TraviZ

iTrader: (2)

after my last electricla problem, i got all the wiring sorted out, but now heres the kicker. i turn the headlights on. ok everything is normal, i turn the highbeams on, ok all is good, i turn the highbeams off. they do not go off. until i turn all my headlights off then back on.

if i bypass the relays, everything works as intended. what is causing this to happen?

91Z28-350

Answer these for me:

1) When you turn on the headlights, is your highbeam indicator on dimly?
2) When you flip on your highbeams, does the indicator light up normally?
3) When you flip off the highbeams, does the indicator go back to being dimly lit?
4) What happens if you unplug the highbeams from the harness and use the stock harness for just the highbeams only? Leave the lowbeams on the harness.
5) How is your H4 harness connected to your stock wiring? A single plug that mates to a single lowbeam plug?
6) How do your foglights react? Do they toggle normally (going off in highbeam mode)?

porkyzilla

iTrader: (1)

This is TraviZ, at my friends house.

1. yes its on dimly.
2. yes it lights normal.
3. yes it goes back to dim.
4. i dont have the stock connectors for highbeams anymore.
5. a single plug to a single lowbeam socket. then the high beam and low beam wires run to thier seperate relays. the ground splits and goes to both relays.
6.foglights work normal no matter how the headlights are hooked up. ( that was a loose wire. a seperate problem i fixed.)

91Z28-350

Did you rewire your fogs to be on all the time? Anyway, that's inconsequential.

Interesting that you are using the ground on your stock harness to go to the relays. I'd run a 10-gauge wire to the battery for that, for each relay. That's inconsequential also.

Go to an electronics store (such as Radio Shack or any others you may know). Look for power resistors. You may need a few of them. The resistance will be pretty low, and you need high wattage resistors (10W or higher). You can use 50Ohm and 10Ohm resistors if you are getting them from Radio Shack. Wire a few of them in parallel.

For testing you can solder them to a 10 gauge wire, and solder more as you need to. For the final connection, splice the resistors into your wiring. Use heat shrink tubing and electrical tape.

The resistance will need to drop fairly low, maybe 7Ohms or less. It is to emulate a headlamp. You can get an idea by measuring the resistance of the highbeam bulb.

You can buy 4 50 Ohm resistors and 2 10 Ohm resistors. That may be good enough. Start out with 1 50 Ohm resistor. What you are going to do is you are going is you are going to go to the place where your stock wiring connects to the harness. You are going to take the resistor and connect it between the high beam trigger and ground. Then try your lights. If it doesn't work, add another resistor. Each resistor connected in parallel lowers the effective resistance of the unit, so you are lowering resistance. Keep doing that until your lights turn on and off normally, and the high beam indicator is functioning normally. Use the 50 ohms first, then if you need, go to the 10 ohms.

Here's the equation:

Effective Resistance = 1 / (1 / R1 + 1 / R2 + ... + 1 / Rn)

Remember, it must be connected in parallel. Use multiple resistors to divide the current, so it doesn't run hot and cause a fire.

You need to do this because the stock circuit goes through the foglight relay and the highbeam indicator and grounds THROUGH the highbeams, when the highbeams are OFF.

If you need, google on parallel resistance to see what that is.

Edit: reminder...this is on the stock harness. Do not connect it on the highbeams themselves. On the stock harness, to complete the circuit.

TraviZ

iTrader: (2)

their has got to be an easier way of doing this. how come its just not working as intended? i played with them some more, and i figured this out. heres a pic to better describe whats going on.

exactly as I have wired, this is when i have the problems, high beams come on, never go off unless i turn all my lights off. faint high beam indicator w/ low beams, full indicator with high beams.

TraviZ

iTrader: (2)

if i bypass the highbeam relay as pictured below, everything works exactly as intended. the highbeam indicator is completly off w/ low beams, and full on with high beams, and the high beams go off n on with the toggle.

TraviZ

iTrader: (2)

:edit:

paulo57509

Two things that I'd try.

1. Instead of running the relay grounds through the factory headlamp connector, run the relay ground directly to engine or chassis ground (connect it directly to the negative battery terminal).

2. Did you re-configure the low beam headlamp connector for H4 bulbs?

91Z28-350

You have 2 options. Do the resistor, or put your highbeams on the stock harness and not use the H4 harness for your highbeams.

You need the service manual diagrams. The forum stuff will not help you with this part. Maybe Trickster can post the picture for your headlamp wiring.

The highbeam to ground circuit MUST be completed. It is not in the diagram you showed. It's incomplete. It's good for general help, but needs more specifics. Maybe on other cars it is not a problem. The issue is that the high beam trigger wire is the same wire that is run to the high beam indicator and comes from the fog lamp relay. It's dangling free right now.

Edit: Let me try to explain it better. Get out your multimeter, I know how you don't use it...When you turn on your headlamps, you are getting some voltage on your highbeam trigger wire. Not 12V, not 0V, but something like 6V. It's not enough to turn on the highbeam relay, but it's not enough to turn it off neither. When you turn on your highbeams, that wire goes to 12V triggering the relay. When you turn it off, it goes back to some intermediate voltage, like 6V. It's not enough to turn off the relay, and hence your highbeams stay on. You need a pull-down resistor. On the stock harness, the highbeam headlamps serve that function.

1quikformula

Hey TraviZ did you change the pinout on your original harness, because even though they are the same connector the wires are in different places, I also did the H4 conversion and both high and low lights would come on at the same time. I just switch the wires around and vualah they worked like a charm.

go here for the wiring diagram. https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/t...es/connect.gif

1quikformula

[IMG]<a href='http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=3/8911530774.jpg&s=x2' target='_blank'><img src='http://x2.putfile.com/3/8911530774-thumb.jpg' alt='Click to enlarge.'></a>[/IMG]

this is what the end product should look like.

TraviZ

iTrader: (2)

i think the problem is that i still run stock high beams. so until i change to h4 highs as well . ill just have the high beam relay bypassed.

91Z28-350

Nope, not going to make a bit of difference.

TraviZ

iTrader: (2)

why not

91Z28-350

I already explained why.

87CIZ

iTrader: (8)

i wired mine exactly like that when i did all 4 of mine and it works great. I used to have a 4 relay system 1 relay per bulb but it drained more power and i was stuck with the brights staying on after i turn them off. I went to a 2 relay system and it worked great! I started blowing fuses but that's because my wire was less than ideal so i rewired everything with 10 gauge wire.