Holy smoke !

[blan 5]

After a trip to the shops today on my trusty NC, when I got back home and parked up I sensed an unpleasant odour and suddenly noticed smoke coming from the steering column area. A very quick inspection revealed a smoldering headlight bulb connector, burning my hand in the process I quickly pulled the plug and smothered it, holy crap it was melting away. I guess it teaches the importance of a good sound connection !

Edited June 15, 2023 by blan
Pic in wrong place

[listener 11,220]

 

 

I had a similar problem earlier in the year with the mains plug on my kettle.

The sparky claimed that the moulded mains plugs often have dodgy connections which cause the plastic around the live (usually) terminal elements s to melt.

I couldn't fully remove the plug from the socket, nor push it back fully in.

 

He had to replace the facia (council so no {direct} cost to me).

 

I have to say, in 45 years of working in electronics I've never seen that particular fail before.

[DaveM59 1,605]

Actually it's the most common reason for plug fires. It's not the plugs, it's worn socket sprung brass pin contacts that cause heating of the plug pins and melting plugs.
The connections inside moulded plugs are the same for ever as nothing moves or wears but the socket connectors do weaken with age. There's not much to them in the first place but some bent brass. Anything drawing a lot of power such as heaters, kettles etc usually show this problem up.

[listener 11,220]

7 hours ago, DaveM59 said:

Actually it's the most common reason for plug fires. It's not the plugs, it's worn socket sprung brass pin contacts that cause heating of the plug pins and melting plugs.
The connections inside moulded plugs are the same for ever as nothing moves or wears but the socket connectors do weaken with age. There's not much to them in the first place but some bent brass. Anything drawing a lot of power such as heaters, kettles etc usually show this problem up.

 

Maybe I misunderstood him, but I thought he specifically mention the plug - it makes sense that the contact surface of the socket would be a weak point.

Having seen some of the frighteningly shoddy crap that BigClive takes apart, it seems a lot of stuff (especially form China) is designed to kill ... 

[davebike 943]

I just remember that back when I had bikes with bulbes as I was running BIG not for road use bulbs I used to fit three seperate "large spade' connectors and left the rubber cover off so improving the cooling !  Oh I so glad for LED'S!