Headlamp wire burning up!

Greetings,
I hope someone here can help. My dad's DD is an '02 Subaru Forester. The driver's headlamp, a halogen, would work intermittently. I discovered, the rubber plug where the bulb is hooked to the wire harness was all melted on the center of the 3 connections. So off to the junkyard I went. I spliced in a replacement plug, soldered and heat shrink tube around the wires.
Worked well for another month. My new harness is now melted in the same fashion. The owner's manual specs a 12v-60/55W HB2 (H4) bulb. The bulb in question says HB2 DOT 12V 60/55W H4 U37R

So it appears the bulb is correct. Could simply having oil/fingerprints on the glass of the bulb cause the wiring harness to melt?!
I intend to replace the bulb even though it is not burnt out, because the contact has some signs of melting/extreme heat.
Thanks for any help!
-Lee

I doubt your finger oils have anything to do with it, ive seen these lamps fall out of the housing and melt a 4" slot in the headlight without burning out. bad ground? idonno. could you add some relays? it would remove the load from the melting wire.

Get some HID's. They are cooler and draw less current. Problem kinda solved.:p

could it be just a bad bulb? Somehow a reject at the factory? The bright lamps work perfect (same bulb, different filament) So, I should install a HID bulb? Should I replace the Pass. Side as well?
thanks,
Lee

gawd don't confuse the poor kid.

Well, I joined a subaru forum. As it turns out, this is a very common problem for the forester, especially the '02 like ours, and the older ones as well. Seems the fix is to install a CLEAN new bulb with conductive grease, not dielectric, install an aftermarket ceramic connector and remove the relay for the driving lights, so the headlamps only come on with the switch at night.
Thanks for the help anyway, guys.
-Lee

So you don't have fogs anymore? I'd just relay in the whole system and use the factory wiring to activate the relays. The system is obviously getting to much load on everything. Old Audi's do this as well. The cure is to add relays to the system.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GLHNSLHT2

So you don't have fogs anymore? I'd just relay in the whole system and use the factory wiring to activate the relays. The system is obviously getting to much load on everything. Old Audi's do this as well. The cure is to add relays to the system.

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Agreed, ceramic connector might help but its masking the problem and might move it somewhere else, say under the dash? :( Older Mustangs suffer the same fate, too much amperage thru the circuit, relay it and forget it.

Ok, so this relay, I would need to know what type/size and where to wire it in? I understand what a relay does on a basic level, but i'm not sure how to go about wiring it correctly.
-Lee

You run power from the battery to the relay, then to your headlights, then to a good ground, Then you run your stock headlight wire to the other terminal on the relay and then one to ground. The battery supplies the main coil in the relay it's power to send to the headlights, and the stock headlight wiring turns the switch on. Takes very little power to turn the switch on so you don't burn up the stock headlight wiring as it's just turning on the power. Here's a diagram made to show you how to wire up fogs but it works for headlights too, just need to have two relays, one for high beams, one for low.

http://www.rallylights.com/hella/Images/auxLamp.gif

http://www.rallylights.com/hella/AuxLampWiring.aspx

Damn that looks really crappy in TM DARK scheme, just go to the URL.