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TekNinja81

H7 Male-Female wire harness/pigtail?

12 posts in this topic

Howdy folks,

I noticed a while back that my 2010 Pure has short extensions (pigtails or wire harnesses if you will) which are connected in between the car's wiring and the low-beam H7 bulbs. The high-beams do not have these.

The pigtail on my driver-side lowbeam was partially broken when I got the car, and today some of it melted, causing the low-beam to short out. Tested the bulb directly with the car's wiring and it worked perfectly, so I've removed the pigtail for now.

My question is this: Is this a factory-installed part that I actually need to replace, or am I perfectly fine without it? (If those of you with 451s, especially 2010 models, could check your car to see if you have the same pigtail that would help a ton!)

I found a similar-looking harness via Google listed as an "upgraded harness for high-powered halogen upgrades" (so I'm assuming HID kit)... Picture is attached:

post-15395-0-64703600-1438525170_thumb.jpg

(edited for clarity)

Edited by TekNinja81

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A correction:

The harness/pigtail shown above is NOT identical to what came out of my car. The female end does have the shroud/plastic cover, but the male end is simply a pair of exposed, separate spades which plugged into the car's wire harness. The wires are also both black.

Here's a photo of the actual piece pulled out of the car.

post-15395-0-65118000-1438537547_thumb.jpg

I note that the car's wiring harness seems to have 3 wires leading into its shroud, vs the only 2 wires in this pigtail. I doubt there's any significance to that, but again if anyone has input I would greatly appreciate it.

Edited by TekNinja81

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That may be smart's resistor fix for the issue of low beam bulbs burning out prematurely.

Edited by Huronlad

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That may be smart's resistor fix for the issue of low beam bulbs burning out prematurely.

Doesn't seem to have any kind of resistor or any other electronics on the pigtail, rather simply the wires and spade connectors. Unless the wire itself acts as a resistor?

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HIDs typically draw 35W per bulb, whereas "high-power halogen upgrades" are usually halogen bulbs with outputs in excess of 100W (meant for off-road use only), requiring beefier wires and connectors, and almost always using local relays allowing direct connection of large-gauge wires to the battery.

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Thanks for the responses so far; however, I still do not know if these were factory-installed parts or an aftermarket add-on from the previous owner. I'll likely be replacing it/them regardless to be safe, but I'd still like to know whether they're actually necessary in my car.

Would those of you with 451s (especially if a 2010) mind checking in your low-beam housing to see if you have such a pigtail connected?

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looks like an modification part to me, take a small mirror and look in to the head light see if the original wire and socket is still in side and go from there.

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looks like an modification part to me, take a small mirror and look in to the head light see if the original wire and socket is still in side and go from there.

As far as I can tell, the (3-wired) connector and socket inside the low-beam housing is the factory wiring. The 2-wired pigtail above was connected to that as an extension for some reason, perhaps just as a backup in case heat from the bulb would melt the plastic as mentioned above.

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Then it was done for ease of exchanging the bulb. If you are ok with changing the low beams with out the pig tails then leave them off.

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This is what I was hoping/thinking (and/or that it was part of a previously-removed headlight upgrade etc and no longer necessary.) So far everything's been fine using the factory wiring, which I will be particularly careful with.

As mentioned before, I'll probably end up replacing it with another/higher-quality set of pigtails just for the extra peace of mind, if I find a decently-priced set. But at least I know I don't *need* to now. Thanks all!

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Thought I should share a piece of info I came across this morning totally by accident -- so as it turns out, Huronlad you were right, the harness/pigtail I was inquiring about *IS* the one MB/Smart issued/sold as a resistor fix to extend headlight bulb life. Check this link out over at Flying Tiger...

http://shop.flyingtiger.ca/index.php?p=product&id=3408

Part# is "A 451 540 23 06" per MB/Smart and it is an OEM kit, which FT sells for $45. My understanding is it's a pair of bulbs plus the harness set; I'm wondering if the harness set itself is sold separately... Going to inquire at a Smart dealer, but otherwise I guess I'll be ordering one of these kits -- the same headlight I've since been running without the harness burnt out suddenly the other night, yet the filament inside appears intact, so I'm thinking this may be why.

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