I am trying to wire up some lights to come on with my high beams. At the headlight, there are 3 wires. When checked with a current tester, one wire always has power. When low beams are on, touching the second wire with the current tester makes the high beams come on. This second wire has no power by itself when the high beams are on. The third wire never has power with low or high beams on. These wires are unplugged from the passenger side headlight permanently, because I am running an aftermarket wiring harness off the drivers side headlight socket. I'm wondering if I am going to be able to use the passenger side headlight socket to get power for my lights to go on with the highbeams. I have the auxillary lights wired up already with a switch and relay, using ignition on power from the fuse box, so I didn't really want to tear my whole dash apart until I know how I am going to wire this up.
Thanks for any knowledge in advance,
trdslinger

 

the headlights use a groundside switched system do a search on it

 

Will this help?

 

I did search around the internet and this site, but failed to see an exact wiring diagram on how I might accomplish what I am set out to do. Especially considering that my wiring is as described, I am just looking for somebody to tell me what to do, and the right way of course. No light manufacturer, as far as I know, has the wiring diagram to power up my lights when only on high beam. I think the answer may be that I need to tap into the power at a different location, but without some help I will be waiting around patiently.

 

why cant you use the Toyota scematic for the high beam switch and tap into that wire that comes out using a relay, fuse, and heavier wire if need be?

 

I'll save you the trouble of searching. The yellow/red wire is GROUNDED when the high beams are on.

 

Yep, you need to sort of reverse your wiring logic with a switched ground system. You can supply your repay coil from the constant power source on the connector and have the relay coil grounded via the Y/R wire, or if that is too hard to accomplish, consider adding a relay wiring harness to convert the headlights to a switched power setup:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...#WiringHarness

 

So would I attach this straight to the ground of the relay, or my dash switch ground? Right now the grounds of the relay go straight to the battery, and the grounds of the switch go to a place where things are grounded in the dash.

 

I did hook up the Y/R wire to the ground of the relay. I kept the power to the relay coming off a ignition on power souce. Definately not right. I don't know if the power source really matters, but simply wiring the Y/R to the relay's ground wasn't good. High beams wouldn't come on for the normal headlights, and auxilary lights wouldnt come on either. Odd stuff would happen as I flipped the switches.

 

Post a diagram of how you hooked it up. Something is wrong.

 

OK, this is it. I have actually two sets of lights, but the highbeams wouldn't go off if both were hooked up to the same highbeam ground?? I ended up just grounding one set to the frame. Everything works the way I want it to, but the LED in the switch is on when the lowbeams are on. The actual relay is a KC lights relay that has 2 87s, so it isn't a typical bosch type relay with an 87A. I am satisfied, but don't know if it is normal for the switch LED to illuminate when the lowbeams are on. When the highbeams are on, if the switch is turned off, the LED is not illuminated. I'm thinking that I may need to ground the switch to the highbeam ground also. Anybody know if that is the problem?

 

A few things come to mind.

1. If you reversed the supply and load wires at the switch, the LED would be on all the time.

2. It looks like you have the aux lamps grounded to the highbeam wire... that's bad, the dimmer switch can't handle that kind of current. The highbeam wire should be connected only to the stock highbeams and the relay terminal 85. The aux lamps should be grounded to the battery or the body.

3. If you have the headlamps off and the switch for the aux lamps on, the lamps will work with the dimmer switch on low or high. You can prevent this by adding a diode into the circuit at terminal 85.

Your problem with the highbeams not going off when the lights were both hooked up the highbeam wire proves that the stock dimmer switch cant be used for the aux lights. What was happening is that when the lights were on, you were seriously overloading the ground, and all that voltage was seeking a ground elsewhere. This caused the highbeams to stay on (albeit probably a bit dim) because the aux lamps were using the highbeam filament as a partial ground.

 

1. If you reversed the supply and load wires at the switch, the LED would be on all the time.
The LED ISN'T on all the time. It is on when the headlights are on and I flip the switch to the on position. It is on when the low beams of the headlights are on when the switch is in the OFF position. It is off when the highbeams are on, when the switch is in the off position. Therefore, the only problem is that when the headlights are on lowbeam, and the switch is in the off position, the LED is illuminated. Otherwise the function is normal. So with the switch in the off position, and auxillary lights off, I can toggle between high and low beam and watch the LED go on and off.

2. It looks like you have the aux lamps grounded to the highbeam wire... that's bad, the dimmer switch can't handle that kind of current. The highbeam wire should be connected only to the stock highbeams and the relay terminal 85. The aux lamps should be grounded to the battery or the body.
I can fix this to ground it to the frame or battery, but since I don't know enough about electronics, I have no idea why the dimmer switch has anything to do with this. By dimmer switch, do you mean the knob on the dash that makes the dash lights go brighter or dimmer?

3. If you have the headlamps off and the switch for the aux lamps on, the lamps will work with the dimmer switch on low or high. You can prevent this by adding a diode into the circuit at terminal 85.
This is not the case. I checked (the dimmer switch on the dash) with headlights off, and this does not happen. Since I don't know what I am doing, I can only tell you what is happening.

Your problem with the highbeams not going off when the lights were both hooked up the highbeam wire proves that the stock dimmer switch cant be used for the aux lights. What was happening is that when the lights were on, you were seriously overloading the ground, and all that voltage was seeking a ground elsewhere. This caused the highbeams to stay on (albeit probably a bit dim) because the aux lamps were using the highbeam filament as a partial ground.
Please tell me more about the dimmer switch. I have no idea what you are talking about. Also, please keep in mind, I have SUVlights after market headlight harness on my std. headlights, which leaves the passenger side H4 socket empty. The switched highbeam ground is the R/y wire which is a ground according to what I think I as told by everyone. That is the wire that I hooked up to the relays ground (85). The auxillary lamps wire harness is from KC. Somewhere in the mess of it all I know that the lights are grounded to the same ground as the relay. If I as only supposed to ground the switched highbeam wire to the relay and have the lights grounded to the battery or frame then I have to work on it and see. The thing is, everything works fine except for the LED of the dash switch comes on when switch is in the off position and headlights are on lowbeam (and on). If the headlights are off the LED is never on. If the headlights are on highbeam and the the auxillary lights switch is off the LED is not illuminated.



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having extra relays in there changes a lot, ore potential for reversed current flow and backfeeds. I would need a coplete diagram to fully diagnose the concern, including the suvlights harness diagram. Just ground the lights to the battery, and try swapping the wires at the switch.

The dimmer switch is the hi/low selector on the turn signal stalk

 

Here is my current wiring diagram. I worked on the wiring tonight. Grounded lamps to battery tonight. Grounded switch to switched highbeam ground. LED only lights up when highbeams are on. Everything works right. I am satisfied as long as nobody waves a red flag and tells me I messed it all up!

 

No reason that shouldn't work just fine

 

ON my '03 taco with stock headlight harness, I just put a jumper wire with 2A fuse between the red w/ green stripe wire behind the headlight (high beam power) and the 86 wire on the relay. On my setup the 86 relay wire is supposed to go to the switch, but it MUST BE DISCONNECTED from the switch or fuses will blow. So basically I have no switch for turning on the driving lights, they only come on with the high beams. The high beam power supply acts as the switch as far as the relay is concerned.

 

There is no exclusive high beam power on my 02 Tacoma. It uses a switched ground system. Now that I have it working don't confuse me!

 

haha. OK! I wonder why they're different from each other, though. An '03 from an '02, I mean. Maybe because your's is disconnected? I'm not too savvy on electrical wiring, but I went about this project myself exactly like you. I used a multimeter to see which of the three headlight harness wires had 12V+ when the high beams were on and no power otherwise. it ended up being the red with green stripe. In the process of ironing out the kinks I probably blew 5 or 6 fuses and maybe even came near to burning my truck to the ground. I'm glad it worked out OK, though.

 

Guys,

I just got my wire harness for the Lightforce 170. is my '97 Toyota 4Runner a switched ground system?