Date:         Fri, 28 Aug 1998 21:48:27 -0700
Reply-To:     David Marshall <vanagon@VOLKSWAGEN.ORG>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David Marshall <vanagon@VOLKSWAGEN.ORG>
Subject:      Melted lightswitch... again!
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Anyone experience frequently melting headlight switches?  I just went
through a second one in two months.  This time it was 1am and I was 75km
from home when the lights went out!  The only lights that would come one
were my park lights.  After opening up the switch to see if i could do a
road side repair (and couldn't) I decided to wait for a big truck to go by
and follow it's tail lights home.  Yes, yes I know, I should not have done
this but...

The next day I looked at my lights.  The H4 is a Phillips "All Weather"
rated 55/60W and the H3 is an Osram (Bosch) 55W.  These are nothing more
than what the factory would use.  The only other thing that I am running
off of the high beam circuit is a relay that controls my two 150W KC
Daylighters.  Is the factory switch under engineered for the additional
lights they added in 86 - or it is bad luck in the used switch department?

The solution that I came up with is to install a new power distribution /
fuse box under the passanger seat and run two 10ga wires to two relays that
I mounted on factory relay pods on top of the fuse panel.  Each 40A relay
controls one side of the highbeams.  The whole circuit is designed for up
to 500W of light on each side - not that I will need THAT much.  The low
beams are still run though the factory headlight switch.  The other part of
the solution is now I carry an extra headlight switch in my emergency tool
kit.


-- David Marshall, Quesnel BC, mailto:david@volkswagen.org --
   -- 78 1.8L VW Rabbit, 80 2.0L VW Caddy, 87 Audi 5KQ  --
   --  85 1.8L VW Cabrio, 88 2.0L VW Syncro Double Cab  --
   --   Volkswagen Homepage http://www.volkswagen.org   --
     --  USE DAVID@VOLKSWAGEN.ORG WHEN SENDING PMAIL  --