i know on my car when you hold the headlight switch it keeps low and high beams on. this in turn improves your ability to see by alot. so. here is what i believe will work. but im wanting your guys opinions.
on left and right headlights. find out what wire powers each bulb. cut the power wire for the high beam in half. use the switch end to use as a signal to turn on a relay. then use the 2 outputs on the relay to power the high beam. and tap the low beam wire to be powered up when the high beams are on. so this will in turn. keep low and high beams on. you then do his on the other side also. and it should power up bothe high and low beams at the same time when the high beams are on and just the lows when the low beams are on. so on to 2 questions
1. This wouldnt melt any of the harness would it. seeing as how your just using the original wiring for signal source an its not drawing any amperage.
2. would i need to diode isolate the wire tapped in to the low beam wire to the relay??? i wouldnt think so seeing as how the relay is not being powered up.
Thanks for any help. and i hope this is the step in the right direction for this mod. I believe this is the SAME procedure that would be used for the Chevrolet trucks with 4 headlights. they sell a kit with 2 relays that does exactly this same thing.
LET THE DISCUSSION BEGIN !!!!!!
looks like it will work. low beam is Dark Blue and High beam is Pink.
Theres a diagram of how it should work. you COULD do it at the Column or at the light itself.
Wouldn't DRL's that use the high beams at a lower power trip the circuit?
just so no one gets the wrong idea... i don't think this will work on the sunfires. they use 1 dual element bulb for high an low beams so having both run at once for too long will likely melt the housing.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Sunday, February 10, 2008 9:05 AM
another thing... aren't the headlights negative switched? meaning 1 power wire and a groung for each high and low beams
Yep you will need relays to switch polarity
I'm trying to follow your diagram, but it looks to me like you're going about it wrong. Like someone mentioned above the headlights work off of a switched ground. Try this (Bosch 5 pin relay):
If I'm right 87A could be used to give ground to anything you wanted to stay on with your low beams.
Well. i did a LOT of research last night and i figured it out. it uses a 25A, 50V Full-Wave Bridge Rectifier that i got from Radioshack for 3.50. On the ground side the bulbs, the cathode (+) goes to the high beam control and the anode (AC) goes to the low beam control. (The other three diodes are unused.) It works great. and i heat sinked it to a peice of metal just to the Right of my Diagnostic port. the only thing that worries me is that the ground wire going in to the headlight switch gets pretty hot. it isnt hot enough to melt. but it COULD work harden it. so i was wondering if i can just grab like a 12 or 10Gauge wire and redo the ground wire. wich would leave the switch as the weak link. but replacing a switch isnt as bad as replacing the switch. what do you think
Rectifier can be found here
I'm worried about the heat aspect... so after some digging around...
Similar concept as above:
http://www.natwilson.com/stuff/malibu_headlights/index.html
But if you can find a way to cut that heat out and have it work flawlessly *kudos*
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Saturday, March 01, 2008 5:11 PM
Yeah the Malibu guys did it pretty much the same way I mentioned above.
Kardain wrote:I'm worried about the heat aspect... so after some digging around...
Similar concept as above:
http://www.natwilson.com/stuff/malibu_headlights/index.html
As long as you don't leave the high beams on for an extended period of time, the housing should be fine.
Thanks for the link btw
yepp. i rewired it the malibu just for the hell of it. just in case and all is well. and the housing will be fine anyways. it should be able to handle the heat. ( we learn these things in class lol) but its the BEST mod i have EVER done. its fantastic. and i also had some wiring left over from a stock wiring harness so i used all stock colors to wire it in.
I attempted to take a crack at this yesterday to kep myself occupied for a few minutes but when I went to check the wires for the lowbeam both wires are black (on both driver and passenger side).. highbeam wires are blue and pink/reddish?..
98 cav..
I really didnt put much effort into it as i only had a few minutes but when i had seen the low beam wire color I figured id ask here then risk f'n something up and having to redo something...
any ideas?
can try to get pics tomarrow afernoon or so...
hmmm. only thing i can figure is your car has been in a wreck and repaired so. thats the reson for the black lowbeam wires. they are part of an aftermarket pigtail.
I had the same issue, but mine both werent black, run wires to your battery, and figure out which is which, thats what I did, and no burnt bulbs either!
98 z24, few upgrades, nitrous on the way!
Wojo wrote:hmmm. only thing i can figure is your car has been in a wreck and repaired so. thats the reson for the black lowbeam wires. they are part of an aftermarket pigtail.
I asked my buddy who owned the car before me about this and he said he actually changed the wireing due to swapping the lights which is why the harness is black wires, said its nothing to worry about all i have to do is look further back and the original colored wires are still there..
Im gonna try this tomarrow and see what happens from there..
Thanks for help none the less..
Shortly after my last post I found myself with a few minutes free time, so i took that and went out to my car,took off the plastic cover under the hood,popped outt he drivers side headlight and started looking further into colored wire issue..
it was an easy find i didnt detect the first run due to the clean up job my buddy did when he did the rewire..
needeless to say since i was right there I just went and did the mod and i gotta say im pretty impressed how much better it looks and how simple it really was to do..
Thanks to everyone who threw input into this thread.
