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thanks guys-my headlights are okay now 200


I woke up extra early to get the week started, but the lights on 86 240 DL sedan did work.

After consulting with you fellas it turns out that I have a bad connection on the relay to the left of the brake pedal. I took the relay out and sprayed some electrical contact cleaner and things are back to normal.

One of the wires is fried, part of the plastic has melted. This must be what caused the connection to fail. I know the previous owner had some troubles with the right headlight and it was fixed. The wire must have been fried at this time. I will need to replace the plastic connector in the future.

Btw, there is another big relay right next to small relay I removed, what is this one for? I don't think it's the fuel pump relay, since that should be on the otherside. What are relays for anyway?








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    thanks guys-my headlights are okay now 200

    Been here, did this on my 87....
    --
    Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 225K, 88 744GLE- 209K, 91 244 183K. Also responsible for the care and feeding of: 88 745GLE, 229K, 88 244GL, 146K, 87 244DL, 235K, 88 245DL, 236K









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      thanks guys-my headlights are okay now 200

      Wow, that's exactly what happened on my car.

      Did you end up putting in a new plastic socket?

      Why did this happen anyway?








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        thanks guys-my headlights are okay now 200

        This type of failure is caused by the connection in the plastic connector starting to run too hot. This can be caused by a chronic overload, that is, too much electrical current flowing through it, or by some corrosion starting in the metal on the connector. The heat causes more corrosion which increases the electrical resistance of the connector. The increased resistance causes the connector to run hotter which causes more corrosion. It's a downward spiral to complete failure which might take a fairly long time.

        A temporary fix is to clean the connector but the only real fix is to replace both the connector and the relay since both will have corroded metal connections. Sometimes I have saved the relay by polishing the metal connector tabs and then coating with silicone grease. In fact, a factory TSB for my '93 940 says to pull off all relay connectors, spray a cleaner on the connections, squeeze silicone grease into the connector and re-connect. DO NOT do this to the oxygen sensor connector.







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