RedEJ6

To answer the obvious question, "Why?" I used a pair of eBay "Halo Projector" Housings instead of the stock EJ's. My projectors are functioning as expected now, turing off when I hit the brights, but the brights don't turn on. This tells me that I have the wiring harness that hooks up the ballasts all setup OK.

So here's how the 3-prong relays are connected w/o hi-beams

LEFT
Top: Ground
Left: Low (Signal to ballasts)
Right:Empty

RIGHT
Empty
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since the H1 bulbs have +/- wires, I proceded to connect them as follows,

LEFT *
I grounded the H1 temporarily tightly under a bolt on the chassis
Top: Ground
Left: Low (Signal to ballasts)
Right: Hi-Beam

RIGHT
Top: Ground (from H1)
Left: Empty
Right: Hi-Beam


I don't know if I'm just forgetting something or if somethings hooked up wrong/backwards. NOTE: If I mixed up the right and the left on the relays in this post, sorry, I know they're correct on the car, I just didn't want to double check.

Also, it was suggested to me that I connect the high beam wire w/ the low beam via a diode. I picked up some 12v diodes from radio shack, but I am not sure the best way to splice them to the wire.

If you need pictures I can get them up within minutes. Thanks.
Top: Ground (from H1)

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

idk what you did, but the simplest way is to have a new relay for the hids that is triggered from the oem +12v wire (the wire that stays hot in both lo and hi beam modes). that way your hids stay on in lo and hi beam positions. for the hi beam to turn on, just wire them using the oem harness (LO wire for power, HI wire for ground) so they only come on when hi beams are used. heres my diagram for new separate hid harness.



for oem operation, your H4 plug has three wires, +12v, LO, and HI. +12v is hot in both lo and hi beam mode and powers both lo and hi beams but not at the same time. in lo beam mode, LO wire is ground (so lo beam turns on), and HI wire is hot (so hi beam stays off). in hi beam mode, LO wire is hot (so lo beam stays off), and HI wire is ground (so hi beam turns on).

RedEJ6

Thanks a lot, I'll give that a try tomorrow morning.

RedEJ6

So I was able to hook it up so the projectors stay on for hi/lo, but I still cannot get the hi-beams to function.

Here's a picture of the old H1 hi/lo from the ebay light (red, combined ground, blue)


And here's a picture of the three wires coming from the harness I bought which was designed for the H4 bulbs (I used it for a little while with pnp's)
(red/blue/white)


I used the white in the top slot as you said and got the lows to stay on..now I do not know how to properly connect the h1 bulbs to this setup...does the ground from the bulb to the black wire pictured above have to be in one of the slots in the plug? Btw, I tried connecting the h1 hi/lo on the left-hand side of the car to test them with nothing plugged in on the right and I got no function. Could the lights be bad or the wiring fried?


Thanks

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

you need to figure out what color the wires are in your factory harness cause if i tell you, its gonna be different for your car anyway. but basically if you said you found the +12v wire and used it for the lo beam harness trigger, for the hi beam you just use the remaining two wires that are left, which are the LO and HI wires. it doesnt matter which way you hook them up, cause it is not polarity sensitive, so long as the H1 bulb gets a power and a ground it will light up.

RedEJ6

Alright, now I have finally grasped the workings of the factory harness, yet I still can't get any light from the brights. Just to double check....from my wiring harness for the ballasts, I have the trigger wire in the +12v, then the +/- from the H1 in the other two slots. Now, I have two remaining wires from the ballasts' harness since it was designed for H4 pnp's. When I ground one, the lows will work, but no highs.

Is it possible that somewhere along the line when taking the ebay headlights off the car a long time ago that their harness' got fried or something? All I remember is that they worked just fine before.

Thanks for all the help, it's motivating

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

wow i dont know what else to say. the ballast needs its power from +12v headlight wire (thru the relay harness) and also a ground attached to the (-) battery or the chassis. but for hi beam, you should be able to directly tap into the oem harness connector from the bulb and use the reamining two wires (not the +12v wire). and it should work. unless somethings wrong with the bulb or the oem harness. you can double check the wires, just turn the headlight to lo beam mode, then activate the hi beam and check those two wires of the oem harness (not +12v). one should be hot, the other ground.

RedEJ6

Sorry, I know it's frustrating dealing with an 18 year old, but nobody else has helped me.

I found why I have been having problems...
1) The H1's were burnt out, all four of themm
2) None of the 3 slots in the factory relay stay hot between hi/lo

I resolved problem 1 by buying some Sylvania Silverstars or w/e they're called.
Problem 2, however I do not know where to start...

I am able to wire everything up so the lows stay on when the highs go on...but if my lights are off and I hit the highs to flash someone during the day, the ballasts will fire up which is not good...

I really don't want to have to go to the dealer and start getting replacement relays and **** like that.

What could cause the hot 12v wire to not be hot?

P.S. I used a voltometer to test everything so I'm pretty sure I've isolated the problem

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

hmm so wait you are able to wire up the lows? i thought none of the 3 wires were hot in the oem connector? or is just one hot and the other two are dead. just to make sure, your car has H4 bulb stock right? i really dont know what it could be. there are two types of electrical systems for H4, positive and negative switched. in one system, there is a common +12v for both lo and hi beam modes. in the other, there is a common ground for lo and hi beam to share. its just opposites but in either case, you should have 2 hot wires no matter if the switch is in lo or hi position. if you dont, there is a problem with the stock headlight wire harness (maybe bad grounds in the wheel well area), or a problem with the switch.

if lights are off and you hit the hi beams, its normal for the lo and hi beams to turn on. thats built into the switch circuitry and cannot be changed. just dont flash people during the day. otherwise you have to use a separate switch for lo and hi beams and that gets complicated with all the wiring.

RedEJ6

Yeah I have a feeling there was a problem with the harness...my wiring has been ****ed up since I got the car.

Thanks for that reminder to not flash people during the day, somehow I forgot the hi's and lo's would come on by doing that. No wonder I kept thinking i was doing something wrong

I got it all setup now and it's running like a champ! Thanks a lot...nobody on any other forums seemed to want to help.

RedEJ6

There they be both lit! Thx again

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

awesome! i bet theres alot of light at night now.