[Mike M]

Alright, I finally got my driving lights hooked up tonight, per the instructions included with the lights. Just a couple of problems:

1. The lights won't come on, even when the high beams are on.
2. Now, every time I try to switch on my fogs, they blow a fuse.
and..
3. I have an ABS light on my dash that won't shut off.

Any ideas what I may have done? How about if my ABS is functional or not? I pulled that fuse, it's still good. The light comes on when I start the car as usual, blinks once, and then just stays on.

Basically, I'm a jackass that shouldn't be allowed to own tools.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

[RS25.com]

1. What fuse do they blow?
2. Why did you remove the fuse for the ABS? (Did I read that right?)
3. What is the basic hookup?
4. Are you using a relay to provide power to the fogs, or are you running power from an existing power line (say, your headlights)?

 

[Mike M]

1. What fuse do they blow?
2. Why did you remove the fuse for the ABS? (Did I read that right?)
3. What is the basic hookup?
4. Are you using a relay to provide power to the fogs, or are you running power from an existing power line (say, your headlights)?

1. Honestly, I don't know the number. I was using the guide on the inside of the "change drawer" that sits in front of the fuses. The fuse that is labeled "front fogs" is blowing each time I try to turn them on.

2. I only removed the fuse for the ABS once I realized that the dash light was not turning off, and then only to see if the fuse had blown.

3. The basic hookup, as best I can describe it, is as follows: I have one wire tapped into the the driver's side high beam lead. That wire runs directly back to the switch I installed in my dash. There is a wire for power that runs from the positive terminal of the battery into a relay. There is another wire that runs from the relay to each of the lights. (It's one wire that splits to go to the lights.) There is a wire that runs from my dash switch into the relay, and then there are seperate grounds for the dash switch, the relay, and each of the lights. Also, the dash swithc I'm using is not the one that came with the set-up. I bought one that would fit in an existing dash blank, and hooked it up as follows: The wire from the switch to the relay is on the terminal marked "power", the wire from the switch to the high beam lead is on the terminal marke "acc", and the ground wire is on the terminal marked "ground".

4. The fogs themselves are the factory set-up, not touched at all. The new lights are, as described above, on a relay, but are tied into the high beam lead.

I guess I'm confused by the issue with the fogs blowing their fuse, as they are not tied in to the new wiring at all. And the fuse only blows when I try to turn on the fogs, not the driving lights. And I can't figure out what in the hell the ABS light has to do with any of it.

One other (and possibly important) point, just to prove what an idiot I am...I forgot to disconnect the the positive battery terminal tonight when I was grounding the lights. Somehow, I just know this is where I cocked things up.

Thanks for the assistance....

 

[RS25.com]

You've probably already tried this, but it sounds like to me that the "power" wire is mis-connected. Here's how it should work:

1. 12v from the battery to the relay.
2. 12v out from the relay to the lights
3. Switched 12v to the relay trip
4. Ground to the body

If there is a fifth terminal, don't use it.

What you, my good friend, get to figure out, is how the relay is wired internally. What should happen is as follows:

When you provide 12v to the "realy trip" it should connect #1 to #2 above. Generally, the top and bottom terminals are part of one circuit, and the left and right are the other circuit. if your relay has FIVE terminals, then the three that are in a row are the "hot" ones. That is to say they connect to the battery and your headlights. The first one goes to the battery, the second one goes to your lights when the relay is not energized by your dash switch - but NOT when your dash switch is on, and the third one goes to your lights when the relay IS energized by your dash switch - but NOT when your dash switch is off.

Make sense? Basically the relay has a power goes here when on and power goes over there when off setup - when it is built with 5 terminals.

I think they are usually labelled "87a" and "87b" for the high side (12v from battery then to lights)

Make sense?

I basically think you are pulling power out of your headlight wire which is blowing the fuse.

Oh, you did put like a 30 amp fuse in the whole setup, riiiiiight? Trust me, well worth the $2.99.

Okay, if this is not the case, reply, let me know, and I'll go find a relay and do it right.

 

[Guest]

Were the instructions that came with the lamp written in German or in Engrish?

Seriously.. I got a headlight wiring harness from APC and. um. Oh. My.
The Hella relay for the 4000s was ok, but I still ignored them.

As for blowing a fuse with the fog lights....??

Sounds like somehow the fog light switch is connecting +12v to gnd. That makes for bad juju when you don't have a light between the two.

Let's take a look at the other situation... your driving light switch. You say Power is hooked to the wire going to the relay, and ACC is hooked into the high-beam light? It's backwards in my opinion. The Power should be providing the electricity, and the ACC should go where the accessory is. In your case, the high beam wire is powering the relay to turn on the fog lights. If it's a standard switch, it really shouldn't matter so long as the connection is made, but I'm just anal about some things.



PS. I rarely disconnect the battery. I generally connect the battery-to-relay and the relay-to-ground last, making it essentially the same as reconnecting the battery, except the pesky alarm doesn't go off, and I don't have to reset my clock.


Do a little test... Pull the fog light switch out and then pull the black/white wire out of the plug (you'll need an extremely small screwdriver to push the barbs in while pulling the wire out... PITA). If the fuse still blows when you try turning the fog lights on, then you know the problem is somewhere from the switch north.

I suspect that maybe something got pinched & grounded inside the dash, somewhere between the fog light switch and the fogs themselves. Possibly under-hood too.

 

[Guest]

James - The kicker is that the fog lights are having the problem, and he didn't touch the fog light wiring. The driving lights are what he just added. And the draw on the high-beam circuit to light a switch and close a relay shouldn't be enough to blow a fuse. Especially considering it's the fog light fuse blowing, not the high-beam.

This is way

 

[Mike M]

This is way

Horatio, you get the award for understatement of the year!

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. I'm going to have to wait until tonight to work on it more, but hopefully I can get it straightened. I'm pretty concerned about the ABS light, and I have no idea what's going on there....

 

[Mike M]

A little good news, more bad news...

Well, the good news is that the ABS light is off on my dash.

The bad news is that now I have no instruments or turn signals at all. As close as I can tell, they quit working this morning on my way to work after the first time I tried to use my turn signal. The instruments are still back-lit when the headlights are on, but nothing is registering. No clock, warning lights, tach, speedo, or odometer. And, at this point, the circuit for the driving lights has been disconnected! Once I realized that there was a problem last night, I just pulled everything from the relay so there was not a complete circuit.

Oh, and James, to answer an earlier question: Yes, the wiring from Hella included in-line fuses for the wires between the battery and the relay and the high beam lead and the switch. I checked both of those last night, and they had not blown.

Additional info: At lunch today, I realized that I have no sunroof or windows as well. I still have my radio, rear defog, headlights, brakelights, and remote locking. I may just have to break down and take it to a local shop and pay them to figure it out, unless someone here has any more ideas...

 

[Mike M]

Problem sorted...for now

Well, I spent a little time on the car tonight, and I have things at least back the way they should be.

The "prudent" idea seemed to be to undo everything that I had done up to the problem arising. So, I went in and disconnected the battery, undid all the grounds, disconnected the switch, and pulled the wires. After that, I had to replace to fuses and all was good again.

So, I'm not sure where exactly the problem was, but it's gone now. Everything is operating the way it should, and I'll be waiting to re-install the lights until I'm with someone who has better electrical knowledge than me! :lol:

Thanks to everyone for your help. It's great to have this resource to turn to. I just hope I can return the favor sometime.

 

[RS25.com]

Drive on out guy - Colorado is not THAT far and I'm a wiring fool!

 

[Mike M]

Drive on out guy - Colorado is not THAT far and I'm a wiring fool!

Thanks for the offer, James! I'm supposed to be going down to KC in March so Peaty can help me install my KYB's, and he may get roped into helping with the lights as well. Just don't tell him, because he doesn't know it yet! :lol:

 

[COwannago]

I had the problem with my ABS light not going off when I was poking around to see how to do the foglight mod where you can turn them on or off whenever you liked. Anyway, the ABS light stayed on and my blinkers were going too fast and some other electrical stuff. It turned out when I removed one of the wiring harness plugs behind the fuse box, I didn't reconnect it all the way. I disconnected all the plugs I originally disconnected, reconnected all of them double checking my work this time, and voila! Everything worked fine after that. I would do that if I were you, it's amazing how often that works for anything electrical.

Nick C.

 

[Mike M]

Thanks, Nick. I've got everything back on an even keel for now, and I'm not touching it all again until I'm in the company of someone with more electrical knowledge than I!