep while ign. is keyless, CORRECT?? What
could cause such a random occurrence?
 
> In essence, and I KNOW this is not what you want to hear, PIAA is likely
> not the culprit in these failures.  When you call and tell them you have
> lights only a few weeks old, and have two cracked lenses and 3 of 4 bulbs

	I was not sure PIAA was the culprit, only bummed that it occurred so
soon after getting my car running again and SEEMINGLY W/O REASON. The
only logical reason I see now is that they somehow were powered on while
I was working on something else and then shut off? when I put everything
back together??
	No big deal but I don't think you realized that my PIAAs are prolly
more than 30 months old and only one ion crystal bulb was/is out.
 
> Good luck with it, and I hope you find the problem.

	Thank you 
				Allan