Last night was a good night for being a car enthusiast. Some of the metro area car owners that were in hibernation all winter gathered once again for a new season. I had been experiencing odd problems with my Street Glow headlights. I love the blue look and received several complements on the style. I installed them last year and had no problems with them until Friday night.
The problem I was having is that the passenger side headlight would dim but not completely darken and at other times work just fine. When the problem occurred, I noticed a dim blue headlight icon displayed on the dash panel. This is the indicator used for High Beams and can be found on the gauge cluster. As the story goes, at the end of the meet I turned the car on and found that my Headlights had completely failed and I was 15 miles from home.
I enjoyed seeing Mad 3-R and Wife (Phil & Natasha) and we had an unscheduled micro meet in Sterling VA. Little did I know that this was going to be a long night? After everyone took a stab at identifying the electoral problem we decided to attempt to take the car home with no lights. I know we could have called a tow truck, but darn, I am tired of seeing my car on the back of a flat bed. So as the story goings, Phil and Natasha escorted Mrs. Merc and me back home. Within fifty feet or better I realized I had another issue that would complicate the return trip home. I only had 2 gears and the transmission would not shift. At forty miles an hour I was turning 3800 RPM’s. Can you imagine this, two Marauders with hazard lights flashing in the middle of the night doing 35-40 MPH in a 55 zone. I could almost read the lips on the State Troopers face, “ What the ****** is that”. Luckily he was busy with some other roadside victim. Further down the road a County Police officer pulled up on my rear and I thought this would be a problem or maybe an opportunity. On the positive side, I could use a police escort home. He shadowed me for a 1/4 of a mile and then broke off.
After the excitement was over we dropped the car off at the dealership. The bottom line is that these aftermarket lights melted my connector plugs located on the headlight assembly. No related fuses were blown. I should be back on the road after a part order. The service manager stated that there is a service notice concerning this issue. I am now going back to factory lights.
Many thanks to Phil and Natasha for getting us home in style and helping out a brother Marauder owner. I owe you guys a dinner at your favorite steak house next week.