driving lights/spots for newbies?

cooloothin · Post by **cooloothin** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 6:03 pm

While i'm here

Supercheap had superforce driving lights in various shapes and sizes for 10 bucks the other day. I missed out but it got me thinking again about the crap EA81 lights and my desire to put perhaps some little 40mm halogen cateyes in the bumper.

I must admit i had the idea that it would be as simple as buying a switch from D*cksmith and some wire and hooking the lot up to the battery.

A mate suggested there were legalities involved and you should hook them up to your high-beam switch, and that i needed something called a 'relay'

i've heard the term before and i figure it has something to do with not running the battery flat or short circuiting anything.. but other than that i don't have a clue.

Could somebody give me a quick run down of the steps for installing lights that just come with two wires and no info/instructions?

Does the extra wire need to be any special type? What's a relay? Yes, I have seen the wiki but it doesn't have quite enough info to make me confident in buying anything yet.

Thanks for any help,

Dave

theclick · Post by **theclick** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 6:10 pm

Ok. here is the deal

You need a relay, as you are only allowed to attach driving lights on the high beam switch and they also need to be switchable themselves.

So ya get a 30 amp relay (usually bosch) and this had a number of connectors. 1 (or 2 if u need 2 and most do) are the output for the lights. one is a 12v input from batery via a fuse (usually supplied with lights) another is a ground, and the other is for the switch.

Basically, what you have to do is run a wire from the highbeam switch on your headlights, out to a switch on your dash, then run the other side of that to the relay.

Basically the relay separates the power input from the switch, allowing safer operation, the use of a lighter switch and makes it legal! If you google driving light installation you should be able to find the diagram

Steps:

Bolt you relay onto something safe and stable
Attach fuse in line with battery and power input on relay (dont plug in yet)
Using a multimeter, find out which wire on your headlights operates the high beam
Run a wire from high beam switch into your dash area
Also run a wire from the switch input on the relay to your dash.
Install dash switch with these 2 wires
Run a wire from relay ground to a safe ground somewhere on the chassis
Run wire/wires from the centre output and the other (usually forward) output on the relay to the headlight area
Attach each headlight respectively
Run wires from headlight negatives to a safe ground
Attach everything
reconnect battery
Have a beer

cooloothin · Post by **cooloothin** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 6:28 pm

thanks heaps mate, i think even I can follow those directions

i'll have a look for the bits during the week and have a stab next weekend.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 2:17 pm

Good instructions there click. Just one question, do the MY's lights turn off with the ignition? If so this wire install will leave the driving lights on after the ignition is turned off (unless manually switched off from the dash switch) but will operate as normal when the ignition is on.

I ask this because my L series runs an "earth switch" system - bascially when i turn the ignition off the car cuts the earth instead of the older system of cutting the positive in the system.

If this is the case let me know and i'll post up a diagram that will turn everything off properly with the earth switch setup, its a little different to the other wire setup and took me a while to get my head around how it worked...

I would also recommend going for something a little bigger than what your talking about. I would also go for a known brand -> Narvara, Hella, Lightforce. I've got three Hella 100's on the front of my L and only run two as the police informed me that 2 spotties and two fog lights max are legal (in vic) -> not 3 or 4 spotties with no fogs etc.
I wonder why they don't harass all the utes and 4wd's around here with the 4 roof mounted spotties - i see these as more dangerous than my 3 light setup in the correct position. This is one of my issues with lighting and the local police... back on track now.

So, go for something that's known, good quality - its worth the money in the long run. And if the lights work like the L way i've described i'll find and post the wiring diagram.

Cheers

Subafury · Post by **Subafury** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 8:43 pm

yes el freddo could ypu post up the way to get L series spotties to switch on n off properly. something i was wondering about since i put mine on.

and btw a bit off topic in wa i heard off a dude that got pulled over that max of 6 lights are allowed to face forward incl headlights. and is the deal with foglights/driving lights that they are illegal to have on in normal driving ie headlights normally on too?

cooloothin · Post by **cooloothin** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:17 pm

thanks for the info guys.. El_Freddo - sounds like your diagram will be useful to others anyway, but MYs lights stay on regardless of key. Drained the battery many a time

Re: going bigger or better brand, i guess perhaps i should call what i'm after 'fog' lights rather than spotties ? I just wanted an 'easy' way to solve the suby-crap-light problem, rather than going roo shooting. This effort is pretty much just for highway driving.

90brumby · Post by **90brumby** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:46 pm

the fog lights should help u see that the head lights are on which will help u to remeber to turn them off

oh the amount of times i have left mine on

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:15 am

cooloothin wrote:Re: going bigger or better brand, i guess perhaps i should call what i'm after 'fog' lights rather than spotties ? I just wanted an 'easy' way to solve the suby-crap-light problem, rather than going roo shooting. This effort is pretty much just for highway driving.

I got my lights when i was living in whoop whoop with my peros, now that i'm in town i still use them as some of the street lighting is crap, and with people coming home from a big night out - its good to see them before they can get in your way.

Roo shooting, yeah they'd be good for that if they weren't bolted to the front of the car. That said they give too much spread for true spot lighting - they're combination lights built into one.

Anyway, what ever way you go, i hope you like the result - extra lights are good lights if mounted legally.

Cheers

Post by **Alex** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:58 pm

i have a pair or narva driving lights which are on pretty much all the time, and a pair of big narva spotties with 140watt globes in them, they are a pencil/broad beam combo, and light the road up very very very well, they also tend to burn the retina's of people who come my way with their high beams on..

alex

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:35 pm

Alex wrote: (they)... light the road up very very very well, they also tend to burn the retina's of people who come my way with their high beams on..

Mine do the same, i generally give people about 2 seconds (sounds like a short time but its not) before i give them a flick.

I love "playing" high beam wars... i'm about in the middle, its usually truckies that win out when they don't want to dim their lights, either that or a big FO 4wd...

Post by **Alex** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:38 pm

hhahah...if someone's being a real pain i have 2x100w rear spotties as well...hit going both ways!..LOL! or sum one behind ya with their high beams on..its gold, i love it!..

alex

cooloothin · Post by **cooloothin** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 7:57 pm

Actually I'm stuck in the middle at the moment (in high beam wars) thanks to an over-zealous rego inspector.

He picked me up on the lights being not pointed correctly.. then decided he'd be nice, grabbed a screwdriver and fixed them up himself so they pointed at the right 'height'.

Good job mate - now everybody flashes their high-beams at me when i'm on low-beams, and my high-beams are useless because they point up into the night sky and illuminate the trees.

7 years of putting up with stock suby headlights and the rising number of halogen, krypton and xenon headlights in new cars means I don't have a huge amount of sympathy for the other drivers.. they flick their high beams at me and i end up thinking 'you wanna play?' and flick mine back..

but seriously it's not good (being flashed by every 3rd car gets old real quick) so i'll have to drop the suby headlights back to their normal crap angle and invest, hence this thread.

Back on topic, thanks again to click/freddo for good advice.

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 10:43 pm

Once you try HID you will never go back.
They make any previous attempt at high performance lighting look like a childish prank.
Even big lights like Rally 4000 or Lightforce 240 Blitz running 160 watts can't even come close.
It's almost like they were invented for Subies. A small, low current draw light that will give you the confidence to use the same speed at night that you can in daylight.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 12:47 am

brumbyrunner wrote:Once you try HID you will never go back.
They make any previous attempt at high performance lighting look like a childish prank.
Even big lights like Rally 4000 or Lightforce 240 Blitz running 160 watts can't even come close.
It's almost like they were invented for Subies. A small, low current draw light that will give you the confidence to use the same speed at night that you can in daylight.

Have you got a link to theses or some pics?

I havn't forgotten about the wiring diagram, things got hectic at uni last week (i'm now home free til at least the last week in july.. YAY!). I gotta find it first and if not i'll go back to the original source.

Cheers

90brumby · Post by **90brumby** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 12:50 am

have u ever seen the price tag on a HID conversion

Matatak · Post by **Matatak** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 12:54 am

90brumby wrote:have u ever seen the price tag on a HID conversion

i saw one for 290 for a H4 conversion kit..
ive never seen a HID light but ive seen some pics and they look 300% better basically need to pay for them tho

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 12:58 am

90brumby wrote:have u ever seen the price tag on a HID conversion

Mate i don't even know what a HID conversion is let a lone how much it costs...

90brumby · Post by **90brumby** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 1:03 am

if they r the ones im thinkin of (could be wrong) bout 2k for the conversion kit like said b4 they are a bright light with small amount of curruent draw

off memory the kit has the globes, ingitors and mabye some wiring stuff
but idonno ive never brought any of these

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 1:06 am

two grand could get me another subi + one as a paddock basher...

Matatak · Post by **Matatak** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 1:17 am

El_Freddo wrote:two grand could get me another subi + one as a paddock basher...

shuldnt be needing to fork out 2 grand for them
http://www.bitdistribution.com.au/?g=2&s=1

prices only go from 200 to 390 for them on that site