Spotlight Troubleshooting

Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Location: Brisbane

ok, got my pair of spotties for christmas, whacked em on the bar the other day, wired em up EXACTLY like it says on the box, but there is a problem.

when the spottie switch is 'on', and the headlights are 'off', the spotlights still stay on, but when you turn the parkers or lowbeams on, they (the spotties) turn 'off'. when i use the 'flash' highbeam switch, they dont come on either. so the only time the spotties work, is the when the headlights are off, or when i have the highbeams in the 'locked on' position.

anyone know wtf is going on Confused

Joined: 09 Nov 2002 Location: Traralgon Vic Aust.

What vehicle??? Some late model vehicles have negative switching headlamps and most wiring diagrams on driving light boxes are for positive switched headlamps.
Wiring up this way will cause your problem...

May help.

Joined: 30 Dec 2002 Location: Adelaide

Antt, try wiring the coil for the relay directly across the two terminals on your high beam globe. That should make it work no matter how your high beam is activated. Wink

Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Location: Launceston

DAZZ wrote:

What vehicle??? Some late model vehicles have negative switching headlamps and most wiring diagrams on driving light boxes are for positive switched headlamps.
Wiring up this way will cause your problem...

May help.

especially old toyota's. guessing new ones too??

disconnect coil trigger wire from your switch, then connect to 12v and lights sould come on. (this assuming other side of coil is grouned and everything else is correct)

look at wiring diagram to see if your car is negative switch, or post up here someone should know. then if that is the case time to work out how to wire up switch so lights work properly. this would be great time to upgrade headlight wiring to beafier wires (huge increase in light output) and can convert lights all over to positve switched. this may only be useful if older car though.

anyway, try that out and post up results and go from there

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 12:55 am

Do you have a 4 or 5 pin relay? If you have a 5 pin relay you may need to swap the switched load from 87a to 87 (or vice versa depending on your polarity)

Joined: 09 Nov 2002 Location: Traralgon Vic Aust.

Only change over type relays have 87a, but most normal relays (Bosch) still have 5 pins. A change over relay will still work but there is only 1 output pin and this can overload with 2 lights connected to it....

Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Location: Launceston

[quote="DAZZ"]negative switching headlampsquote]

still reckon this most likely answer to problem.

i made headlight wiring loom, beefier wires, relay for low and relay for high beam, big wire from battery to feed it all. this was all on 84 hilux which has negative switching, caused similar probs to what you posted until got it fixed. only took 1 diode and 1 resistor. cost around $4.00.

doing this means driving lights come on when high beam on, much safer way to go. also legal if you're concerned about this too

Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Location: Brisbane

well, found out on this site-> www.k9rdj.co.uk that they're negative switching, time to go sort it out Mad

....damn i hate electrics

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:01 am

the instructions on the box must be wrong...wouldnt be a first time....

try this...

Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Location: Launceston

antt wrote:

damn i hate electrics

hey antt, pm your email address if you want and ill send you wiring diagram for negative switch headlights and how to modify only additional wiring to get spotties to work. if i had scanner could draw diagram for you, mite try to take pic of one see if that works....

Cheers
Lance

Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Location: SOR Perth

Found this thread when searching so I'm going to drag this to the top as I have exactly the same problem.

None of the three wires on the back of the light ( for highbeam pickup )will allow the spots to work correctly.

Light switch on and locked in high beam, works fine. Even dips properly.
Turn light switch off or to park lights and the spots come on, only shutting off with their own switch. Confused

I've wired a few spot sets in my time but have never come across this Rolling Eyes

Is it a Vit thing !

Joined: 11 Dec 2004 Location: Gold Coast

Hi folks, a word of caution when using relays. Many now days are polarised because of the anti-spiking electronics fitted inside them, so take care how you wire them up.
Cheers

Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Location: SOR Perth

This relay is part of the loom so can only plug in one way, although I 'spose what you do with the other end of the wires is important.

Is the headlight pickup wire supposed to be a positive or negative wire, as mines running negative which causes the fuse to blow every time I connect it to a headlight wire Confused

I've rechecked all the connections, seems to be ok

Confused

Joined: 11 Dec 2004 Location: Gold Coast

Hi roadrunner, some relays have a resistor as the spike suppressor, some have a diode. I personally think the diode suppressor type are far suppressor the the resistor type but the diode type are polarised so they MUST be wired correctly.
Can you get the relay to work at all. If not you may have already damaged it and they usually become short circuited so every time you connect power it will blow a fuse.
If it works some of the time when you try setting the wiring up in a different way then there is a pretty good chance the relay is OK.
The way you have explained it, it sounds like the relay is OK and the fact that the driving lights come on when you turn to the park position or to off, sounds like relay loom is wired up for positive switching and your vehicle uses negative switching or vice-versa. If you can’t change the wire loom, try using another relay the reverse the the polarity needed to operate the relay’s switch wire.
Reply back if you want more details and supply some more details about the vehicle you are working on.
Cheers and best of luck.

Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Location: SOR Perth

Gday drivesafe,

Thanks for the info.

I think the relay is still ok, as the fuse blows when things go balls up and thats before the relay in the big scheme of things.

Its a 94 Vitara and its fair to assume its negative earthing ( I think Very Happy

) ( maybe ! ).

Should the pickup wire be negative or positive ?

Some people are saying that the two outside ( positive ) wires of the headlight pin should be wired together with the pick up, but as its a negative pick up wire at the moment you can imagine the outcome of that Very Happy

Joined: 11 Dec 2004 Location: Gold Coast

Hi again roadrunner, I take it you are using a pre made wire loom for the driving lights installation. If so, and this is a suggestion that should only be considered if you have some knowledge of doing wiring, you might be better off starting from scratch and doing your own wiring. You can usually do a better job and have better results by doing it yourself.
But before you do anything, you have to sort out which wire does what on the back of the headlights. To do this safely, you will need a digital multi metre. DO NOT USE A TEST LIGHT.
If you are not sure how to sort out the operation of the headlight wiring, I can step you through either here or in PMs.
Cheers

Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Location: SOR Perth

The question I need answered before I go any further is the one about the headlight pickup.

If the polarity of this isn't right then I need to know before I go looking at other things Confused

Joined: 11 Dec 2004 Location: Gold Coast

Hi roadrunner, I don’t know the specific operation for the Vitara but many vehicles have negative switched head lights.
It will take you about 5 minutes to check the polarity and you will need a multi meter, pen and paper.
With everything turned off, go to the back of the headlight and draw a simple diagram of the terminal configuration and the colour of each wire and where each wire connects to the headlight terminals.
Now measure the voltage of each terminal and you will need to measure both from each terminal to positive and from each terminal to negative.
Note each reading beside the wire colour as you make the measurement.
Next, turn your headlight switch to the ON position, make sure they are set to low beam and go through the measurements again.
Switch to high beam and measure again.

If your Vitara has negative switched head lights then you should have the same results as listed bellow.

One of the wires will be positive at all times.

One wire will be negative on low beam and positive on high beam.

The last wire and this is the one you will need to connect to to operate your driving lights when you switch to high beam. The last wire will be positive on low beam and negative on high beam.

Cheers.

PS. if you have positive switched headlights, then the above list will be in reverse starting with one wire being positive at all times.