A surprise with my HIDs...NOW Catalytic Convertor

[TopCatGr58]

I did an HID mod a couple of years ago to my SUV, an Xterra, got the actual projectors with AC ballasts and such. Aside from a bulb going bad sooner than I thought it should, they have been good and have provided much better visibility than the stock lights even with Superstar type bulbs!

Well, we had a nice snow storm a few weeks ago, and I was going home from work. Traffic was badly snarled, so it was just crawl and stop type action for miles. It was actually still snowing and the outside temps were below 32 degrees. I had my headlights ON. After about an hour of this, I thought I started to smell what reminded me of burning wire insulation. But then just a short time later I saw actual FLAMES flickering out from under my HOOD!

I pulled to the shoulder, turned off the lights and car, and got out with my fire extinguisher, and blasted the front of the suv/grill and headlight area. Once I had the fire out, I unplugged the hi tension leads to the headlight for that side, and proceeded on my slow way home!

I haven't been able to take the headlight housing out of the vehicle yet. Upon closer inspection, it appears that the housing is what caught fire, not the wiring or the ballast! You can see the smokey appearance of the inside of the headlight housing on the left side. IT was just surprising that the HID built up enough heat ~ 400+ degrees to cause the plastic to ignite....and that was during below freezing temps.! However, the suv was not moving thru the air...just sitting in traffic for over an hour and so it was not able to get the proper air flow cooling affect! I have since plugged the headlight wires back in, and it still works! I just know now to turn them OFF if I'm sitting in total stop/stop traffic for more than 15 minutes! Here are some photos to show the carnage so far...once the weather warms up a bit, I'll be able to pull the housing out, take it apart and both clean out the smoke, as well as better inspect the damage and such!

T.C.

[crazy steve]

You're on a roll, aren't you? Beware... 'things in threes'....

[MPittma100]

Burn

I would have to classify this failure as a product defect. There should be a fix from the manufacturer for it. I think that they do not want to be paying people for having burned their cars to the ground.

[madmax-im]

TC...Beware the Ides of March...

[MPittma100]

Ides of March

TC...Beware the Ides of March...

And Friday the 13th?

Two of my favorite times of the year.

[madmax-im]

And Friday the 13th?

Two of my favorite times of the year.

yeah that too...the past 2 months the 13th has been on a Friday

[TopCatGr58]

I would have to classify this failure as a product defect. There should be a fix from the manufacturer for it. I think that they do not want to be paying people for having burned their cars to the ground.

Hey Mike,

Well, regrettably these are those lesser expensive units from CHINA/ebay.

And my OEM Halogen reflector housings were NOT designed to be a housing for an HID projector. When I did the mod I had to heat up the housing in the oven to melt the glue to separate it into 2 sections so I could have access to the innards to be able to position the projector into the housing and sticking out thru the OEM bulb socket area. The housings are otherwise SEALED once the OEM halogen bulb is mounted....to prevent condensation from occuring inside the reflector. SO...there's no venting available in the housing, and that's what I figured happened, sitting in stopped traffic for over an hour....and that HID bulb burning nice and hot generated enough heat to allow something to spontaneously combust...whether it was the plastic housing or even the glue that secured the 2 halves???

As I wash spritzing it with the extinguisher, I could see the embers from the INSIDE of the headlight lens looking IN towards the left side facing the headlight. When I baked the housing in the oven, I only used ~200 degrees or so...just enough to soften the glue to allow separation. But if that HID kept cooking....it probably could have gotten well up over 400 degrees inside that housing!?!?

I thought I had made and posted the photos I had taken of the HID Projector mod process for my SUV, but they aren't in my photobucket, only the ones I did for the bike with it's 7" round reflector housing. That housing has a small opening for a daylight bulb that I don't use, so it has a bit of venting anyways, and I wouldn't be sitting in stopped traffic for an hour with the bike running/idling and the headlight on...so that's partly why I'm not worried about this type of thing happening to my Bike's HID modded headlight.

Thanks guys, yeah, I'm aware of the "three's" events thing. Also thankfully I'm not a paraskevidekatriaphobian....no fear of Friday the 13th. And FYI, the 3rd one will be in November this year!

T.C.

[BA80]

paraskevidekatriaphobian
T.C.

Is that a word or an alphabet?

[TopCatGr58]

Update! Cause of fire verified.

Well, I finally got around to pulling the headlight housing out/off so that I could again take it apart to clean out the smoke from the inside, as well as inspect it further. To my surprise it turns out that it WASN'T the actual projector getting hot....but the wires for the CFL. The reason why I say surprising is because the little transformer for the CFL shows some 900 Volts, but very little actual amperage. Here are a few photos I took.



Here's the same view with my hand behind the NOW BURNED OFF INSULATION AND EXPOSED WIRES! What's even more surprising is that these 2 wires are NOT connected to anything, they were just hanging there with a plastic connector on the end, so there weren't any exposed metal ends to make contact with the frame!?


Here's the body, with a nice pile of burnt plastic on the bottom.


Even though both CFL's were and are working, I decided to pull the unburnt right headlight housing JUST TO CHECK things out....and good thing I did! The wires going to the CFL shows signs of burning/melting....most likely from corrosion of the contacts which generates much more resistance=heat.


So...for the LEFT unit, I cut the bare wires down to the insulation and transformer box and then electrical taped them over. I then CUT all of the connectors and then stripped back to good clean wire, then used my copper infused paste, put crimp on connectors, then heat shrinked and then electrical taped those wires as well.

For the RIGHT unit, cut/stripped/copper/crimped/taped the wires for the CFL as well. The other pair of wires that do NOT go to anything, I cut OFF the connectors, then heat shrinked them separately, electrical taped as well to insulate them from the frame also.

I also took apart the LEFT unit to gain access to the inside of the reflector housing...the extinguisher spray had gotten into it along with the smoke frosting the front clear lens. The extinguisher spray/powder must be some type of corrosive, because it damaged the reflector silver! SO...I cleaned it up and then spritzed it with some bumper chrome paint! Put it back together, and it looks almost as good as the unburnt right unit.

I also did my Knock Sensor relocation while I was in there, but it takes some 25-30 or more miles to drive without anything sending any error codes to the control unit before it will clear the Check Engine Light, will report back IF/WHEN it clears.....THEN I'll be ready for my yearly vehicle inspection!

T.C.

[TopCatGr58]

New error code!!

Hey folks,

Okay, have driven it some 80 miles, and the Check Engine Light(CEL) hasn't cleared! SO...I checked it with my code reader, and NOW it is saying a new code: PO430 which says Catalytic Convertor Efficiency error.

Have done some research online, and also saw a video for a new product called Cataclean sold at PepBoys! Another video talked about putting a bunch of Laquer Thinner in the tank and running it for a couple hundred miles STRAIGHT. Other videos show taking the Cat. Conv. OFF and cleaning it manually/chemically with spray carb cleaner, or carb DIP!

As I said earlier, have not noted any performance or fuel economy drop, so I don't think any O2 sensors are bad. I know that when it had the misfire and bad wires it could have caused incomplete burning which would allow more fuel vapors into the Cat. conv., but I also know that they can just get dirty and loose their efficiency. I don't have an InfraRed thermometer so I can't test it's temps before and after the Cat.. The engine does have some 130K miles, and so the cat. conv. may just be dirty, but not necessarily clogged.

AND I also learned that it has more than 1 cat. conv.! My code reader doesn't tell me which bank, 1 or 2. But I think I also saw that with a V6, that the 430 is one bank, and a 420 would be the other bank, will have to check my manual to see if that holds true.

BUT, anyways, anyone already try any techniques to CLEAN their cat. Conv.'s with fuel additives????

T.C.