nigelhenry

Had a report from the last service that there was a wiring problem with the headlight.
Last night found when i put the headlights on that neither the front park light (running light for you US boys?) nor the rear lights worked on the lhs.

Checked bulbs, nope. Removed headlight, looked ok. Removed plug to inspect the bulbs and discovered the insulation has deteriorated and left exposed wiring (obviously causing a short).

Plan to deconstruct lighy assy, reinsulate wires and see how that goes.

Will report further....

nigelhenry

Not a great result.

2 particular wires within the sealed headlight unit are almost totally bare (most of the insulation has come off).
Got some electrical tape and attempted to reinsulate the wires but it is difficult as access into the module is limited.

Did my best but no joy. Am thinking either to get an auto electrican to rewire the entire assembly or it will be a whole new light module.

Thoughts?

993GT

Can you take a picture?

Kevinmacd

Better yet, if you can use some heat shrink material and cover up the wire fray.

Bates

^^^ or Liquid PVC?

rmc1148

There is a type of liquid tape used to coat tool handles etc do not know the name but a search might bring it up. Similar to what Bates suggests.

nigelhenry

So, it is the LH headlight module.

Accessing inside by removing the circular plug, which you would do to change the bulb.
You see the yellow insulation tape, that is my first attempt to reinsulate those wires.
Before I put that on, there was 3 wires in there, all around 80% bare.

I havent looked at the other one yet and am assuming it is similar.

My idea atm is to find an auto electrician that can renew the effected wiring.

nigelhenry

Forgot to mention.. the bare wiring went quite a ways into the module.
So access to recoat the wires is an issue.

Also, would the short have blown a fuse? Havent looked at the fuse box yet.

993GT

I have found a replacement harness/connector for that, is the wiring good at a point you can still get enough access to solder a replacement harness on?
Porsche does not have a replacement harness, only way to fix from Porsche is whole assembly.

nigelhenry

Thanks for the replies guys.

It appears my DIY reinsulate did the trick after all. When i bothered to check the fuse - A4 - it was blown. Put in the spare and bingo, let there be light!

As an aside, this car has been in Dubai since new. Obviously it get real hot here and that probably had an impact on the deterioration of the insulation.
Interestingly, it was only the wires for the parkers affected. Not the fog or headlights.
They are in good condition.

I checked the RH module and the same wires are OK. Some tiny cracks have appeared in the insulation but the insulation is intact.

It seems that at some point the offending bulb has blown, and the manipulation required the change it out has caused the brittle insulation to break off.

nigelhenry

Thanks Rob, the bare wires went deep into the unit. I think the only way to do it properly would be to rewire the whole thing and that would involve dismantling the whole module.

It would be worth attempting it, considering the only alternative would be buying a 3000 buck replacement....

993GT

odd the wires are so bad, maybe someone had messed with the bulb wattages
if it wasn't so deep in the housing this would have been a nice fix...

Cheers,
Rob

nigelhenry

Definitely, that looks the goods.

I think this isn't the last of this for my car and with some of the wiring buried deeply, i will look to try the renewal of all wiring in the future. Im sure thats possible, just with the hassle of dismantling the light module.