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It's called liquid electrical tape.. buy some and start painting..
I recently bought some liquid electrical tape and still have it but the wires no longer look like in that photo. They are basically bare and I'd need like a gallon of liquid tape.
I saw $1,500 for the set but that's Hella brand. $775 for one ($1,500 for Genuine BMW). I spent two hours last night using spiral cut wire wrap but the wire insulation is so brittle, it kept flaking off the more I wrapped. I think imma do the 2 hours electrical taping gig. Only wires close to the main bulb are affected. All of the other wires are in great condition.
Hella is the OEM for the OE. They are the same minus the BMW logo.
My wiring harness is disintegrating right before my very eyes like on Avengers: Infinity War. I'm pricing headlight assemblies. I see a decent pre-owed one with wiring harness in good condition for $370.
Like I was saying, the rest of the wiring harness looks fanfargintastic. All wires close to the bulb, not so much. It seems like BMW underestimated the heat in that area. If I would have known that ahead of time, I could have easily covered them with heat insulation material, kapton tape, I think even electrical tape is heat resistant up to 190F.
While I was pricing pre-owed headlights, I'm glad some showed the inside because their wiring harnesses aren't looking the greatest in that area either. I did see only one that was nice. Kind of makes me want to just pony up and get the Hellas or maybe the set even. I just remembered my indy mechanic offered and can buy me parts wholesale. Imma hit him up.
If you're going to buy replacements get them new. I think I have a new driver side assembly you can get for the low. Lol
Yeah you're right. Buying pre-owned is like a crap shoot.
The assembly I'm working on is the passenger side. Something tells me the same phenomenon is occurring on the driver side too.
Upon digging deeper into the abyss, I removed all wiring zip ties, unclipped wire retainers, took out the leveling motor and now I can see exactly where the damage ends. I have seventeen exposed wires with most being bare.
BTW, I see Hella labeling inside instead of BMW.
I can't use electrical tape due to the wires tight spacing but spiral cut wire wrap will do the trick though. The wrap I tried before worked but was too thick and so I'm going to order the thin-walled version.
While sitting here staring at my open head light assembly, something just dawned on me. I initially said the bulb heat was the culprit but looking at the specific wires damaged, I see a pattern. Some are not even close to the bulbs but all affected wires are close to the rear of the assembly. Also, those same bundles are unaffected a couple of inches inward.
Except there is one wire bundle at the rear that was not affected at all. But why? I noticed those wires are inside a thick covering.
I now strongly believe that the cause is engine heat and not bulb heat. I state this because every wire that is right at the rear is affected and no where else on those same wires.
I haven't started covering wires just yet because I'm waiting for high temp spiral cut wire wrap I ordered to arrive. It can withstand heat up to 500F. If I had known of this ahead of time, I could have easily covered those rear covers inside with some kapton tape which is fire resistant to 600F. This is all in theory but seems highly plausible.
09-04-2020, 03:15 PM
