offroad light issues

[87glsubie]

How would i go about wiring up a relay for my offroad lights to click over with my high beams. i want them to turn off and on with my high beams but its stumping me. ive been doing voltage checks and what not and have concluded theres a groound side switch blehhh.. help plz

[2.5_IMP]

I remember when I wired my Hellas, the wiring diagram showed a way to wire them into the high beams. This should help:

 

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k180/corwyyn/stuff/hella-wiring.jpg

 

http://www.roversnorth.com/web/downloads/instructions/hella/hella-500-wiring-diagram.jpg

[ihscout54]

I recently upgraded my headlight system using relays, on my BRAT. Kinda dorky the way my lights were wired from the factory.

 

You need to wire the (-) post on the relay as the trigger. Tap into the wire coming from the dimmer switch or set the relay up by the lights and tap into a neg. side wire going to one of the high beams. On my car, due to the way the high beams were wired from the factory, the "brights" indicator was causing my high beams to stay on after switching to low beams. Im not sure if that will be an issue on your car with what you are doing. I just removed the indicator bulb to solve that problem, a resitor would have worked too.

 

note: if you want to use these lights w/the key off then you will need a constant for 86.

[bheinen74]

I recently upgraded my headlight system using relays, on my BRAT. Kinda dorky the way my lights were wired from the factory.

 

You need to wire the (-) post on the relay as the trigger. Tap into the wire coming from the dimmer switch or set the relay up by the lights and tap into a neg. side wire going to one of the high beams. On my car, due to the way the high beams were wired from the factory, the "brights" indicator was causing my high beams to stay on after switching to low beams. Im not sure if that will be an issue on your car with what you are doing. I just removed the indicator bulb to solve that problem, a resitor would have worked too.

 

note: if you want to use these lights w/the key off then you will need a constant for 86.

 

 

are you sure the brights indicator was the problem. When i put Hella European H1 and H4 conversion lights in my BRAT, the same thing happend, brights would not go off. I found the cause was the lights grounding out on the buckets. I used thick vinyl tape on the 4 corners on the back side of the light, to prevent the back of the lens (metal) from grounding on the bucket.

 

never had a problem since then, and the indicator lamp works as it is supposed to. I still have not installed my hella relays yet to take full advantage.

subarus use a reverse switch ground system, meaning both wires are hot all the time, unless the switch grounds them.

Edited February 26, 2010 by bheinen74

[ihscout54]

are you sure the brights indicator was the problem. When i put Hella European H1 and H4 conversion lights in my BRAT, the same thing happend, brights would not go off. I found the cause was the lights grounding out on the buckets. I used thick vinyl tape on the 4 corners on the back side of the light, to prevent the back of the lens (metal) from grounding on the bucket.

 

never had a problem since then, and the indicator lamp works as it is supposed to. I still have not installed my hella relays yet to take full advantage.

subarus use a reverse switch ground system, meaning both wires are hot all the time, unless the switch grounds them.

 

Its been 7-8 months now so its all a little fuzzy, but dumping that indicator bulb solved my issues. The way it was wired in series was causing it to enrgize the relay once it was illuminated. Only glass bulb touches my headlamp buckets.

I remember going through, the wiring diagrams, and my '82 was different from what was in the diagrams. I also had to change the setup for the aux a/c fan relay, as it was dissabled when the lights were on, stock. It caused some kind of problem too, but I just dont remember what it was.

Edited February 26, 2010 by ihscout54

[eulogious]

These are the diagrams that I made to install my off road lights. It's a little complicated using relays, but I get the relays for $3 including a harness, so that's why I did it this way...

 

 

And to add more lights

 

 

Now the first diagram has two ways to turn on the lights, one to have the lights come on with the brights, and a second one is wired to it's own lighted switch so that you can turn the lights on whenever you want, without having to turn on your brights. Then there is another lighted switch that controls the individual set of lights. My goal was to be able to turn on all the lights with the brights on, turn them all on without the brights on, and then to be able to control each pair of lights by themselves. This way when I go to wire in more lights, it's already setup for me, all I have to do is wire them in. Also I wired them this way because at no point is the power load of the lights going through any of my switches, it just goes through the 40A relay, instead of the 6A lighted switch. You could remove some of the relays, but you would be running the entire load of the lights through one of the switches, which is a bad idea, especially if you plan on adding more lights than just one set.

 

Like I said, it's a little complicated, but it allows you to have complete control of the lights, and you aren't running a large load through any switches. Let me know if you have any questions on my diagrams, I will help out as much as I can

 

Oh, and the first relay in the first diagram has the correct wires to have it come on with the brights, and only the brights. I updated this diagram after installing my lights and getting them to work they way I wanted. On my first try, they were always on with the lights, brights or no brights So after resoldering it all again, I updated the diagram so I wouldn't do that again The subaru light system is common grounded, so it's a little different than most and a little more tricky. There's some good threads about it on here, I believe skip explains it quite nicely, just search for it.

Edited February 26, 2010 by eulogious

[eulogious]

I just found this article talking about rewiring the lights with relays and it explains the high beam indicator problem. It's a good read if you want some more info on rewiring all the stock lights.

 

http://offroadingsubarus.com/headlight_relaymod.html

[Gloyale]

Just wire the Relay ground to the High beam wire.

 

Done.

 

 

 

 

If you like, you could also run a second wire through a switch to ground, so they can be turned on independent of the highbeams....just put a diode on the high beam line so power can't backfeed to the highbeams.

 

 

 

Remeber, relays can be triggered by EITHER the 12v trigger OR the Ground. Ground switched relays also eliminate the need for wire running all the way into the switch and then back to the relay, and you don't have 12v wires running through the firewall, risking shorts.

Edited February 27, 2010 by Gloyale

[coxy]

Common Japanese system where the lights are always active power wise and the earth is what is switched rather than the power circuit.

Some tips there is plenty of general information on how to wire these systems on the net,but what they don't mention is the advisability of using a non metallic body relay for this job as it must remain insulated from the body which is an earth point at all times.

There are differences in how the switches operate as well even on switched earth systems there is no set pattern of how the manufacturers do the wiring.

You must use a factory model specific wiring diagram preferably genuine as many aftermarket manuals are not accurate for wiring diagrams,with general readily available info from aftermarket lighting suppliers such as Hella or Cibie' and the factory switching diagram it isn't too hard but do study carefully first as it will save you much trouble

Switched earth systems are not as obvious as their more conventional switched power counterparts when it comes to how they are wired

[87glsubie]

lmao wow didnt expect that many replies. thank you all i appreciate it for real. ive got it figured out : D

[dragonfire]

damn thanks people good info here. as well as diagrams..