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Melting tailight

ICantDrift

ICantDrift

New member
Joined
Aug 16, 2016
Location
Morrisville, NY/ Middleofnowhere, NY
Hey all,

I've been fighting a non-working brake light in my '88 245 for the past few months and I'm not sure what is causing the issue. The problem is that the ground prong for the brake bulb isn't contacting the ground tab on the housing because it's getting so hot that the plastic around the ground tab is pushing into the molten plastic of the housing, away from the ground prong on the bulb. Too much heat means too much current but I'm not exactly sure why this is happening. Has anyone else experienced this and/or have any advice?

Thanks in advance
 
EventuallyAyrton said:
Hey all,

I've been fighting a non-working brake light in my '88 245 for the past few months and I'm not sure what is causing the issue. The problem is that the ground prong for the brake bulb isn't contacting the ground tab on the housing because it's getting so hot that the plastic around the ground tab is pushing into the molten plastic of the housing, away from the ground prong on the bulb. Too much heat means too much current but I'm not exactly sure why this is happening. Has anyone else experienced this and/or have any advice?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

No, too much heat means too much resistance. The contact is not clean, and that's what creates the resistance which begets heat, and yet more resistance. Once the plating is gone from the contact points there's not much remedy besides hard-wiring. All the salves and pastes wind up wasting your time and soon the plastic will be so distorted you can't even get the bulbs out.
 
This is frequent problem with aftermarket tail lights, they use ****ty materials and tend to melt from the heat of the bulb.

You have 3 options,
1) you can frequently replace the tail lights as they melt.
2) Replace them with genuine ($$$).
3) Buy LED bulbs for them so they dont put as much heat into the housing.
 
blkaplan said:
This is frequent problem with aftermarket tail lights, they use ****ty materials and tend to melt from the heat of the bulb.

You have 3 options,
1) you can frequently replace the tail lights as they melt.
2) Replace them with genuine ($$$).
3) Buy LED bulbs for them so they dont put as much heat into the housing.
Click to expand...

4) wire around the contacts.

The plastic isn't the problem. It is the plating on the contacts that makes the aftermarket tail lights a poor product. Not the heat from the bulbs; the heat from the poor contacts. But LEDs are cool, of course, everyone knows that.
 
cleanflametrap said:
4) wire around the contacts.

The plastic isn't the problem. It is the plating on the contacts that makes the aftermarket tail lights a poor product. Not the heat from the bulbs; the heat from the poor contacts. But LEDs are cool, of course, everyone knows that.
Click to expand...

:nod:

It's ghetto single layer chrome on the chinapops, and galvanized on the OE units.
 
cleanflametrap said:
No, too much heat means too much resistance.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what I meant to write. In my head I was thinking about lack of current and that's how it ended up on the page.

stiligFox said:
Try switching to LED bulbs
Click to expand...
Are there direct drop in replacement LED bulbs?

Either way, I think I'll probably end up just hard wiring the bulb prongs right to the ground wire and bypass the excess resistance in the tailight ground tab
 
I have melted aftermarket housings with LED bulbs. If you take the time to tweak the contacts while the tail light is out of the car, you can get them to all line up. With the LED bulbs they won't melt more. Mine have been working great. I got my bulbs cheap of flea-bay.
 
blkaplan said:
Interesting, seems feasible. Has anyone tried to switch the strip over from a factory unit to an aftermarket unit?
Click to expand...

It think it helps if you use the Volvo lamp sockets. But the "strip" is a wagon only thing which is easy to wire around. The worst experiences are with 244's. Not sure about that galvanized (zinc dip) since the 5-panel days...

tlight060.jpg


tlamp062.jpg


tlamp063.jpg


3b post
 
blkaplan said:
Interesting, seems feasible. Has anyone tried to switch the strip over from a factory unit to an aftermarket unit?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it's fused in there, at least I wasn't successful trying to pull one off at the JY.

:e-shrug:

cleanflametrap said:
It think it helps if you use the Volvo lamp sockets. But the "strip" is a wagon only thing which is easy to wire around. The worst experiences are with 244's. Not sure about that galvanized (zinc dip) since the 5-panel days...
Click to expand...

I've seen OE 245 tails left out in the rain at the JY and the ground strips developed powdery white spots that wouldn't be characteristic of chrome plating, maybe nickel?.

:e-shrug:
 
EventuallyAyrton said:
Are there direct drop in replacement LED bulbs?
Click to expand...

Yes, and they are fantastic.

Check out superbrightleds.com or diodedynamics.com.

Also most parts stores these days carry decent brands of LED lights like Philips, etc.

They tend to produce a lot less heat and I've personally run LEDs for at least the brake lights in both of my 240s so far. They also generally have a better/more true color (colored emitters vs. incandescent bulb), lower power consumption (however marginal), much longer "bulb" life, the list goes on. And they've gotten quite affordable, especially when you consider that the bulbs will more than likely be some of the last you buy.
 
I bought a bunch of them for my car. All of the exterior bulbs except my side repeaters and most of my interior bulbs are LED. I think I did the entire car for $50 buying off e-bay. The LED headlights I bought used from a member here, but they run about another $50-70.
 
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