I had them wired into the hot wire for the low beams for a few months and everything was fine, ie: switch was lit when the lights were turned on but once i turned them off the switch light went off too.

Then about a week ago I wired them to the positive on the battery and everything was fine, switch light went off once i turned the truck off. Then last night i turned the truck off, took the key out and noticed the switch light was still on! Any ideas? i disconnected the wire off the battery b/c i didn't want to wake up to a burned up truck. thanks for any suggestions....

 

What I did, I wired my 12v's from the switch to the splice thats between my radio and my amp, that's the easiest way i think.
Did your lights come with the wiring and relay ?

 

ya, it cam with the harness, relay and fuse. i just dont understand how this only happened last night? i guess i'll try to splice it into a diff 12v source that is not "constant"?

 

Anything to do with the auto-off light feature for the headlights?

 

shouldnt have.... not connected to it in any way, was going straight to the battery and was working fine (staying off) till last night.

 

So you took it off of the relay and have it going straight from battery to switch now?

 

no, i just took the wire that was spliced into the low beam wire and connected it to the battery.

 

You probably shorted the switch out internally. Just a guess.

Your hella 500's pull 4.5 amps a piece, 9 amps total thru the relay. Which your not using any more. That switch probably melted enough to cause power to go through the ground pole and light it up even with the key out because it's "hotwired" now. I melted two toggle switches same way. First one just wouldn't turn lights on and the second one wouldn't turn off no matter how many times I flipped it up and down. Needless to say, I like relays now.

 

Well if the power to charge the relay is coming from the battery you are kind of defeating the purpose of even having a relay since now you have the full amperage from the battery going through the switch as opposed to the lower amps that you usually would get from a 12v source such as the lows or any acc. power source. You very well may have blew the switch or maybe a relay or fuse. Im not an electrical genius, though I have wired my lights to come on with an acc. source or high beams from a two way switch, I think something would be wonky since once you flip your switch you have the battery charging the relay and the lights themselves at the same time and not sure if that would do "something" to the circuit..Im sure someone with more knowledge will chime in. In the meantime, I would put the wire to charge the relay on an acc. or back on the low's. And check you switch, fuse and relay just for giggles.

 

i'll try that but everything is still going through the relay now... the only diff is that the power was taken directly off the battery not from the hot low beam wire.

ugh... don't like electrical issues. my back up lamps (optilux hellas) are wired the same way, straight off the battery and no issues, same wireing harness as the 500's with relay and fuse.

 

If you're still using the wiring harness, as long as its hooked up right, you shouldn't have any issues. Possible bad switch maybe? Have you tried a different switch?

 

haven't tried a diff switch yet but just seems weird that this happened after i took the power off the battery vs. off the low beam the way it has been for months. then again, its been off the battery for almost a week and it just happened. seems like it should have happened right after i switched it.

 

Not necessarily, the switch could be juuuuuuuust rated for what the amperage you're pulling thru it is. It might not get hot if you are just fliping the power on for a second. If you're running power for a good distance then yeah. Its juuuuuuuuust getting hot enough to mush the plastic and cause the metal contacts to move around. Trust me, if it was an immediate short you would know!!!

You need to look at the wiring schematic. Are you suppose to get your "light" power from the low beam or is this just to power the relay to turn on the lights? Your relay takes hardly no voltage to activate. You may need to rewire your setup. Wait,

if your using the battery instead of the low beam then your relay is going to be on always giving power to your switch, thus making it on. Sorry had to think about it...yeah, rewire you setup then you'll be good to go.

 

Yeah, what he said. Move the wire you took from the low beam to a switched source. Double check your wiring before you power it up. You should have a wire from the battery to the lights that is switched by the relay. The dash switch should then activate the relay using a 12 volt source, if it's tied to something switched by the ignition, then you can't leave your lights on accidentally. Don't forget to ground the relay.

This may help: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f127...4runner-75177/

Paul

 

^^^^^Yup!

 

thanks guys.... i'll have to take a good look at it when i get home! hope that swich is not broken now.

 

The hella switches are pretty beefy, you'll probably be aight.

 

thanks, i had my head up my ass when i took the wire off my low beams and hooked it up to my battery! the realsy is ALREADY running off the battery. i swaped it back to the low beam and it works fine but now the switch does NOT light up at all, ever. did i fry the switch? i could buy a new/diff one to test i guess but it won't bother me if it stays off, that thing was too bright anyways. as long as it not lighting up does not mean something is or will be fooked up worse. thanks for your help btw!

 

yea you probably funked up the switch.

try out a new one, and the "green wire"... thats the one were talking about right....it should not be constant.
You want it so they only go when the key is in, thats what most people do