which wire is hot on highbeam position??

[Baysurfin]

01 Outback Wagon

 

I am trying to mount and wire a pair of driving lights with a relay onto the hot side of the highbeam so when the highbeams are activated the driving lights come on. Anyone have any ideas.....I found three (3) wire going to the lamp assembly. I tested each one and cannot find 12 volts when activated on the meter. I did notice that in the relay box under the hood on the right side has separate left and right headlamp assembly relay fuses.

 

I just need to 12 volts to activate the driving lights.

 

anyone??

 

thanks darren

[St Nickolas]

Not finding any power, I have to ask, (careful here, I may insult your intelligence ) did you turn the ignition and headlamps on? Was your meter properly grounded? Did you run your test (ignition on) with headlamps off, lows on, and again with highs on? Run reverse set of tests with meter on positive battery terminal and probe the connectors/wires to see if they are grounded.

 

Three wires should be a high beam, low beam and common. Common wire could be from power or to ground. My electrical diagram for a 98 shows that power is switched via a relay. So no power to the common wire with ignition off.

 

The other wires (low beam, high beam) would then be grounded via the headlamp switch, and high/low switch.

 

So I think a better question is: "Which wire is grounded when the highbeams are on". As such, the switching side of the relay will be hooked to the common (power) wire and the wire that is grounded when the highs are on.

 

Clear as mud?

 

Nick

[Cougar]

If you were testing the system while the lights were on, using a digital meter and properly grounded the common lead of the meter, you should have seen 12 volts DC on the common power lead to the headlight. Perhaps the reason you didn't see any DC voltage was due to the fact that the meter may have been set for reading AC volts.

[Baysurfin]

LOL....I guess I was a little vague....yes yes and yes. I was grounded,meter on dc. ign on. It was a couple weeks ago, I can't remember the actual color of which wire, however when I located the wire going to the high beam bulb I tested it. was getting 12 volts in the off position, and no volts in the on position.

 

Of course it was only about 105 dgrees outside in the shade and I was a bit irratable.

 

I was just asking before I try and tackle this again if anyone knows which wire will give me power for highbeam on activation. Maybe I will just grab it from the relay side.

 

Thanks

[Hodaka Rider]

Nick is right. Subaru headlight wiring is a little different than your average Ford, GM, and most other vehicles. When the headlight switch is turned on, +12v is sent to the common wire in the headlights. The ground is then switched to the high or low beams through the dimmer switch.

[Cougar]

As the others stated, you were on the switched ground lead when you took the reading. That is why you got 12 volts when the lights were off and while the ground lead was floating. You just need to find the correct lead between the three wires.

[Baysurfin]

thanks guys