every 3 to 6 months i am swapping out my burned out light switch for a new one, the plug itself that plugs into the switch is fried on one particular prong, or in this case socket. basically it transfers from that socket to the prong of the light switch and eventually takes the switch out with it, resulting in no tail lights, fender lights or bumper lights, just headlights that come on.

 

any idea what i can do? the one wire is fried, i've gone through 4 switches, i have 2 left...

 

have you replaced the wire harness before? there is a difference between s4 and s5 two wires need to be moved.

 

nope, i've never done any wiring on the car.

 

that harness, unplugs further in the car, pick one up off a parts car that aint bad(i may have on ill have to look) then use dielectric Greese on the pins before assembly, and it should be fine for a long time to come

 

That is the exact same problem I have. So far I have replaced the harness (1ft long one) and replaced the switch. I havn't found the problem yet.

 

If the harness or switch burns up, you must replace both.

You can not re-use a burnt harness or switch.

It is caused by the bulb sockets getting corrosion in them and the resistance spiking to a point of burning the switch or connection to the switch. The other reason is from improperlly wired aftermarket accessory lights like neon or fog lights.

So maintain your bulbs sockets, only use a new harness with a unburnt or new or rebuilt (rebuilt ones available on my webstore) switch.

If you want to add addtional protection use a relay on the parking light wire.

In addition (mod hat back on) this is a resonably common problem on cars where the bulb sockets have not been maintained and they have corrosion in them. It has been posted quite a few times. You may wish to use the search function found in the upper right hand corner of the page before posting. There is also a write up in the 2nd gen techincal archive on how to wire a relay to provide extra current (but of course that does not fix the problem of poorly maintained light sockets or a bad or damaged switch and harness).

 

by bulb sockets getting corrosion, you mean the bulb sockets in the tail lights?

 

Yes, the tail lights, running lights on the sides and parking lights in the front. They are what the bulbs plug into.

Pretty common after 15 years to have the lenses leak and let moisture in, as well as almost no mechanics use conductive grease when replacing the bulbs anymore... both things can lead to the sockets corroding. As soon as corrosion starts, the resistance of the socket increases, drawing more current that is lost just to heat... Just enough current flows to then start heating the other weak spots, in this case the headlight switch connectors.

Of course this problem is almost always in cars that see either high humidity or rough winters. Its pretty rare to see it in the Southwest part of the country.

 

could be a combination problem as well....

if the bulb sockets were corroded and causing a voltage spike that burned the switch and or wiring harness.....the fuse should have popped no?

perhaps someone had a frequently popping twenty amp fuse and decided to remedy by putting in a 30 amp....

 

well, see it is not a voltage spike... It is a loss. If it was a spike (more than 110% of the rating of the fuse) then the fuse would blow. But in most of the cases it is the increased resistance; the loss of power getting through that smokes the wiring, instead of burning the fuse.

But yes, occasionally you also do see some (shall we say- less skilled- or less intellegent or less informed???) owner directly hook up auxillery lights such as fog lights or neon directly to the parking light wire circuit... that could spike and kill the fuse pretty quick. Of course then you see the real idiots who replace the fuse with a higher value... well the fuse is to protect the wiring, so you could see that just putting in a higher value fuse, does not solve the problem, mearly hides it until the car really burns something up.