bigmoney666

1990 Camaro RS 5.0 TBI 5spd

My stalk on the steering column isn't very handy for activating the high beams. You literally have to jam it at just the right angle, and I'm tired of playing with it. I've done lots of wiring, even wired up fog lights from scratch for my ford truck, so I think I will be up to the challenge here. I also do not like the fact that when I turn on the high beams the low beams go out (I get it, that's standard procedure for pretty much all vehicles, but I used to own an Acura integra with the 4-headlight setup and when the high beams came on the low beams remained lit as well.) Here is my goal:

I want to wire up a toggle switch that controls the high beams INDEPENDENT of the factory lighting wire harness. Basically my factory light plunger would turn on the low beams only, and by flipping the toggle switch mounted on the dash, the high beams would illuminate as well (when needed).

I need some help here. I'm probably gonna end up using a relay. But I want to know, what is the best way to tap into the high beams?

Es_91rs

Best bet would be to wire from scratch and run that back to your toggle switch. Put a fuse somewhere in the line to prevent too many issues and you should be fine. The high beams on these cars have two wires (one hot, one ground) so no big deal. You could either splice into the harness right at the high beams or (my recommendation) get two new pig tails with the connectors for your high beams and run all new. That way you can tuck the original wiring back in that way you can always go back to factory lighting if you wanted to.

bigmoney666

so skip the relay and just run a fuse? what amperage? 15A?

bigmoney666

I did something similar on my old integra when i wired the horn from scratch. it had a quick release steering wheel and i didn't wanna mess with the button on the wheel so I put a button on the kick panel and straight wired to the horn, then battery, then fuse, then back to switch. never burned a wire, never popped the fuse.

Es_91rs

I'd recommend the fuse instead of the relay but that's just me, and I'd go 25A just to be safe.

bigmoney666

alright, so I'm probably NOT going back to factory setup, if i ever sell the car im sure the new owner would be glad to find that the high beams are easy to turn on via toggle switch, so im not worried about ghetto rigging or anything. So. how would i wire this up? i know it's simple but i mix things up easily and it helps me to have it down on paper

bigmoney666

So from this picture I would do the following.

Splice together the grounds for each high beam, and ground them out on the same ground spot.
Splice together the hot wires for the high beams, and connect them to Terminal 87 on the relay.
Ground Terminal 85 on the relay.
Construct a hot wire with an inline fuse from the battery to Terminal 30 on the relay.
Construct a hot wire from the battery to the switch.
Wire the other terminal on the switch to Terminal 86 on the relay.

Do I understand this correctly?

Es_91rs

I'd run it by taking a wire from the power distribution block on the side of the radiator support to the supply side of your toggle switch in the car(with a fuse somewhere in between). The way I ran the wires for my added lights was I ran them over the inner fender on the passenger side and down the inside to the passenger fender and into the car through the kick panel where the wiring harness comes through. Then I ran them above the bottom cover of the dash on the passenger side and behind the center console, up above the bottom dash cover on the driver side to my switches in the dash. Seems like a lot of wire but without knowing what your looking for it's hard to tell it's there.


Now take another wire from the other side of your toggle switch back to the engine bay(I recommend going back the same way you brought the other wire in) and wire that to the hot for your passenger side high beam. From the passenger side light run it under the black plastic filler cover that surrounds the hood latch and over to the driver side light.


I would then run the ground wire from the driver side light over to the passenger side light and from there run them both to the body ground just above and to the rear of the battery on the inside of the fender.


I have aftermarket headlights with LED halos in them and this is how I ran the wiring to put the LEDS on a separate toggle switch.

bigmoney666

Note that the reason im doing this also owes to the poor road visibility at night due to the fact this car's headlights are set like 6 inches deep in a cavity

Es_91rs

The reason our factory headlights suck is because they are outdated halogen bulbs that produce little light. I upgraded to H4 halogens and it made a world of difference. Cost me about $150 to do all 4 bulbs and I can actually see with just the low beams on.

bigmoney666

your setup sounds simpler as far as less wiring but more work to get the wiring run. I think i might stick with my idea with the relay. i did some reading and apparetnly a relay will help the bulbs burn brighter (makes sense since the high current circuit is less complex) and more consistently. The fog light setup on my truck has worked brilliantly for six months so I think I will replicate that. And H4 bulbs? is that plug and play or do I have to do something to rig it up? One of my high beam bulbs is out so I'm gonna have to replace both high beams before doing this project anyway.

bigmoney666

Are the replacement high beams a bulb? or is it the entire housing?

Es_91rs

All four are replacement housings and bulbs.

bigmoney666

god damnit. how do you remove the whole housing? is it hard?

Es_91rs

The "housing" is the stock bulb. The replacement housing is the same size and shape. The only difference is that instead of replacing the whole thing when the bulb goes out you just replace the small bulb that is put in and removed from the back side.

bigmoney666

so when i go to autozone and request a new bulb, theyre gonna give me a big *** box bulb. how do i install it? ive never done these before, all of my other vehicles have been just a little bulb that pulls out the back of the housing.

Es_91rs

With these older 4" x 6" bulbs you simply remove the top two screws from the metal trim ring around the bulb. Then you carefully pull the trim ring forward and down. There are 4 screws around the outside of the trim ring but you can usually only get to the upper two. From there you unplug the bulb and carefully pull it out. Install is the reverse of removal.

bigmoney666

pls respnd with pics. im not sure what a trim ring is

Es_91rs

Here is actually a youtube video on how to change the headlights in these cars. This may be more helpful than just a couple of pictures.

bigmoney666

okay i looked today. there are two wires that go to each low beam. makes sense. one hot, one ground. but when i looked at the high beams, i counted four wires for each high beam. now im confused. if im trying to wire my own setup for the high beams to operate independently of the stock system, which wires do i tap into to control the high beam on/off function, and which wires do i cut and leave hanging?

Es_91rs

Remeber that the low beams are closest to the outside of the car and the high beams are the ones in the center.

bigmoney666

i dont believe that is correct. when i cut on my headlamps the inner ones illuminate.

Es_91rs

I promise you that unless someone has tampered with the wiring in your car that the inner ones are the high beams good sir.

bigmoney666

SO THE HIGH BEAMS STAY ACTIVATED WHEN THE CAR IS SHUT OFF THEN BACK ON? BECAUSE WHEN I CUT THE LIGHTS ON THE INNER ONES ALWAYS COME ON. SO THEY DON'T "RESET" BACK TO LOW BEAMS THE NEXT TIME I START THE CAR?

Es_91rs

No they don't reset to low beams automatically

bigmoney666

so this whole time i've been operating high beams unknowingly? wtf where is the dashboard light for the high beams?

Es_91rs

That's what it sounds like. The indicator on 90-92 dashes is right above the arrows for the turn signals.

bigmoney666

so now my question is, if the outer lights are low beams, and they have 4 wires, then the inner lights are high beams, and they have two wires.

Es_91rs

That's correct

bigmoney666

so snip the hot wires on each high beam and run them to the relay, but leave the stock ground wires for each high beam intact?

bigmoney666

Which then brings me to, which wire is the hot wire? I could probably test them to see, but to make it simpler if you know offhand that would help

Joe Tag

iTrader: (4)

Sort of correct. Low beams have 3 wires. A common ground and a hot for low and high. Run quality bulbs and have the lows on the outside as they're supposed to be and you will be surprised how well they work as a factory setup. I just don't get the whole ghetto toggle switch wiring everyone wants to do.

Es_91rs

Your best bet is to run all new hot and ground but that's my opinion. If I remember correctly the black wire is ground the colored wite is hot. You should double check though to be sure.

bigmoney666

three wires. so we got a ground and a hot, what is the last wire for?

bigmoney666

i will probably reground the headlights by running the ground wires together and putting a loop connector on the wire and joining it to where the ground wire is right next to the battery up inside the fender #maximumgrounding

bigmoney666

also i just checked by eye balling. the lows are in fact, on the outside, just the high beams come on when you cut the headlights on (burnt out driver side low beam)

Joe Tag

iTrader: (4)

The lows have a high beam as well. If your low beams go out when in high mode, I'd check your dimmer switch and wiring.

bigmoney666

and i love "ghetto" switches. it gives me more flexibility with selecting what i want the vehicle to do. i used a toggle switch to control the power to the monster tach i had in my old integra to kill the tach at night incase law enforcement came near.

bigmoney666

this makes no sense man. when you turn on your high beams the low beams are supposed to turn off. why would they put 2 outer lights that are low/high functional and then put two inner lights that are high functional only?

bigmoney666

http://www.autozone.com/collision-bo...mString=search

This shows that the lights are either low or high beam, not both

RBob

iTrader: (1)

I have the same issue with the stalk in my '92. I've found that if you move your hand down closer to the column the hi/lo switching works much better. I haven't looked into the why, just know that this works.

As for the lights themselves, the low beam (outer) lamps have two filaments, a low and a high. When the high beams are activated (inner lamps) the low beam lamps (outers) will switch to the high filaments.

It may be that those are burned out. Note that the low beam lamps have three terminals on them, or at least is supposed to. Maybe someone stuck high beam lamps in there, they only have two terminals.

RBob.

bigmoney666

so the fact that when i switch from high to low, the low beams dissipate, does that mean the high beam filament is shot in the bulb?

also, when in high beam mode, all 4 lights come on?

also, if someone replaced the high/low beam lights with just low beam lights, could that explain why when i turn on the high beams the outer ones don't illuminate?

RBob

iTrader: (1)

Corrected to switching from low to high, it is possible that the high filament is burned out.

They should, in high beam mode all four lights should turn on.

This is another possibility. I have some lights on the shelf, be back with some pictures.

RBob.

Es_91rs

I know with either set of stock lights I had in mine that the low beams went off when I switched to high beams. I don't think I've ever seen one with factory lights that have all four on with high beams.

RBob

iTrader: (1)

Can't find the box of headlights, so borrowed some pic's from Rock Auto. Note the file-name of the pictures, they are labeled LowBeam and HighBeam.

The low beam headlight (outer lights) has three brass terminals. One is for ground, with the other two being the +12 volts for the low beam filament, and the +12 volts for the high beam filament.

The high beam headlight (inner lights) has two terminals, ground and +12 volts for when the high beams are on.

Third picture is my '92 with the high beams switched on. Can see all four lights are illuminated, this is factory stock.

RBob.

bigmoney666

so really, all i need to do is put the stock lights back in and i will have the desired setup.

RBob

iTrader: (1)

Yes, that is all that is required. Stock low beams are the H4656 lamp.

What bulbs/lamps are in the car now? To use an H4 bulb/housing set up the headlight connectors need to be re-pinned. The terminal pin-out between the stock H4656 light and an H4 light-bulb is different.

RBob.

Es_91rs

Hmm interesting. I may have gotten bulbs that had no high beam fillament then.

And you are correct. I had to repin my connectors to work with the H4 bulbs.

bigmoney666

i used h4656 bulbs in the car and when i kick on the high beams still only the inner lights come on. i replaced both low beams. when put on low beams both outer lights come on.

paulo57509

Lamps = The big a$$ glass thing in the big a$$ box.
Filaments = The thing inside the lamps that gets hot and produces the light.

Double-check the following:

1. Make sure you have H4656 lamps in low beam position (these lamps actually have two filaments; one for when the low beams are on, one for when the high beams are on. Both are never on at the same time).
2. Make sure you have H4651 lamps in high beam position.
3. Make sure the filaments in each bulb isn't burned out.
4. The turn signal stalk "clicks" when you pull it to turn on the high beams.

Refer to the attached diagram from Austin Third Gen:

The way the headlights are wired, all four lamps (and all the filaments) have a common ground. So, if even if just some of the lights come on we can assume that the grounds are good.

When you pull the stalk to turn the high beams on, the switch re-routes 12v from the low beam filaments to the high beam filaments in the 4656 lamps, and also routes 12v to the filaments in the 4651 lamps.

When the high beam switch is on, you should get 12v at the green wire on the low beam lamp connector. Unplug the connector from the lamp, take a volt meter or test light and see if there's 12v at the light green wire (with the lights on, of course). Check this and report back.

Honestly, when you consider how the lights are wired, the only explanations that make sense to me is that either the high beam filaments in the low beam lamps are burned out or there's a bad connection in the connector at the LH low beam lamp.