I've wired up lights before. I know how to wire a relay and to make good connections.

But, today was a bad day. I got my Hella's in the mail and decided to install them.

I read Bob's writeup, which was helpful, but, in all honesty, its not all that hard to install these lights! (Or so I thought).

So, I got them installed, wired, etc. Tried to turn them on... nothing. I went through and double checked all my connections and GROUNDS. Nothing still. Checked the inline fuse, and it was burnt out! Thought I might have crossed a wire by accident or something.

Since it was late, I couldn't buy another fuse, so I went and connected the relay directly to the battery w/o a fuse.... Flipped the switch and within seconds my engine was smoking.

Turned out to be the ground wire from the relay. Burnt to a crisp.

Soooo... Whats the problem here?! What caused my ground wire from the relay to burn?

I only need two grounds... 1 for the bulbs, and 1 for the relay. I am using a switch that was already there for my fog-lamps.

Please help!!!!

 

where did you put the ground wires

 

I drilled some holes in the firewall, and attached them with a screw into the hole.

 

ok i looked at it again i remember one time i hooked up a set of lights and i got the wires crossed at the switch as soon as i flipped the switch the ground wire melted

 

None were touching or anything...

I checked to make sure the wires were in the right places.

So are the bulbs just not set up correctly? It almost seems as if I were to have just connected the battery terminals together, I would have gotten the same results.

What worries me is that the fuse blew going into the switch. Why is it drawing so much power?

 

sounds like a problem with the wiring i would just go over it really good again what size wire are you using how many watts are the bulbs ? is the relay a 30amp ?

 

Yeah, its the Hella relay, the fuse it came with was 15amp?

Anyways, hmm I guess I'll just re-do everything again, hopefully figure it out in the morning....

Thanks for the help

 

also you need 1 ground wire for each light and just one for the relay

 

okay, I tried splicing the grounds together and running one ground. I'll try just doing them seperatly.

 

Maybe the lights themselves have a short within? Worth a thought.

Now...send me a PM neighbor!

 

I still dont know exactly what a short is.

 

When opposing poles make contact without resistance and cause a sudden discharge ending in sparks and high temperatures and fires?

I think I am pretty close...

--- edit:

dictionary.com for "Short Circuit"

an abnormal, usually unintentional condition of relatively low resistance between two points of different potential in a circuit, usually resulting in a flow of excess current.

---

Dang I am good

 

its the relay, bob's guide is wrong. i ran into this when i wired my kc's and followed his relay pinout. i didnt think to even post it here.

i dont remember which ones were switched. follow the instructions given to you by hella. http://www.hella.com/produktion/Hell...F/Inst_450.pdf

 

the write up seems fine to me i used it to wire up my backup lights

 

If you're melting wires, you have high current going through them, which means that you've left yourself with a low resistance path directly from the battery positive to ground. It sounds to me like you messed up the wiring at the relay. Check it again with the diagram from Hella.

 

Thanks for the definition, and why the wire is melting. That makes sense. The lights inbetween the + and - would be like a resistor.

Anyways, I double checked the Hella wiring diagram and it seemed to be consistent with Bobs.

Bad grounding points would have not caused this correct?

Yes, it seems as if the HOT wire from the relay that was supposed to go to the LIGHTS went to to ground instead. I'll try switching that over.

 

take the lights apart. sometimes the ground inside can be touching the power wire.

 

I've had exactly that same problem.

 

Yep! Thats what I think it is.

1) I opened up the relay and found out that my initial ground wire was a hot wire that was supposed to be going to power the LIGHTS. That is why it burnt!

2) Using a continuity tester, I found that my relay is working properly.

3) Once I attach the lights, the fuse burns out instantly. This makes me believe that there is a short in the lights.

Thanks a ton guys. Living and learning... Its fun.

 

YUP!! That was the culprit. What a pain in the ass, after redoing everything and checking everyting one by one, it was the damn pos/neg connections in the back of the light that were crossed.

Well, thanks Tron for the help I appreciate it!