relays and hid and wiring diagram.

[colonel6632]

so, in attempts to fix my cruise control hid issue, i want to hook up some relays to my lights.

here is the setup in the car. i have high beam and low beam hids from ddm tuning, and i want the 4 headlight mod. i believe i accomplish that in my diagram.

you may also wonder why there are switches in the diagram, i want the ability to turn off the relays/headlights at my will, (can't turn off the headlights once their on)

hopefully the wiring pros look at this and tell me what they think

****i am not responsible for what you do to your car or headlights following this diagram*****

[Gr1m]

you should really get a delay relay because of the way you have it wired

[cherrington17]

instead of the switches, just use a gray wire inside the dash. its the "illumination" wire, which turns on when it gets dark enough.

its 12V, and is already switched.

[colonel6632]

cherry, the headlights should still turn on automatically since it's coming from the headlight wire. the switches will be on most of the time, but once and a while i want to turn my headlights off, and dont want to turn off and turn the car back on with the ebrake on.

gr1m, whats a delayed relay?

last question. can i cut the wires going to the hid bulbs and extend them. i want all 4 hid boxs near the stock airbox. i'm just not sure if it'll work due to all the voltage and stuff going through, if the added wire would make a difference, or if it's special wire

[Gr1m]

basically its a relay that waits around 15seconds before it actually completes the circuit, this way your HID's do not flicker everytime you crank your car to start it

[Alerojester]

or you can just turn on your parking/marker lights before you turn on your car and guess what no HID flicker

[cherrington17]

colonel, that makes sense. the delay isn't a bad idea, either.

i'd go with the delay, and omit the switches... but thats my own opinion.

[billytheman1188]

Make sure you aim the high beams DOWN a little so their not blinding people in front of u. I mean, your still gonna blind them....but this way the light wont be going directly into their rear view. hmmm....this will be interesting to see! Post pics when done!

[colonel6632]

pics are already posted, lol. i've already got the lights installed. but having problems with the cruise.

and with the standard the lights dont come on until i have the ebrake down when starting. the switchs aren't there for when i start the car.

and thanks ryan. if i had delay relays, i'd probably use them. but i have regular relays for free, so i'll just end up using those.

any thoughts on extending the wires going from the hid ballasts to the bulbs themselves?

[Ttop191]

dude you shouldn't have any problems extending the wires, the extra length will not create enough resistance to really effect anything, that is as long as you keep things clean, make sure you get a could solder and then use some heatshrink tube and you'll be all set

[jayson_waltz]

http://www.grandamgt.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17559
In this link there is a DRL disable and a ALC disable. I did the DRL disable on my 99 when i did what you are doing, I had the lows/highs on together on high and all were HID. The only difference is you wanna be able to totally control your lights so they don't come on by themselves, which would be a ALC disable. before mounting more switches in your car i'd try the method in the link, the drl disable worked so i'm guessing the ALC one would to, can't hurt to try. then you could just use the stock switch like most vehicles. And it would save you all this relay wiring mess.

[colonel6632]

i had the drl disabled for many months now. thats not a problem
i want the headlights to automatically come on at night time. i'm a lazy mofo that hates turning on his lights.

and i did the relay wiring today, and that above schematic does not work!
i'll draw up a new one and explain later

[Gr1m]

need to make the relays trigger from the stock headlight wire, you cant split it like that or it wont work

[colonel6632]

im not sure what your meaning there grim.

the reason why it wont work is because the the high beams and low beams have constant power. doesnt matter what you have on, there is always power going to your headlights. what makes then turn on is the ground wire. the car completes the ground, which turns on the lights.

so that was the first problem i ran into when i went to go do this (i triple check everything with a test light before i go and do it just to make sure)

second problem where i have the highbeam wire connected to the low beam wire. that works great on highs, but if you put it on low beam, it will still have all four lights on . so i put in a diode going from the high beam wire to the low beam, but the diode stops the ground from the low beam to high.

also, my cruise control problem seems to be fixed now, and the hids might actually warm up quicker (probably not but i can hope) the biggest thing was the fact that my cruise would kick out going to high beam. hasn't done it yet (fingers crossed)

anyways, better working diagram.

[Gr1m]

the stock headlight wire going to the 86 pins on your relays....one is positive and one is negative, you need to test which one and then swap the 85 on the relay to the opposite polarity so that when you turn your headlights on it will turn on both relays

[colonel6632]

the above schematic works. it's in my car right now, and seems to be ok

both of those wires are actually negative. the blue one is the negative wire for the low beam light, and the pink one is the negative wire for the high beam.

when you turn your low beams on, the pink one creates a ground for your low beams, and when you turn your high beams on, the pink wire becomes nothing, and the blue wire becomes a ground for the high beams

unless i'm reading this wrong, i've just begun learning into relay wiring and everything at work. i am sometimes slow gr1m. lol

[Gr1m]

ah yes my mistake the lights are (-) triggered

[colonel6632]

i learned that the hard way after work after everything was cut apart. i already had those two wires ran from the stock harness up to the fuse panel from doing the all lights mod. so that part was easy, lol, just plugged them in

[jawa]

OK I tried the wiring diagram above. I'm only putting relays on my high beams so I can run 80 watt bulbs. I cannot get the damn thing to work. I've tried every thing and its pissing me off

[RalphP]

Take that diode out, making a note of which way you had it turned, replace the fuses, and see if it works.

If so, you probably had the diode in backwards.

Past that, grab the volt meter and see what's not happening where.

With it off, you should have 12V on the 30 and 85 terminals, and grounding the 86 terminal should light up the lights.

OTOH, your car may be switching the 12V, not the ground (as is typical in GMs of this vintage). If so, using the two wires for the low beam to pins 85 and 86 (breaking the connection from 30 to 85) of the low beam relay, and using the high beam wiring pair to pins 85 and 86 to the high beam relay (again, breaking the connection between 85 and 30) will take care of that possibility.

If you do that, see which side is 12V when the lights are on (between 85 and 86), and point the band of the diode towards that. Needs to be a 1A diode (a set of 1N4002 to 1N4010 will do the job nicely, and they're cheap) to do the job right.

The diode is optional, however - it's not really required in this design.

But truthfully - that design DOES work. If it's not working, it's not wired as per the diagram somewhere. Again, time to take the voltmeter and chase it down.

Or, of course, you could cheat and BUY the relay diagram, complete with fuses (which this diagram missed! Bad designer, bad designer!) - here's one place, but be aware this is NOT the only one! Just also be aware, some of the cheap ones on eBay are of no advantage (24ga wire? C'mon, folks! Needs to be 16ga or bigger!).

RwP