ok, being the electrical genius i am, i decided to try and join the headlight wire with the parking light wire to see if i could get the ftp's with my parking lights. well, long story short, it went fizzle which sounded like a fuse. but oddly, the headlights lowered, so i'm guessing i toasted the headlight switch. the parkin lights work but nothing happens when i turn on the headlights. the 30 amp fuse in the bay is fine. also i noticed the clock isn't working now. not sure how the clock is connected to all this. anyone with ideas of what it could be other then the switch?

 

Yeah the headlamp circuit at the switchs sends ground, while the parking light circuit sends 12V+.

I would check the ground at the switch and then to see if the switch has contintuity to ground on the head light wire when it is on.

 

BTW, goto ebay and buy a package of 10 12v relays. They normaly cost around 3-4 usd a piece, but you can get 10 on ebay for around 25 usd. Trust me, I've used 7 already in just rewiring stock wiring + additions: headlamp rewire, wiper relay, stereo relay, efan relay, fuel cut switch + relay + rewire, fog lights, a/c efan rewire to switch on 5 degrees aft the main fan. They are amazing things that will isolate HUGE eletrical problems into just 1 small problem. I think I have enough magnetic fields in my car to make house lights dim as i drive by in residential areas!!
If you do get excessively into it like I have, to isolate eletrical problems, and ease the switching amperage on the stock switches (which btw has actually helped keep, imo the wiper and headlight switch allive), you will have to get used to a soft "popping" noise whenever you turn something on or off. Its the magnetics puling over the switch in the relay.
Kudos to whoever invented the 12v relay.

BTW: server hiccup.

 

oh yeah, and their are numerous ways to hook up a relay. Different ways do different things, for example you can run a constant 12v, but a switch ground and have a ground switch. Normaly though, relays have the wiring diagram eteched on the front. You could follow those to have the ususal 12v switch.
Just so you know, the only 12v ground switch i've run into in the car was the ground for the stock foglight switch, (at the time i did not know) and tried using for my fc switch. Couldn't figure out why my car would die when i turned the lights on!!

More on topic:: Run a wire from the parking light + to the relay switch and than run the switched 12v+ to the headlamp wires (best bet would be splice in right behind the physical headlamp.) (use the wire thingies that you put a running wire into and than a end wire and clamp them together-- love those!) -- anways run your posetive and ground to the relay and viola! Running ftp lights.
I haven't actually done this, I'd be a bit concerened with ventilation problems inside the lens, maybe someone who has tried it could elaborate on that.
On a final note, turning on the headlamp at the physical point behind the lamp unit (where I said to splice the wire) should not lift the headlamps. The headlamp motors would normaly have power before the headlamps (on a different circuit) and hence shouldn't come up. Unless you have done some funky wiring already to try and make the motors not work.

Wich btw, putting a switch in aft the headlamp motor fuse would be another route at doing this project. I think it might actually be more involved though, and I would really feel more able to fix not having headlamps turning on than not having the headlights come up. The switch for the headlamp motor does some crazy japanese circuits. (Not discriminatory, they are crazy but they *work*, pretty damn good too, or at least unitl americans-- or just me-- rehash all of their eletrical work! and call it domesicated eletrical issues-- then again I would imagine all the relays, resistors, and everything I have bought have probably come from japan. Anyway!!

Hope that helps, I could get hella more indepth on doing this if you wanted me to. I'd just get down and dirty to do the mod myself and record the wire color markings.

Later all-- hope that helped you somehow!

 

ahh couple final things I forgot, you'll have to buy inline fuse holders+ fuses or a fuse block like I have. I went to the salvage yard and pulled on off a 1992 subaru legacy.
The other thing is that if you were going to do this mod, you might as well do the secondary sister mod and rewire headlights so that you don't kill your headlamp switch 2 years from now (which i think was another post in the forum a few months back??) Anyways the main thing I have noticed from doing the second mod was the fact that my lights don't dim anymore when i hit the brake at idle, turn a/c on, or hit a powerful bass tone.

Anyways you would need two relays+ two inline fuse holders. Do the above post first, than cut the original wires to the headlamp. Use the original headlamp +12 (coming from the car) to use as the switching 12+ on the relay, and than wire the switched +12V to the headlamps 12+ wire. Now ground and power the relay and it should solve your dimming problems if you had any.

Note: This all says your voltage doesn't drop an below 10.5amps like mine used to. I've been running two batteries (yeah, the extra battery was free, comapred to $120 fd alternator) and relocated them into to the hatch aft the towers. I hardly ever drop below 12v except when cranking out a flood (which also hardly ever happens now.)

Final note, I had bought a new wire harness for the headlamps too that used 10ga wire, this im sure helped with ellimnating the dimming!!

I could make some quick ms paint diagrams if it helps any, let me know!!

 

oh hey i just thought of something!! Doing the secondary mod would solve the headlamp motors from getting distorted power like I mentioned in the first... or second post. Basicaly it would make it so the only time your headlamp motors would lift would be when you used for actual headlights or manual overide switch (not when you used your parking lights).

This was the thing I wasn't sure about-- how they might come up depending on the backwords (in my mind) circuitry that I just talked about rehacking and making easy to understand.

In any case I don't think it would be a problem, maybe a 10% chance, but that if it did the second mod would solve that problem.

Power only goes one way through a relay, switch, not two!

 

Wow... thats alot of contentful posts!

btw: server hiccup gone

 

example of use of 12v relays

 

thats before the battery relocation btw, that efan was what prompted me to use the second battery. I ended up hooking that fan up to the system and found that it draws nearly 25 amps!! haha, makes some massive air though, massive aggressive noise too.
Heres a link if that server trashes that picture:
http://www.sd-fc3s.net/IM001091.JPG

 

holy 7 posts batman


good posts though

 

one more!!

Heres the wiring diagram for both mods!! Its a bit scratchy, but its exactly what you're wanting to do!

http://www.sd-fc3s.net/wiringdiagram.GIF

and it won't fry anything!!

BTW I did leave out the inline fuses in the diagram, they are an ABSOLUTE MUST. Infact I should just change the diagram to show it.

--ok changed the diagram, like it should be now.

 

very good infomation...

=Markus

 

Thank you Icemark, making a very good point I missed! The actuall switch is a ground switch (this would be something I missed) while the circuirty is 12v+. This is because of a ground headlamp relay (see above posts...one of them someplace). Anyway it should be noted on the diagram that you would *not* want to take the wires directly from behind the headlamp switch, as it would be a 12v--. Instead you would want to use the ground relay switched circuitry after the stock relay (or the wires right behind the physical lighs works best.)

Hardwiring a 12v+ and 12v- is *bad*. It can mean anything from fizzle, spark, arc, pop, ouch, AHHHH!!!, to boom, depending on the size of the gauged wire. I have seen someone have a 12v battery blow up in their face hooking up indstrial 4ga jumper cables. Had to be sent to the emergency room because of the acid.

I have said in the past 12v is puny. I comapre it to 220v used to arcweld, it is puny. But for anyone who doesn't use 220v arc welding on a weekly basis or more often should note something. If you think 12v is still small, do this:
Start your car, open hood and hold hood with hand. Remove spark plug wire from coil tower.

I have done this in the past due to ignorance. I grew up and learned alot! Anyways. It should also be noted that if you have a pacemaker *DO NOT TRY THE ABOVE*

That of course saying you actually rely on a pacemaker, and considering you have one its possible you do.

And with all the stressful driving us pro-rex do... well you know, im 20 and im supprised i haven't had a heart attack.

Later all.

 

damn kenteth, that was some hell of some typing. i feel i should pay you by the hour. it will take a while rereading it as i'm electronically stupid with only electrical 101 in college. i didn't realize that the parking was hot and the headlights not. would never have thought. right now i'd like to just get the headlights working again. any reason this knocked out the clock? my a/c does not cool at all now but i'm not sure if thats related since its been weak.

 

ok scratch the clock thing, i believe that is from my cigar lighter fuse blowing. how do you reset the heater circuit breaker?

 

I remember reading a post about a month ago about someone who had nodda clock and no ac. The post was written because of a miracculas event that all of the sudden his clock and ac worked fine. They are tied into the same loop someplace, unfortuately i'm not exactly sure as to where. As for the 12+ hitting the negative, the weekest ground is where the problem is. My guess is it would be a cold solder somewhere in the cpu or logicon. That explains the clock and ac.


As for the headlight switch, test to see if their is any continuity behind the switch. Basicaly if there is you know the switch is still alright and you can rule it out.

After ruling it out you could run a few different options. 1: proceed to find the next possible problem area
2: rewire the lights.

though #2 doesn't solve your ac or clock problems.

I remember resoldering the cpu's, logicon, and idiot light last year. Its pretty easy to do and I haven't had a bit of trouble since, where as the eletronics were riddled with probles in my car.

BTW, I never took an eletronics class, pure reading material, and hard knocks. Mostly hard-knocks!

 

damn it. i hope i don't have to f with the cpu. i'd rather leave the black box alone.

 

ok, i just checked the fsm and the heat/ac and clock are on the cigar fuse i blew. i'm good there.

 

ahh sweet, didnt even think of that!