I have a small issue on my car.

when parked with the headlight on, i have a little smoke coming from my right headlight. And it smells like burnt plastic or rubber.

i checked during my lunch break, it looks like the smoke is coming from the rubber sleeve surrounding the headlight lamp connector.

Is it possible to change the headlight harness only without having to cut the harness and weld a new one in place ? maybe even trim the end of the harness and install a new connector ?

Is it a known problem ?

 

It's a "known problem" to the extent that every car can suffer from these symptoms.
Typically it's caused by corrosion at the connector. Corrosion causes resistance, resistance causes heat and the heat will eventually melt the wiring.
You can buy the headlight pigtail at any auto parts store.
Cut the old connector off and solder (or weld, if you prefer) the new connector on.
Use dialectric grease on the connector to mitigate future problems.

 

hum ok, i'll take it out next week, to see the state of the connector

 

I wouldn't use the lights till then.
If you see smoke, the problem is quite advanced.

 

ok i finally got the time to check.

the bulbs seem fine.

the H4 connector are dead. on one of the pin of both connector, the plastique is melted, the pin is all brown and the wire is bare...
I've ordered a set of connector.

My thought is that, under normal condition, the connector can't get damaged like this. therefore there is a bigger problem.
I've also noticed that most of the time, when i put on my headlight on low beam, the dashboard light for the high beam is half lighted (nut fully blue but "blue-ish")
i checked the dimmer and headlight relay (because i have no idea what dimmer means, but it looked like something i could check).
The dimmer relay is fine, but the headlight relay never completely shut when unplugged (and therefore as no power). when i use my multimeter on the two "coil" pin, instead of having 1 (no continuity) i have 0.65.

so i think my headlight relay need to be changed... quick !

trouble is, i can't find it on the net on rx7 specialist website.
I've tried google it, but as I don't have the reference of the relay, i can't find anything.
could somebody point me in the right direction ?

 

Ricart Automotive Genuine OEM Dealer Parts at WholeSale Prices its a mazda dealership that still does parts for the early rx7's may not be the cheapest but the quality is good.

 

edit :
i finally found this : http://www.ebay.com/itm/Standard-Motor-Products-RY225-Headlamp-Relay-/380659997902?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3ARX-7&hash=item58a11a9cce&vxp=mtrit says that it would be a correct replacement part.

my problem is that mine doesn't really looks like this, it has this sort of rubber sleeve like this one (apparently only for FD): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Standard-Motor-Products-RY463-Headlamp-Relay-/170814497618?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3ARX-7&hash=item27c5566352&vxp=mtr
do you have any recommandation ?

 

i checked your link, but i can't find anything related to the relays

 

On my 88 se its the square one with a rubber surrounding it for protection.

 

you mean the one in my second link ?

 

The first link is what mine looks like.

 

oh ? but it has no rubber on it

 

You could rewire it yourself would take some time though

 

If you're going to rewire it, I would personally convert it to use a common Bosch-type relay instead. IIRC, rubber sleeve is just to prevent dust and dirt from getting in from the top. A sealed relay connection such as those found on some Chevy S10s on the firewall is the route I would go on this.

As for the headlight connector itself, the terminals can be popped out and inserted into a new pigtail from the parts store for $2-3. I'm pretty sure they are Tyco Electronics/Delphi terminals just like the new pigtail (also the same as on a relay socket pigtail found there too) and can be extracted with tweezers from an undamaged housing. If the old housing is deformed, some careful cutting of the plastic with a dremel should free them.

If the housing has melted, it means it is drawing too much current. Dirty, corroded terminals and questionable grounds would be the first suspects that I'd look at after replacing the connector

 

i've ordered the connectors, they come already assembled with something like 10mm of wire. so i will cut off the existing ones and put the new ones.

For the relay, i've asked mazda and they will get me a new one by the end of the week.

I hope it will solve the issue...