FJ62 w/ HID upgrade low beam problem

[FJ40_Nut]

Howdy. I bought my 88 FJ62 shortly after the previous owner did an HID upgrade. I've had it for almost two years and recently the low beams went out on me. The high beams work fine. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm out of grammar school with the drivetrain and body, but the electrical side of things stretch me a bit particularly when I did not perform the upgrade. THANKS.

 

[Heartworm]

I'm with you, a little short on knowledge on electrical stuff. I would say start with a test light or multimeter on the wires at the bulb and work backwards until you find spark. That will tell you a lot about where the problem is. Could be ground, switch, or relay. Sound like the switch would be a good candidate.

 

[lonelydriver]

That's my old land cruiser!!!

I'm really sorry I forgot your name, but I remember your screen name.

It's not a HID upgrade but it's Hella h4 retrofits with rally lights wire harness.

This may sound silly, but have you tried swapping out the H4 bulbs? The low beam filament may have just burned out.

If that doesn't work, try checking the connection of where the wiring harness plugs into the original headlamp wiring. That acts as a switch to trip the relay's and it may be loose causing the lowbeams..

I really miss that truck. hope it's treating you well! I ended up picking an 83 fj60

 

[slcfj62]

I don't know how the rally headlight harness works, but there should be fuses somewhere in the mix. Check those. There will also be relays. Swap relays around (only if they are the same). And also check the bulbs. It would be unusual for both to go out at the same time, but one may have burned out before the other, and you didn't notice until the last one burned out--especially if you run with your lights on during the day.

 

[FJ40_Nut]

Thanks for the help gentlemen. I already tested the fuses and what appears to be the main relay. Juice is flowing through each when the headlight switch is on (low and high beam). I'll move on to the bulbs next, now that I know they are H4s (Thanks Kevin). I've got a good feeling that's the ticket.

 

[lonelydriver]

hope that works. I had some high wattage bulbs in there, and they were amazingly bright on hi beams, 400 watts or power!

Kevin

 

[RockDoc]

I had both low filaments go out on my truck within about 3 or 4 hours last year. Good thing I stopped and picked up a replacement after the first went, I was driving from Oregon into California at the time, and I'm sure the rest of traffic wouldn't have appreciated 340 watts of well focused high beam

 

[FJ40_Nut]

Well...I swapped bulbs with new ones and that was not the ticket. I also checked the connection between the old harness and the new one. It's good. So, I still do not have low beams.

 

[RockDoc]

When the switch is in the low beam position, are you getting the high-beam indicator light lit up?

 

[screwbird]

Try this one...

It has been my experience that anytime the high beams work and the low beams don't (or vice versa) that the problem is in the switch in the steering column.

I did a write up on the procedure some time ago, and here is the linky.

Turkeypen added some great pics to accompany the writeup.

When you get it apart, you should be able to see the black gunk that gets arc'ed onto the contacts in the switch. I'm pretty confident this will fix your problem; please post back and let us know the outcome.

HTH.

-Screwbird

 

[FJ40_Nut]

The blue highbeam light is working properly. It is not lit when the low beams are supposed to be on.

Screwbird, I look at giving your switch cleaning deal a run this weekend.

Thanks again!

 

[FJ40_Nut]

Well, I fixed the contacts but that was not the solution. I'll be taking the rig to a buddy that does noting but electrical work on cars.

The instructions on the contacts were good. THANKS.

 

[Michael Hanson]

Im also thinking the switch. Mike

 

[screwbird]

Hmmm.....that's disappointing. I was quite confident that the contacts were your culprit. Sorry to hear it wasn't. Hopefully your buddy will be able to trace down the problem.

The only other suggestion I could offer would be to slave in another switch from another FJ62, that is, if you have any cruiser friends that live nearby.

I will be curious to know what fixes your problem in the end so be sure to post up what the solution turns out to be. Best of luck.

-Screwbird

 

[RockDoc]

If it's not the bulbs, not the switch, and the high beam indicator is behaving properly, I'd suspect the low beam switching wire somewhere between the bulbs and the switch......or perhaps one of the relays in the harness depending on how it's laid out. Can you adjust the harness so that it takes it's signal off the other side of the stock wiring (i.e. passenger's vs. drivers)? Are there like relays that can be swapped to see if there is any change in behavior?

 

[lovetoski]

I had an identical problem on my 87 fj60. Nearly ripped my hair out trying to solve it. Ended up being a simple problem - lost the ground. Apparently this is somewhat common on these older trucks - and the hard part to diagnose is because they are switched ground.

In my case, the fix was easy. I connected the upgrade harness to the other side of the headlight circut. The ground on that side was still fine.

 

[FJ40_Nut]

Well... my wife let me borrow her switch out of here 89FJ62. I plugged it in. The low beams did not come on. It's going to my automotive electronic expert in the morning. Thanks again for the ideas and thoughts.

 

[FJ40_Nut]

Well...my buddy at the automotive electrical shop worked on it on and off for a week and some change. He checked for shorts, worked on the ground, checked the harness, compared the wiring with my wife's FJ62 and eventually could do nothing to fix the low beams other than reverting back to stock on the lows. I've still got the H4s for high beams. Quite the quandary. Thanks again for each of your tips and hints.

 

[slcfj62]

So I'm puzzled. H4 bulbs are not HID. Furthermore, the low beam filaments are in the H4 bulbs along with one of the hi beam filaments. The other two hi beam filaments are in the other two lights. And you can't just plug from H4 back to stock without an adapter. The two lights are not wired the same. So, unless you are introducing a wiring adapter as you switch between stock and H4, one of them is not going to work. I don't know what the wiring configuration for HID is supposed to be, so can't help you there.

EDIT: So I just re-read the previous post by lonelydriver, the PO, and you have H4 lamps. So you must use an adapter to switch between H4 and stock sealed beam. Is it possible you had an adapter on the H4s before, but it got removed somehow?