Mk2 upgraded headlight loom (problems!)

[JMallows]

I can do a diagram, i'll show you what i have done. I have dipped beam, and then high beam plus fogs - with five relays.

I'll do one to use six relays - and you want fogs to be controlled by the fog light switch, not the high beam stalk?

NO and NC are normally open and normally closed.

[plasticfantastic]

That would be wicked if you cold do that!

Fogs controlled by fog switch would be perfect.

This is the last job to finish and i can finally start using my car again, she's been off the road since april!

cheers

[danny_p]

that diagram dose work correctly.  you can use dual pole relays as i have done,  it's not the "normal way"  but they happily function configured that way.   

the loom was desinged with the intention of giveing maximum possible ouput for road rallyes ect

running both dim and dip fillaments at the same time,   bulb life will proably be shorter to some degree  but it's not that short in my experiance  as mine are still working  fine.   the fog lights do come on as per normal with the switch on the dash they just happen to come on with the main beam in my chosen confuration if thats a problem just dont put the link in from the main beam relay to 87a on the dip beam or fog light relay.


none of the relays shoudl LOCK on  it's not possible if done correctly the "coils" of the relays are connected directy to and only to the headlight connection of the fog connection.

in my digram the relay in the center if for MAIN beam,  so with just that relay connected you will get your spot lights on and your main beam to start with.   if you have linked across to 87a of the other two relays you will get everyting on at this point. 

when the dip realy is energised power will flow from 87 > 30 and operate the lamp as per normal

connecting the lamp to pin 30 and the power to 87 is no diffrent to conencting the power to pin 30 and the lamp to 87 as far as the relay is concirned  but dose allow to feed power in through 87a from the main beam realy if you wish to do so to bring everything on.  that is the only differance between this loom and any other. 

so build the loom up so dip main and fog lights all work correctly on there own then you link across from pin 87 on the main beam relay to 87a on the dip and fog rellays if you want to try the everyting on approach

[plasticfantastic]

i do understand the theory of your diagram, and its why i chose to copy yours, love the idea of all that light for the country lanes!

i must have a connection or 2 wrong somewhere, i'll have a good look over it tomorrow. thought i might have been a little too tired at midnight last night to be soldering 

[danny_p]

as for the problems you must be connecting  one of the original  headlight feeds to  switch volts from one of the relays,  

pins 86 and 85 are used to energise the relay,   power comes froun the headlamp plug to one of these pins and returns through the ground in the headlamp plug though the other,   ( or you can ground it to the battery, body, engine ) but i chose to go through the loom.  so if you have more than 1 conenction to pin 85 or 86 on any of the relays  taht is the problem  and would cause them to lock on

get that part working correctly first.  then rest shoudl explain itself

just split it down into sections  build that bit,  test , build next bit
     

I did it originaly for the extra light  cant have to much when your driveing the lanes,  but didn't want to add extra spotlights as it makes a mk2 golf look ghay very quickly so only option was to make the existing lights work harder.

fogs were added in  beacuse there on the same gadgue wire in the loom so logic says they suffer volt drop to,  but the real reason is  i noticed they light the hedges quite well  and ok your not soposed to drive with them on but hell lots of people do at least this way they turn off when you dip the lights,  if you don't they'll get dazzeld quite well  but full beam dose the anyway 

[JMallows]

that diagram dose work correctly.  you can use dual pole relays as i have done,  it's not the "normal way"  but they happily function configured that way.  

the loom was desinged with the intention of giveing maximum possible ouput for road rallyes ect

running both dim and dip fillaments at the same time,   bulb life will proably be shorter to some degree  but it's not that short in my experiance  as mine are still working  fine.   the fog lights do come on as per normal with the switch on the dash they just happen to come on with the main beam in my chosen confuration if thats a problem just dont put the link in from the main beam relay to 87a on the dip beam or fog light relay.


none of the relays shoudl LOCK on  it's not possible if done correctly the "coils" of the relays are connected directy to and only to the headlight connection of the fog connection.

in my digram the relay in the center if for MAIN beam,  so with just that relay connected you will get your spot lights on and your main beam to start with.   if you have linked across to 87a of the other two relays you will get everyting on at this point. 

when the dip realy is energised power will flow from 87 > 30 and operate the lamp as per normal

connecting the lamp to pin 30 and the power to 87 is no diffrent to conencting the power to pin 30 and the lamp to 87 as far as the relay is concirned  but dose allow to feed power in through 87a from the main beam realy if you wish to do so to bring everything on.  that is the only differance between this loom and any other. 

so build the loom up so dip main and fog lights all work correctly on there own then you link across from pin 87 on the main beam relay to 87a on the dip and fog rellays if you want to try the everyting on approach

  Yeah, i can see that now.. Didnt look properly. Nothing wrong with the diagram in fact... I still wouldnt wire in the H4 lamps to use both filaments simultaneously though, i did and encountered lots of problems! The fog lamps and spot lamps will light up where the dipped beam is anyway.

Anyway, do you want a diagram from me still?

You definately need to check all connections...

[JMallows]

To be picky as well, i also wouldnt only use one power cable for all four lamps, as thats over 18A if you have 55W bulbs. Better to use two or three cables

[danny_p]

some bulbs may act diffrently to other's   best option is then to leave a link pokeing out  so you can allways disconnect it.   all i can say is i havent had a fail yet.

the dip beam dose help light up just infrount of the car much better,   and i like to tweek the spots for a bit more distance and as said  fogs light the hedges.    may sound odd but i'll make sense if you do loads of night driveing down small lanes.    

as foe power cabels  i looked at that,  i used 2.5 mm2,    that has no problem dealing with 18A,   2.5 is rated for 25A  at least normaly and dont get much volt drop at all

[plasticfantastic]

 JMallows, Ye i'll still have a diagram if you dont mind, ill have something else to try!

i'll go through it all tomorrow, hopefully it will be something easy i have missed

[plasticfantastic]

Hi all,

well an entire day of head scratching, soldering and relay bashing was had today! with an almost successful ending.

so far the list of problems was:

a green plug to the front indicator, now cleaned up and working fine!

the horn plug was wired directly to earth rather than the switched earth,

when i refitted the light stalk, one of the spade conectors bent to the side instead of going in, this caused all manner of odd issues!

after fixing that one the dim dip resistor really started to mess things up (i'd had been taking it in and out a few times, before fixing the stalk it actually made it work better with it on!)

also now i have stripped back all the relays and replaced with six 4 pole relays and now just have them to do dip, main and fogs seperately all was working fine for the test. then took the loom back out of the car, finished up the soldering and loom wrapping. It's now back in the car, but only the drivers side has decided to work, but when i wiggled the relays the passenger side flashed up so im pretty sure its all ok i just have to find the dodgy connection before sinking them in resin tomorrow!

I had enough by this point and while it was still sunny and now she was taxed i took her out for her first propper drive, did about 20 miles and she behaved brilliantly, very smooth power delivery and loads of torgue!

im pretty sure ill have her all sorted tomorrow, i'll keep you posted!

cheers