lmao..
.. Ballast runs bout 35 watts continious after power up. You're lucky you got away with it.. personally I wouldn't have wired it up straight to ballast.

is that why i have such a problem with them working all day every day for over 2 years now! ya know, there happens to be over-current protection on every circuit in that car (headlights included). some silly thing the factory did... somehow it never seems to shut off due to my HID'* drawing an "intense amount of amps" . i'm curious, the reference to the ballasts drawing 35 watts, do you think that'* a little or a lot?

in some newer cars it would be a problem. but not because of what your'e referring to.

...works good! lasts long time!

i also wanted to add that i had worries about this before i put them in. but i figured there is protection on the circuit so...what'* the worst that could happen. the wire definitely is not going to melt! lol i can't remember off the top of my head if it is a fuse or a circuit breaker. but i guarantee there is protection on the circuit. if it was a circuit breaker my lights would never warm up, they would blink on and off! if it was a fuse, well....you know the rest so really, the wires are the last thing i would worry about.

I wouldn't put money on the blowing a fuse or circuit breaker before melting wiring and connectors. This was the light switch connector on my 95

Here'* that switch. It got hot enough to melt through the high temp plastic.


Your older car may be different as metioned before. You may be lucky so far. I honestly do not know, what I am positive about is the ability to melt wires and items through heat. You may not blow anything before the wires melt. Whenever possible follow the manfacturers instructions on how to install aftermarket devices. Remembering our cars were not designed for the equipment originally.

wow, looks like you let the magic smoke out of your switch! was that from your HID lights or did something else cause that? i'm curious, what kind of ballasts did you have? there are some cheap ballasts out there that do not have much protection and will fry themselves. I've got Denso ballasts. They're pretty smart and won't kill themselves, they shut down if they detect any problems... I've also heard that Hella and Osram (Sylvania) have good ballasts, I don't know of anything else, but I would probably stay away from cheap off brand ballasts... Maybe that'* why it overloaded your switch/harness. As for WHY the fuse did not blow, I have no idea. I suppose it could be drawing near maximum current from the fuse, which would not cause the fuse to blow, or it could have been a defective fuse. I've seen that before also. especially when you're drawing near the current limit, i've seen the fusible element do all sorts of things..including glow red hot, catch the plastic around it on fire, all sorts of bad things! If you have a good ballast you shouldn't have to worry about any of the wiring in your car. cheap ballast owners....it'* a gamble i guess! but the illumination sure is awesome! lol

No HID lights..No ballasts. Pure stock. one of the grounding wires had gotten pulled or something. I got the car that way. Only symptom I got was it had no parking lights if you pulled the switch to the first position. Everything worked great otherwise. I happened to be working on the cluster and decided to take a look.

My point is, it doesn't take much and fuses/circuit breakers might not trip. Just basically be careful. We'd hate to see your car get burned up.

I've seen similar, um, meltage on perfectly-functioning, high-capacity circuits with slightly grubby connections. The resistance of high current flow trying to get through poor connections causes excessive heat buildup and (in rare cases) outright arcing. Meltdown city.

One classic case occurs regularly in GM cars of the '70s to '80s in the high-speed blower wiring harness under the hood, in an in-line connector in the power lead between the alternator and the high-speed blower bypass relay on the firewall. The symptom is an A/C-heater fan that works in all speed settings except High: lower speeds run through the resistor pack; High speed runs through the bypass relay. The high current flow causes the in-line harness connector to melt. (The current draw is even higher as the blower motor ages, which aggravates the whole problem.)

-- Andy