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I have a short in my harness, that goes from the lights and into the main body harness. I believe it's the Driver's side light.
I was told by my shop, that it's not a modular harness and is actually intergrated into the main body harness. How do I replace the headlight harness, if it's part of the body harness and does not unplug from it? Can what I need just be cut out?
Also all the headlight connectors are basically trashed too.
Does anyone have this, that they'd be willing to sell?
I'd unwrap what you have and repair it. Then re-wrap it with shrink tubing and harness wrap. The problems are likely to be found at harness junctions and bulkhead pass through locations. Get a good multimeter and test the wires for continuity and be very methodical and deliberate here.
As to a source for your headlight connectors, find a well stocked Dorman small parts rack at the best auto parts store in town. Take pictures of your connectors before you go. Somebody in your town will have that connector.
I was told by my shop, that it's not a modular harness and is actually intergrated into the main body harness.
Don't believe your shop. The wiring on this car is really odd because of the pop-up lights and they could be making some bad assumptions on this car. (That might be good assumptions on other cars.)
What is the problem you are having. Just a single corroded terminal in one headlight motor connector can make it look like the lighting circuitry is globally shorted out. (affecting both sides)
The motors are fine, it the lights themselves. I know that the plugs to the bulbs are not the best and they have been repined, but on the driver side, apparently there's a short in the part of the harness that's in the body harness.
That socket you see on the bulb is connected on a short lead of wires into the motor connector body. That connector (at the motor) has 5 wires: motor ground, motor power, bulb ground, low beam power, high beam power. When you buy a new motor, you get a new lead and socket for the bulb.
That connector body is notoriously badly sealed and corrodes. The low beam and high beam power and ground can short to the motor power and ground, which makes it look like an issue further up the harness. A bad motor connector on one side (which includes the bulb wires) can cause both bulbs to act weird and look bad. (like an issue in the body harness)
If you can share what your symptoms are, we can give you some easy diagnostics to isolate the problem.
When I've had this issue, (multiple times) it would manifest in a number of ways:
- my high beams and low beams would swap
- one bulb or both bulb(s) would be dim on one or both filaments
- one or both bulb(s) would be double bright
- the high beam switch would do nothing
- my high beams and low beams would swap
- one bulb or both bulb(s) would be dim on one or both filaments
- one or both bulb(s) would be double bright
- the high beam switch would do nothing
Yep. This is classic corrosion in the headlight door motor connector. (The specific corrosion causing these problems involves the headlight bulb wires that go through that connector.) My car looked and behaved exactly like this the other month.
The terminals can be cleaned up with dentist tools and some emory cloth. The job is a little dexterous and a PITA, but requires no parts. Just patience and time.
Sounds like it would be easier and cheaper to just replace the motors. Crazy!
Tonight they were acting up again. Light on low, all 4 were on, but both drivers were dim and the pass 'bright' was dim, while the low looked normal.
It's nuts trying to drive with the car like this. The problem with replacing the motors is that job is also a PITA and it only replaces one side of the connector. The other half is on the body harness.
What this really needs is for us to have very little hands:
I expect this may be a rough one for you to do at home. I feel some killer arthritis when I get into mine, but I expect your mechanic should be able to handle it easy. If they are a doubter, just have them unplug the motor connectors one-by-one, and then the other side will act normally when the offending connector is unplugged.
Even when replacing the motor, that other connector end attached to the car still needs to be polished out. The male terminals are a lot easier to hit with emory cloth. The female terminals aren't as important. Just taking a small tool or awl and scratching them up a little is usually enough.
It's primarily a race shop, so these little jobs are time eaters and not money makers... time is money. I guess I'll just get 4 new connectors and have him splice them in... should be faster, I would think. No?
However, I was thinking of doing the LED headlight mod, that uses the truck light. Would any of this matter or will I still need to do it? Not sure if the connectors need to be replaced with the mod. I don't want to wast money on connectors, if they're only going to be cut out and replaced with something different.
You still need the wiring working correctly regardless of which bulbs you use.
I'm 99.9% confident his wiring is fine as this has happened to me multiple times. The corrosion builds up in the connector and the bulb wires short to each other and the ground. (Just like they would if there was a cut in the harness.)
Originally Posted by RONIN LSX
It's primarily a race shop, so these little jobs are time eaters and not money makers... time is money. I guess I'll just get 4 new connectors and have him splice them in... should be faster, I would think. No?
However, I was thinking of doing the LED headlight mod, that uses the truck light. Would any of this matter or will I still need to do it? Not sure if the connectors need to be replaced with the mod. I don't want to wast money on connectors, if they're only going to be cut out and replaced with something different.
If you are going to go with new connectors, you can wait until you need to change the motor. (New connectors will just corrode again, anyway.) You could just splice the wires in directly. If you ever need to change the motor, just cut the splices and then put the connector in then, or do another straight connection.
The LMC truck light mod makes no difference. That job only involves the bulb connector, which isn't the cause of your problem here. The LMC truck lights come with a loose connector adapter. You can also splice in new connectors for the new bulb type. (I crimped mine in.) Here's my LMC thread if you want to check out what the new connectors look like at the bulb: https://ls1tech.com/forums/wiring-st...ht-option.html
^ There's some great discussion in that thread about splicing and VIP1 has some great advice on the best bulb choices for the housings.
I'm 99.9% confident his wiring is fine as this has happened to me multiple times. The corrosion builds up in the connector and the bulb wires short to each other and the ground. (Just like they would if there was a cut in the harness.)
That's what I meant. I was just referring to him wondering if swapping in LEDs will make the problem go away (it won't).
Regarding LMC Truck Headlights and LED, I have the LMC Truck High Beams and LED in them. Came out nice. I have HID Projectors for low beam though.
Regarding LMC Truck Headlights and LED, I have the LMC Truck High Beams and LED in them. Came out nice. I have HID Projectors for low beam though.
Are there LED direct-fit bulbs now? The last I checked (it was probably a year or so) the form factor wasn't out. (As far as I could tell.) If so, is there a particular brand you settled on?
Yes there are plenty of direct fit LED of varying quality. The ones most likely to work well have a thin strip of LEDs in a line that is the same shape/position/orientation as the original bulb's filament.
However, drop-in LED are trial-and-error / hit-or-miss if they work well in the the housing to produce a good beam. The ones I bought worked in the high beam.
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Issues with headlight harness 02 Trans Am 
