PIAA light probs (was CGT's not so well after all)

[dmiller@iea.com (Doug Miller)]

Allan sed:
>        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).

Ah, got ya on that one. I puzzled over that. Also agree the Ion Crystals
burn out frequently - I've used them for years on our full size Hellas, and
even put a single remaining one in the A6's fog to see how it looked
(grudging acknowledgement of aesthetic vanity on occasion).  It looked way
cool with the lights on, with the amber lamp and white lamp in the single
assembly. Not cool enough for me to buy one for the other side, and start
that expensive parade of Ion Crystals again, tho.

>        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.

Hmm, I see what you're saying, it couldn't have happened this way then.

>        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!>

I'd put my money on this one.  The only time I've ever cracked lenses (I
use a homegrown headlamp protection system for aux and factory lamps on our
gravel bars they call roads around here) was talking to a buddy with the
car idling and the fogs on.  Since that incident, I've become convinced
that most lamps are engineered around the assumption of at least *some* air
movement to keep them in their operating parameters for heat soak.

>        While on the subject(of shorts, not crack), I believe either my
>ignition switch or key warning buzzer is not functioning properly.

I am electrically impaired like yourself, though I can run a multi-tester
pretty well and would not be the one to ask.  However, remember that
sagging shorts lead to cracks when you bend over to check tire
pressures........ And we all know that crack kills.

>        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.
>        Thank you
>                                Allan

You're right, I confused you with another poster who'd just put those dual
fog/driving PIAA's on his rig.  Always wondered how they worked out. How
do/did you like them?

Doug Miller
dmiller@iea.com
97A6Q Wagon, 93 LandCruiser w/diff locks (and well used skidplates), 71
LeMans Sport V8 Convertible. Cannondale Super V 900 Comp.