mtnbkr

My 4Runner came with Hella 500s mounted but not wired up. What is the preferred way to hook them up? Should I go with separate switch or wired into the High Beam circuit? What kind of power do they require?

Thanks,
Chris

jacksonpt

It's really your call on how you hook them up. It all depends on what kind of controll you want over them. I've got 2 sets of 500 mounted on my roof rack, and I have them wired to a factory switch which is tapped into the ignition. That way I can use the switch to turn them on and off, but they rely on the ignition for power too, so I will never leave them on if my rig is off.

mtnbkr

How many amps do they pull? I'm thinking about wiring them into the high beam circuit.

Chris

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Welcome to the forum!

You should get quite a few answers on this one, as a lot of us have 500's.

I myself prefer to have total control over the lamps.
You probably have this sheet, but if not, I scanned it in last week for someone else.

On the sheet where they show you hooking up the wire (#8) to the headlamps, you can bypass that and and hook the wire to any fuse in your cockpit.
It only requires low amperage for that wire as it's the wire that energizes the relay under the hood.

I use to have my wires for all of my switches tapped in behind fuses, but it turned into a jungle.
To see how I fixed that mess, look in our Tech section under the Electrical area.

Back to the wire...If you tap to a fuse, you can then power up your Hella's anytime you want to instead of them being dependent on your headlights being on.

Also, junk the Hella switch that comes with them and order a Toyota switch from your dealer.
Here is mine.

It wires up differently than the Hella switch. The middle wire is the one in the Hella info sheet (#8) that they show going to the headlamps.
That is the wire you can tap in behind a fuse in the cockpit instead.

You will want to use a 30 amp relay as in the info sheet to power them.

mtnbkr

Thanks!! I didn't have that sheet. Actually, other than the lights, I didn't have anything. The previous owner simply mounted them to the brushguard and left them unwired. I think he did it for looks.

Once again, thanks.

Chris

UKMyers

That sucks you didn't get the harness or the relay or did you? The 500's come with a good set-up. Not sure but I think you can get just a harness for your lights and then get Corey to hook you up with a factory switch wiring job.

nrgetic99

When hooking into the harness for a feed on the main beams (brights), do it at the steering column. Doing at the lights is a pain as they use negative switching (always hot) so you would have to use a pair of relays to reverse the polarity.

I believe the color of the wire is ...err...I will have to go have a look later. I just probed mine for a 12V with the brights on from the harness coming off the light switch.

David

mtnbkr

Nope, I got nothing other than the lights themselves. Like I said, I think it was a vanity addition and not ever meant to be functional.

Chris

mtnbkr

I ended up wiring them into the fog lamps. They were aftermarket as well (installed well though) and controlled by a rocker switch on the dash (won't come on unless lights are on though). Since the fog lamps are behind the main struts of the brush guard, I don't normally use them. This eliminated the need to install switches and relays.

Man, these things are bright. I can't wait to see how well they light up the trail.

Chris