HarryD

Stupid question of the week 2:

I noticed my left parking light was dimmer than my right one.

I found my connector with burn marks and my bulb (still working, but dim) with a ton of tarnishing/tinting, obviously from the burning connector.

I replaced the bulb and stuffed the connector with dielectric grease; it works fine.

Any thoughts on what's causing this electrical stress on that connector? Is there any danger here (don't want to burn my wiring harness or anything stupid like that).



Thanks!

zeroptzero

That is just heat from the incandescent bulb, it creates burn marks on the connector and is somewhat normal. They can put off a bit of heat.

When I replaced mine I went with LED's on the front and rear parking lamps, much less heat generated and they have a longer life.

dane795

As weird as it is I'm gonna guess its normal. My friend was working on his crown victoria today and the bulb/white base for his light switch looked the exact same (just scaled down). It wasn't burnt out he just wanted to see if he could led swap it...

sillyboybmxer

Mine is the same way. Just noticed when my new bulb burnt out already!

flanders

A bad connection can cause a lot of heat so it's good that you used dielectric grease it will probably help.

zeroptzero

These little bulbs put out some heat, much like old-school Christmas tree lights from the old days. Big difference compared to LED's.