I was thinking back to when I developed this kit and all of the ideas that floated around. I wanted the kit to be plug and play so that it would be 100% reversible. As many know, stock H1 halogen bulbs get their power by a 1/4" female terminal pressed onto the back of the bulb. Ground is achieved through contact with the base of the bulb. In the Elise/Exige, the ground wire attaches via a smaller female terminal. Have a look here:
Larger version can be seen here:
http://www.elisetalk.com/gallery/sho...&original=1&c=
The lowbeam connectors are on the top right next to my yellow text. Notice how the original ground wire coming from the connector is a heavy gauge. It has to be since it grounds the highbeam, lowbeam, parking light, and side reflector light. Somewhere in the wrapped part, Lotus splits the large ground to the individual wires (it probably isn't very pretty).
It's my guess that certain vendors offering their alternative plug-n-play kit will either pass two additional wires past the grommet with the appropriate 1/4" male terminal and smaller male terminal for power and ground. Or, if the wires aren't sent into the grommet, the original connectors are pulled back through the grommet....and you lose the weather sealing of the grommet.
I thought back to one of Doma's comment (
http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/show...98&postcount=5):
Quote:
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Originally Posted by doma
The quality of the connectors included in this kit are tops. Any EE's out there like me will get a big grin looking at them. They match the connectors on the car perfectly.
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I remember reading this and smiling that someone out there truly appreciated the custom harness. The connectors match the car perfectly because
everything in the harness are the
exact same parts that Lotus uses. My thought was to get the power and ground as early as possible--elegantly and cleanly. I crimp my terminals using a professional crimper with no solder whatsoever. I also use wire seals on all wires to preserve the factory's weatherproof quality:
An example of a link from the female connector to the male connector:
And when it all comes together, you get the lowbeam solution like this:
And the lowbeam/highbeam custom harness:
If you're with me so far, thanks for reading.
