Bulb wattage for spots

Post by **kazbah** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 10:22 pm

Hi all,

I took the dash apart today to fit my new white dials and chrome cups and as I was about to disconnect the driving lights (pre facelift) I accidently pressed the button to turn them on. I noticed that firstly there was a burnt connection on the plug but also the wires were very hot..... Like OUCH! hot

So does anyone know what the max wattage for the bulbs in the driving lights is cos I surmise that mine are WAAAAYY too high!! Dont want the car to go up in smoke now that I have the dials fitted and on the group buy for the "leather" seat covers...

Ther · Post by **Ther** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:09 am

what do you refer to "driving lights"....
you mean your low beams?..or the interior lights?

Post by **kazbah** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:18 am

Ther wrote:what do you refer to "driving lights"....
you mean your low beams?..or the interior lights?

The bottom lights in the bumper, I suppose they could also be called fog lights??? The button on the right had side of the dash turns them on/off..

Ther · Post by **Ther** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:24 am

ok so you're talking about the bulb in the switch or the actual bulb in the bumper light...
if you're talking about the switch ..its a bit of fiddling to change that as you need to open the plastic casing on it...its a tiny bulb..

Post by **kazbah** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:53 am

Ther wrote:ok so you're talking about the bulb in the switch or the actual bulb in the bumper light...
if you're talking about the switch ..its a bit of fiddling to change that as you need to open the plastic casing on it...its a tiny bulb..

No I'm talking about the bulb in the bumper. I think the wattage is too high and is causing the wiring to overheat. I'm just wondering if anyone knows what the max wattage of these bulbs should be?

cheers

Ther · Post by **Ther** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:59 am

ahhhh..

well thats 55w...

Post by **kazbah** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 12:37 pm

Ther wrote:ahhhh..
well thats 55w...

excellent - thanks. I'll check what bulbs are in there

Cheers

Luca · Post by **Luca** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:09 pm

Hey Kazbah,

The reason your fog/spot light switch is burning our is cos Mitsubishi didn't think to wire them up with a relay. Burning out this switch is a common occurence.

How to fix.
1. first check that the wiring loom plug has not melted. If it has try to aquire one from a wrecker. You can't buy just the plug because Misubishi sell the wiring loom as one massive piece of spaghetti.

2. If your switch is burnt out, replace it with an original (this will be better off than getting one from a wrecker which is probably half melted anyway)... and they only cost $30 something anyway

3. Buy a high amp relay from either an auto electric distibuter or Jaycar. and wire it up. If you're not sure how to do it then I can email you a diagram. Alternatively, an auto electirican can do this for about $50.

And your all done. No more melted switches

Let me know if you need a hand.

Luca

Post by **smorison** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 11:31 pm

i've been through 2 of those switches over the years....

they're pretty easy to get... but yeah putting in a relay is useful

Luca · Post by **Luca** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 12:01 am

Yeah ... Mitsi must have realised it is a problem cos they keeps a stock of them

I got fed up when I partially melted my loom plug, after the third switch. So I did some digging around and fixed it once and for all

payaya · Post by **payaya** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 4:49 am

well ive melted three of them.

I ended up hooking up a seperate switch with relays.