Headlight loom upgrade for cruiser, help

Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Location: Brisbane

Hi there

I have upgraded my headlight's on a 70 series cruiser by adding relays.

One for Hi and one for Low they work fine however I have two small issues.

1) When I select HI low beam stays lit - this will lead to buld burnout I guess due to heat.

2) the HI beam indicator on the dash doesn't light up.

I have googled and searched and I can't seem to find any help for my issue.

I am probably overlooking the answer Smile

Here is my diagram.

Thanks
matt

Joined: 11 Jan 2004 Location: Adelaide

I haven't thought this through too much, but, on the OLD light, try swapping the Hi and Common wires over - at the plug.

As I said, haven't thought it through too much - no warranty offered with this advice. (If it lets smoke out, I can only apologise in advance.)

Joined: 05 Jan 2003 Location: Newcastle

mlowe76 wrote:

1) When I select HI low beam stays lit - this will lead to buld burnout I guess due to heat.

Is this supposed to happen? It does in my Rangie!

mlowe76 wrote:

2) the HI beam indicator on the dash doesn't light up.

Blown globe?

Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Location: Brisbane

Ralf the RR wrote:

mlowe76 wrote:

1) When I select HI low beam stays lit - this will lead to buld burnout I guess due to heat.

Is this supposed to happen? It does in my Rangie!

mlowe76 wrote:

2) the HI beam indicator on the dash doesn't light up.

Blown globe?

Other people have done similar setups and low beam turns off when HI is selected.

Also,the dash light works If I take the relays out and use the standard wiring again.

Its more to do with current still passing thru low when it shouldn't.

Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Location: Melbourne Australia

Ralf the RR wrote:

mlowe76 wrote:

1) When I select HI low beam stays lit - this will lead to buld burnout I guess due to heat.

Is this supposed to happen? It does in my Rangie

I am pretty sure that's wrong, even in a rangie. It's certainly not right for 99% of vehicles - it should be high beam OR low beam, not both. Especially with an H4 setup where the filaments are both in one globe.

Unless you've confused the pins in the socket your diagram should work. Basically you should pull the sockets and get your multimeter out, work out which pin does what, make sure you've got the right one picked as common, low, and high, bearing in mind that being a toyota it could be negative switched, meaning there would be a common positive, not a common negative. The wiring diagram works with positive or negative switching, but you're looking for a different result from the multimeter when you're checking the existing wiring.

Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Location: Victoria

Ok, your problem is easily fixed.
What you need to do is put a load onto the other unused old loom plug on the high beam wire. What this does is complete the circuit and will turn on the dash indicator light and turn off the low beams.
When I made my own loom I just bought a piranha 'circuit completer' to do this but you could try using another smaller globe or something to place a load on this circuit. It will have to be something durable as it will be in use all the time whilst your using high beam.

Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Location: Brisbane

coights 40th wrote:

Ok, your problem is easily fixed.
What you need to do is put a load onto the other unused old loom plug on the high beam wire. What this does is complete the circuit and will turn on the dash indicator light and turn off the low beams.
When I made my own loom I just bought a piranha 'circuit completer' to do this but you could try using another smaller globe or something to place a load on this circuit. It will have to be something durable as it will be in use all the time whilst your using high beam.

Do you think you could post up a copy of your wiring diagram?

I have tried using a light bulb to complete the circuit and low stays on still, along with the dash light not working. The light bulb I used as the 'completer' lights up tho, so you'd image the circuit is complete and the light should come on.

Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Location: Brisbane

I have fixed it, and dont need to use resistors or diodes or a circuit completer:)

Heres my latest diagram

This works sweet as, my dash light works now, and low beams turns off when HI BEAM is selected

Hope this helps someone else.

Thanks
matt

Joined: 11 Jan 2004 Location: Adelaide

Why have you connected the Original Connector LB contact to the new LB contacts? (Short yellow line at the top of your diagram.) Is this the wire which makes your dash indicator work?

Joined: 05 Jan 2003 Location: Newcastle

chimpboy wrote:

Ralf the RR wrote:

mlowe76 wrote:

1) When I select HI low beam stays lit - this will lead to buld burnout I guess due to heat.

Is this supposed to happen? It does in my Rangie

I am pretty sure that's wrong, even in a rangie. It's certainly not right for 99% of vehicles - it should be high beam OR low beam, not both. Especially with an H4 setup where the filaments are both in one globe.

Just went and checked. Yep, you are right, I was wrong. Only Hi or Lo - not both.

Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Location: Brisbane

After running the above setup I'm still on the look for a 100% working solution Smile

I tried the 'circuit completer' setup, using a H4 bulb as the completer, still no luck.

For now I'm running with the latest wiring digram I posted, I have definetely got more volts at the new headlamp socket, however thinking about it in theory it shouldnt be any better than stock, maybe it fixes/bypasses a dodgy earth or something I had in the stock setup - god knows, the more I think about it the more I get confused.

If anyone finds a diagram thatworks correctly in a negatively switched car I'd love to see it, I also would like that damn highbeam light to work still Smile

Thanks
Matt

Joined: 26 Apr 2006 Location: darwin

have used this setup myself and it does work.

http://www.lcool.org/technical/80_series/lights/80wiring.html

Joined: 06 Mar 2005 Location: Sunshine Coast Queensland

What I did was pull the dash out, cut the wire to the high beam dash light. Taped up the end of the wire in the loom. I then soldered a new piece of wire onto the wire leading to the dash light, I then ran this wire back to the second out pin on the relay ( the one you have the yellow wire running from). What you have done probably achieves the same result though. Before I sorted this problem out I had the same issue with high low staying on at the same time. I didnt even make it back to Kilcoy from cruiser park before they totally burnt out at the headlights. Caused untold amount of damage and I lost my lights totally. i had to drive the rest of the way to Kilcoy by torchlight. All this while towing a mates rangie that I had to rescue. Made for a bloody long night.
Cheers.
Edit, it is not a change over type it is a 2 outlet type of relay. I feel you have wired up your relays wrong. I have a diagram that my auto elec gave me, but I have no way to scan it in at the moment. But then if it works I guess it is ok.

Joined: 06 Mar 2005 Location: Sunshine Coast Queensland

I just read your post properly. You do know it is negative switching. Sorry about that.
This is how I have mine wired.
Firstly I used 2 five pin relays. 2 outlet type, 87/87 not changeover type 87/87A. You dont need 5 pin for low beam but I did it just to keep it all uniform.
The wire you called +HL in your diagram. This wire goes to 86 on both the high and the low relay. Same as you have.

The low beam wire goes to 85 on the low beam relay.

The high beam wire goes to 85 on the high beam relay.

A fused wire comes from the battery to 30 on both high and low relays.

You can use 2 seperate wires to each relay if you want. I did this so I at least had the other lights (high or low) if one of the fuses blew.

87 from the low beam relay goes to low beam at the light.

87 from the high beam relay goes to the high beam at the light.

The 3rd wire at each light grounds to the body of the 4by.

Lastly a wire goes from the 2nd 87 pin on the high beam relay. This wire runs up to the dash light. You find and cut the wire to the dash light and splice the wire from the relay into it. Tape the end of the wire in the loom and tape it out of the way.
This is what I did and it has worked fine for about 3-4 years.
Cheers.

Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Location: In the bush of S.E Melbhoon

what you have more then likly fixed was the CHEAP factory wiring that most cars come with, most factory looms have a great voltage drop usually due to a poor earth and poor cable combined and give a very dim light output.

Joined: 14 Jan 2005 Location: NQ

-Scott- wrote:

Why have you connected the Original Connector LB contact to the new LB contacts? (Short yellow line at the top of your diagram.) Is this the wire which makes your dash indicator work?

Headlight current does not go through the original low beam, it is joined only to operate the highbeam warning lamp. When on low beam the current flows through the relays.