Melted My Boot Handle

CleanSC · #1 07-03-2007, 06:23 AM

Just a heads up for you guys. Watch the wattages when you're changing bulbs to hyperwhites or whatever. I bought some festoons from Autolumination and they lovingly failed to mention they were 200% the stock wattage. They melted my boot handle, my rally stripes, the back housing, and the clear light lenses.

Identical damage to both sides. Car only has 3k miles.

I have a WTB in the classifieds for these parts. If you got 'em, let me know!

Outside damage:

Stock bulb put back in place:

Underside of boot handle damage, directly above the bulb:

Back housing cracked from heat, area behind the bulb:

Back housing area, below the bulb. This damage matches the melted lenses shown further down:

Heat damaged clear lens. They no longer stay on the car at this point. Broken tab:

Melted centers matching back housing shot above:

The lense should be flat. Notice the warping and bowing. This is why they don't stay on the car anymore. Garbage at this point.

Bleh. Again, if you have an Astro Black spare boot handle, let me know!

chisss · #2 07-03-2007, 06:49 AM

dude! that IS horrible... good luck with the purchase

MDK · #3 07-03-2007, 07:43 AM

Wow- that must have some heat put off by those bulbs-I'm glsd it didn't damage your wiring.

minjae · #4 07-03-2007, 07:45 AM

ouch. def gotta watch for the watts on the bulbs. check twice. buy once.

but hopefully someone on the forums can help you out.

CleanSC · #5 07-03-2007, 08:03 AM

Usually I'm a HUGE stickler for things like wattages, amperages and such.

But it didn't even occur to me to check the wattage on these bulbs either with my instruments or just by looking at the wattage printed right on them!

You slip once and you melt your car.

Oh well, it was my mistake.

I still think it's a bad design. It's just TOO HOT in there. I've seen OEM bulbs do some damage too just not this bad. There's other threads on that. There's not enough room in the handle to dissipate all that heat. And there's no metal heat shield at all - something all my japanese cars have/have had -- even in the reverse lights which are extremely low duty cycle versus license lights that are 100% duty cycle.

Oh well. I slipped by assuming they'd be the same wattage. Autolumination should LIST THE WATTAGES on their site to avoid these things.

cooper99 · #6 07-03-2007, 08:07 AM

Oh no! I have the the hyperwhite festoons from Autolumination in now! Thanks for the warning!

CleanSC · #7 07-03-2007, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooper99

Oh no! I have the the hyperwhite festoons from Autolumination in now! Thanks for the warning!

How long have they been in?

BoarderDave · #8 07-03-2007, 11:40 AM

Wow. That looks terrible. Hopefully you get everything fixed up quickly.

Thanks for warning everyone.

**Poppa Bear** · #9 07-03-2007, 10:52 PM

CleanSC, sorry to read about your troubles and I do hope that this gets resolved quickly. And I was worried that the stock bulbs were causing damage on my threads about this!!! Gonna stay stock. Good luck.

Cheers!!

tigwantstoplay · #10 07-04-2007, 12:12 AM

Oh no!

Thanks for sharing your story and warning the rest of us, but I'm so sorry it was such a painful learning experience.

CleanSC · #11 07-04-2007, 08:15 AM

Poppa: Yes I think the stock bulbs are enough to cause problems. I had observed the handle looking funny even before I put the Autolumimation bulbs in. I had just figured it was the way the plastic was cast and the slight distortion was result of the metal heat shield attached on the other side! LOL I wish. That shield doesn't exist.

Tig: These things happens when you mod, so no biggie. I've surely made much larger mistakes including melting a brand new Lexus tail light in the oven!

(Which BTW, in the end was worth it.

)

If ANYONE sees any slight distortion on the their handles over the bulbs, I'd look into the LED conversion. The housing is just too small for the heat.

So the big question here is... Am I the only one this has happened to? I mean, Coopers have been out for a long time, how am I the first to report this on NAM so late in the game? Maybe the later models are using crappier plastic in the boot handles?

Thanks for all the help, fellas.

mehill · #12 07-04-2007, 08:33 AM

FYI CleanSC , about a year ago I replaced almost all my interior and exterior bulbs with LED's from autolumination and I haven't had any problems. Thanks for the heads up, though. I'm going to take a closer look to make sure nothing is slowly melting inside.

chpsk8 · #13 07-04-2007, 09:10 AM

Wow. That really sucks.
I did see a chrome replacement boot handle in the marketplace late last week.
Good luck.

CleanSC · #14 07-05-2007, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mehill

FYI CleanSC , about a year ago I replaced almost all my interior and exterior bulbs with LED's from autolumination and I haven't had any problems. Thanks for the heads up, though. I'm going to take a closer look to make sure nothing is slowly melting inside.

To clarify I'm not using LED's. These are standard incandescent hyperwhite replacement bulbs from Autolumination.

I would have gone LED from the start but this damn car flickers them all over the place when they are off. Ugh.

MiniTron · #15 07-05-2007, 02:28 PM

Sounds like a good excuse to get one of those nifty carbon fiber plinthes. Would look nice on your Astro Black car.

CleanSC · #16 07-06-2007, 07:28 AM

I hear ya but man those things are PRICEY for what they are. Sheesh.

For about the same price I got my TSW springs which do a hell of a lot more for me on a daily basis than a 2" thick CF strip.

Plus being a lease I still need (eventually) an Astro Black handle to return the car with.

DixonL2 · #17 07-06-2007, 07:49 AM

I've been considering finding another color boot handle and covering it in carbon-fiber-look decal tape to mimic the guys who spent $200+ on the carbon-fiber version, just a thought... would get you by until an AB color one comes up...

rc46badmofo · #18 07-21-2007, 12:03 PM

I have a spare Pepper white one.

**Tüls** · #19 07-21-2007, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CleanSC

To clarify I'm not using LED's. These are standard incandescent hyperwhite replacement bulbs from Autolumination.

I would have gone LED from the start but this damn car flickers them all over the place when they are off. Ugh.

I have had mine for years...

this is an important differnce... LED use a percent of the power a normal bulb does... and are not nearly as hot... I was like WTF? when I first read your post.... LOL

ha ha they only flicker while the ECU is still thinking... etc.. after a while it stops... LOL everyone alwasy gets a kick out of it at night... they flash when you start the car too...

Latka · #20 07-21-2007, 10:30 PM

If they're flashing any time... even when you start the car your local law enforcement folks may not look too kindly on them. It's amazing what they think passes for impersonating a police officer around here. Just because you have a flashing blue LED on your dash for your anti-theft devices doesn't mean you think you're Starsky & Hutch all of the sudden!