Headlight Recall

[tmandoug1]

Quick question for those of you that got the headlight recall. Has anyone had a failure of the relay wiring harness? I had a headlight out on passenger side and went through normal trouble shooting procedures only to find out one of the relays shorted and melted the plastic. Anyone else have any issues? It looks like a plug and play so I am not sure what could have caused it other than a stuck relay. All fuses are good to go. Thank for all help.

[ddowntown]

Originally Posted by tmandoug1

Quick question for those of you that got the headlight recall. Has anyone had a failure of the relay wiring harness? I had a headlight out on passenger side and went through normal trouble shooting procedures only to find out one of the relays shorted and melted the plastic. Anyone else have any issues? It looks like a plug and play so I am not sure what could have caused it other than a stuck relay. All fuses are good to go. Thank for all help.

Yes, I did have the same issue, I had the dealer remove the harness, everything is back to normal, the relay is bad, have not taken the time to replace the relay. It would turn the daylight headlights on and off momentarily while driving as evidenced by the the display going from light to dark.

[Greenbarn1]

My display goes from light to dark driving down road. I also had recall done and first time I drove a night my low and high beams shutoff going down a dark highway at 65 mph. I quickly shutoff head light switch and my day time driving lights came back on. Terrible thing to happen on a dark highway. Called newmar and freightliner and they all said they never heard of a problem.
Carl 2014 dutchstar 4364

[capnqball]

Can someone elaborate on the headlight recall?? Years, models affected?

I have not heard of this before.

[Dav L]

I thought the recall was to change that the low beams are also on with the high beams?

A relay that melts is typically due to lots of contact / release that each cycle puts a pit on the contact surfaces. Over many uses, the pit grows to the point that the relay either gets stuck closed and / or high resistance of the contacts which then causes heat and meltdown. Easy fix: remove the relay, clean the contacts on the harness and replace the relay.

[ddowntown]

You are correct, it was a recall so both low and high beams will illuminate when the high beams were activated. It involved a wire harness between the original harness. The new harness had a large relay. Mine had an issue and would turn the lights on and off, you could hear and feel the relay click and was hot to the touch, the very typical failure symptoms of a bad relay. I removed the darn thing, the headlights are bright and illuminate properly at high and low beams IMHO.

[ScotS]

An overheating relay and melted contacts are a sign of an under rated relay in either voltage or amperage. Sounds like a larger capacity relay is required.