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Headlight harness upgrade

5K views 15 replies 6 participants last post by  NickD 
#1 ·
Hey guys, so I recently ordered the putco headlight harness upgrade, and I'm just waiting for it to arrive, but in the mean time I wanna know exactly what I'll be needing to successfully install the harness, I've seen a video that shows an install but doesn't use any capacitors or resistors, so idk if I need them or not, but I could use the help with it, thanks


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#8 ·
A fuse is cheap protection and much easier to replace than a burnt harness or whatever a "voltage protector" is. Properly fusing any and all wiring connections within 18-inches of the battery is recommended for ALL aftermarket wiring you add to you car no matter what the accessory is. It would be a shame to have the wire short for whatever reason without a fuse and burn the car to the ground rather than simply blow a fuse!!!

It is irresponsible to recommend someone not use a fuse whether there is a built in "voltage protector" or not. Especially as a "voltage protector" would simply protect a device downstream from too high or too low voltage not have anything to do with current protection at a constant voltage as would be the case with a shorted wire.

Sorry to be so blunt. But as an electrical engineer and former mobile electronics installer it really bothers me when I hear something like this that could severely compromise someone's car for no reason.
 
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#9 ·
hey im all for fuses but if its not needed its not needed. i didn't make the harness with the built in protection but i plan on using in line fuses. i have 3 watertight ones from my motorcycle repairs so im getting my moneys worth. you can add them as a extra precaution but its not required. many members are running without them and they are fine.

its not irresponsible if the harness has a fail safe already
 
#12 ·
The harness has built in fusible links, negating the need for separate inline fuses.
10-4 a fusible link is different than voltage protection, which will do nothing for a short. Personally I would still use fuses rather than a fusible link as replacing a fuse is much easier than replacing a fusible link.
 
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#11 ·
Ha, that post dates back to 03-17-2012 that caused me concerned. With engine running to get 14.5 volts, check the voltage drop between both the positive and negative battery terminals to their respective terminals directly at the headlamp sockets.

Was only seeing about 0.2 volts maximum, wasn't worth fooling with, unless you got a harness made by some Chinese factory that was cheating.

Incandescent are strictly pure DC, capacitors won't do anything, nothing to filter. Could be a major problem with HID's with some steep current peaks.

If I was seeing a larger voltage drop, like a total of greater than 0.5 volts, GM would have heard from me. Head lamps are only 65 watts, at 14.5 volts only draw 4.5 amps. The one on the right hand side is worst case, has the longer run. Voltage drops can also be in the BCM or the fuse relay box, voltage originates from the battery terminals, so have to pinpoint where these drops are. Also have to check the voltage drops on the dims and the brights, two different circuits.
 
#15 ·
Thank you all for the input, I was finally able to install the harness, it wasn't too bad and I got to brush up on my soldering skills, haha, anyways, didn't have any triune with the lights turning on and off, I'll have to wait unlit to check for a difference, and I'm using xtreme vision bike btw
 
#16 ·
View attachment 183697

For years, GM an other Domestics were using a super fast acting circuit breaker for head lamps, the Japanese started using fast blowing fuses, and for whatever reason, GM copied this. Each head lamp filament has its own fast blowing fuse, and once blown, have to be replaced. They are all in that under hood fuse/relay box along with the DRL point contacts.

GM was using a self cleaning sliding type switch for head lamps. One spec of carbon on these point contacts, won't get that lamp on. The fuses themselves add two more non-molecular touching type contacts, augmented by corrosion due to road salt.

Daytime running lights, complicated the heck out of these circuits, because people are too stupid to switch on their lights when conditions call for it, and if that BCM crashes, its a computer, can loose all of your headlamps. Some guys go nuts trying to troubleshoot these circuits.

But the bottom line, already have fuses, why even add more? Just more problems.
 
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