Headlight upgrade

[dat_sun720]

I just got some new projector headlights and having some trouble installing them. I know the new headlights are for a camaro but are not as simple as I thought they would be. If I plug them straight into the socket, only the high beam is on

[datzenmike]

Are your parking lights working? The hi/low relay is powered by the parking lights. No parking lights, the relay remains in the OFF default position which is high beams.

 

The fuse may be blown. Its the third fuse over from the right hand side of the box... 15 amp.

[paradime]

I'm not a 720 expert, but I experienced fuse issues when I converted to protecter lights on my 510. I had to use secondary high/low beam relays with 25 amp fuses to get it to work right. 

[datzenmike]

The headlights have a fuse for left and a fuse for right sides. So if both hi beams are working then both fuses are ok.

 

Nissan sends power to all lights by way if the light switch. The other sides of the bulb filaments are grounded to turn them on. The headlight relay can only be one of two positions hi or low beam. The headlight relay is powered when the parking lights are on and the dimmer switch grounds the relay to activate it. With the dimmer on low beams there is no power to the relay and it remains in the off position which is low beams. When the dimmer is set to hi beams the relay is grounded, energizing it and selecting hi beams to ground.

[dat_sun720]

I just checked and none of the fuses are blown. I got the lows and highs to work all I needed to do was bend the right tab on the connector and plugged it in. Ideally I would like to have all the headlights working with lows and highs instead of just the 2.

[datzenmike]

Yeah, well what I would do is ground the the two low beams so that they are permanently on when the headlight switch is on. Now, when the high beams are turned on the lows just stay on.

 

Low beam power is through the red wire, just ground the other one (probably Red/Yellow stripe) coming from the lamp.

[dat_sun720]

So I just did that for the lows but not sure what I should do with the highs. Should I ground the red wire or the red/black wire? When I hit the highs, the lows turn off and I get no highs

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Some headlight systems use ground to switch the lights on while others use power. Depending on what you have, the ground may need to be switched from one terminal to another on the three prong connector.

 

To make less typing for me, read through this write-up - https://myoffroadradio.com/1st-gen-4runner-h4-led-headlight-conversion/

 

 

[datzenmike]

RED is power so don't ground it.

 

8 hours ago, dat_sun720 said:

I just checked and none of the fuses are blown. I got the lows and highs to work all I needed to do was bend the right tab on the connector and plugged it in. Ideally I would like to have all the headlights working with lows and highs instead of just the 2.

 

You said the lows and highs are now working. All I asked you to do is ground the lo beams so they are on all the time.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

The reason I mention it is because he's using non-original type headlights. I deal with this regularly with aftermarket conversion kits. Sometimes a custom relay system needs to be wired in to get them working properly.

[paradime]

That was my experience. The Halogen projectors I used drew too much power and caused similar problems. The solution was a custom relay system. Worked like hot buttered popcorn.

 

 

[dat_sun720]

I'll look into a custom relay system. Any tips I should know when making one?

[paradime]

3 hours ago, dat_sun720 said:

I'll look into a custom relay system. Any tips I should know when making one?

Call rallylights.com. Chances are they have a pre-made universal unit relatively cheep. If you're hell bent on building it yourself, ere towards overkill for everything but the fuse on the power feed. Get power from the positive starter wire as it's always on, the starting load is momentary, and its fuse is more than heavy enough to handle the load of the lights. Use your headlight low/high relay triggers for the new relays. Be aware of and maintain all the stock wiring/grounds from the ignition switch to the relay triggers and everything should work as stock. Go the extra mile and get new light plugs to eliminate potential issues. Test everything before trimming and buttoning down the wiring. I made that mistake and seriously regretted it.

Edited February 24, 2023 by paradime

[wayno]

The 720 headlight circuit is a stand alone weird setup, if you add a ground to that circuit it could drain your battery as that happened to my friend, he was converting to round headlights and the ground was in the wrong spot, your issue could be the same issue, the ground post in the headlights you are trying to use may be in a different spot/post, I made pigtails to connect to round headlights in the 720 harness, but once you know where the wires need to be you can switch the wires in the plug.

 

As paradime mentioned, maybe it is a power requirement issue, or maybe wire routing to the headlight issue, my issues are because I am using 720 wiring harnesses in 521 trucks and everything is different, headlights are different, dash wiring is different, even the brights indicator can mess up things as it could possibly need to be changed, for my 521 that brights indicator uses a ground in the dash cluster, and adding that small wire ground messed it all up.

[dat_sun720]

16 hours ago, paradime said:

Call rallylights.com. Chances are they have a pre-made universal unit relatively cheep. If you're hell bent on building it yourself, ere towards overkill for everything but the fuse on the power feed. Get power from the positive starter wire as it's always on, the starting load is momentary, and its fuse is more than heavy enough to handle the load of the lights. Use your headlight low/high relay triggers for the new relays. Be aware of and maintain all the stock wiring/grounds from the ignition switch to the relay triggers and everything should work as stock. Go the extra mile and get new light plugs to eliminate potential issues. Test everything before trimming and buttoning down the wiring. I made that mistake and seriously regretted it.

If I do get power from the starter, would that make the lows and highs brighter? Right now when I was cruising at night, the lows were barely visible and I mostly had to rely on the day time running light part of the headlights. I'm probably going to hook the lows up to my m12 battery just to make sure it's not a headlight problem more of a wiring problem.

[datzenmike]

Power is on the RED wire (not from the starter) that goes to all the lamps when the headlight switch is turned on. To turn the headlight on the other side is grounded by the headlamp relay.  The relay ground either the high beams or the low beams to turn them on.

 

You said the high beams work but the low beams shut off when switched to high beams. All you need do is find the wire that is grounded by the relay (NOT THE RED WIRE!!!) and ground it to something. This will leave the low beam on all the time. The low beam plug has three wires. Red is power (ignore), Red/Yellow or Red/Black are the two wires on the right side and Red/Yellow and Red/Blue on the left front. One of these two pairs of wires, when grounded, will turn the low beam lamp on, on that side.  

 

 

 

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Hella has been selling aftermarket harnesses for decades, and you can get them just about anywhere. Probably even Amazon.

[paradime]

I'm assuming his projector lights drow too much power to use the stock power source. 

 

10 hours ago, dat_sun720 said:

If I do get power from the starter, would that make the lows and highs brighter? Right now when I was cruising at night, the lows were barely visible and I mostly had to rely on the day time running light part of the headlights. I'm probably going to hook the lows up to my m12 battery just to make sure it's not a headlight problem more of a wiring problem.

 

I'm not sure what's causing your lights to dim. If you're not using a custom relay setup, don't F with powering your lights from the starter. 

[dat_sun720]

1 hour ago, paradime said:

I'm assuming his projector lights drow too much power to use the stock power source. 

 

 

I'm not sure what's causing your lights to dim. If you're not using a custom relay setup, don't F with powering your lights from the starter. 

Yea I'm probably not going to run it off the starter. I'm probably going to have to stick with the original way the lights should be set up because it's just alot of power. But can I just put a higher amp fuse to make them brighter or is that even possible? I'm not very good with wires and stuff

[datzenmike]

The 720 had halogen bulbs I don't know what these are but assume after market and rectangular? Probably draw about the same. There's no reason to believe these are better than the original ones and may even be dimmer. That's the trouble with aftermarket they, look shiny and impressive but in reality they offer very little improvement. Don't get me started on the wild (bullshit) lumens claimed by Chinese LED bulbs that are on Amazon. 

 

If they are not blowing the fuse then a larger one is not going to help, it's ill advised as the fuse is there to protect the wires from over heating and melting.   

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

11 hours ago, datzenmike said:

The 720 had halogen bulbs I don't know what these are but assume after market and rectangular? Probably draw about the same. There's no reason to believe these are better than the original ones and may even be dimmer. That's the trouble with aftermarket they, look shiny and impressive but in reality they offer very little improvement. Don't get me started on the wild (bullshit) lumens claimed by Chinese LED bulbs that are on Amazon. 

 

If they are not blowing the fuse then a larger one is not going to help, it's ill advised as the fuse is there to protect the wires from over heating and melting.   

Exactly. I think everyone just assumes they will be brighter, but in actuality, a good Halogen is just as good. Better even because of the light color and beam pattern. And if driving in snow they may not burn hot enough to melt the snow off the lens. The cheap lights almost always have plastic lenses that scratch and dent, and replacement bulbs for them are a joke. H1 bulbs in many cases, which were the worst pieces of shit. Barely as bright as a candle, which is why they need the "projector" in the first place, to make them bright enough to be useful.

 

Is this what you got?

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

And no, adding a bigger fuse won't make them brighter. You need more power which comes direct from the battery using high amp relays and large gauge wires to make them brighter.

[datzenmike]

Look at the bulb for the wattage. 55 watts will be fine on stock wiring

 

Also it may be just as simple as getting dual filament bulbs for the high/low beams on the outside pair.

 

This is getting over thought.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

3 minutes ago, datzenmike said:

This is getting over thought.

Yes, but we still don't know what lights he's using. Some of these cheap kits use adapter pigtails and magical conversion boxes. If any of that junk is present, I'd ditch the lights and go back to sealed beam Halogens.

[dat_sun720]

I'm using these headlights... https://www.ebay.com/itm/275517988773?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=NVr4dgHYSHC&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=xPsHabBlRWa&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL