Instructions for LED Headlight upgrade (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter fnpierce
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Despite the lack of diagrams, this was wildly easy.
Instructions:
Wire up a harness as seen in the image below:
The black connector plugs into the spot where your high beams once plugged in.
The new high beam connector is marked H and the new low beam connector is marked L. Note that you are no longer using the old connector for the low beams (this is where you plug in a relay if you want to get your high beam dash indicator working again).
The green wire with nothing connected is your ground. I put a 1/4 inch ring connector on it, and grounded it to the bolt holding the horn in place on each side as seen below:
Worked beautifully! I can finally see at night!
Instructions:
Wire up a harness as seen in the image below:
The black connector plugs into the spot where your high beams once plugged in.
The new high beam connector is marked H and the new low beam connector is marked L. Note that you are no longer using the old connector for the low beams (this is where you plug in a relay if you want to get your high beam dash indicator working again).
The green wire with nothing connected is your ground. I put a 1/4 inch ring connector on it, and grounded it to the bolt holding the horn in place on each side as seen below:
Worked beautifully! I can finally see at night!
Wow thanks - definitely going to need to add this in. Drives me bonkers that my lows turn off during my highs being on ..
From the looks of it, the stock wiring for the high beams is 16 or even possibly 18 gauge. I suspect 16. Not sufficient to safely handle the 6.6A (~80W) total draw of both a high beam and a low beam being on at the same time for an extended period (and I do a ton of driving on lonely highways late at night where I have my highs on). When I convert my harness, I'll wire in two relays, one for high and one for low, with the relays being triggered identically to the way the OP wired up his headlights. I'll still use the exact same trigger OP devised for the high beam indicator though, since that can easily be tucked out of the way. I still want to get rid of my Tangen harness I built so A) I can more comfortably fit a G34 battery without the relays taking up space, and B) have the low beams stay on when I turn the high beams on.
bottombracket
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Good to know! Thanks for clarifying I just got the thing but this will be done hopefully soon.
Hi Spook,
Thanks for the info. Can you expand a little for me? I went with this plan based off Daniel Stern's comment:
I thought I was going top-of-the heap! But do I see that when I plug this into a wire-guage calculator, it says I should probably be running bigger wire as you mention. Maybe Stern's comment was assuming each of these bulbs was running through its own wiring as opposed to just the high beams?
What is the concern running these bulbs with the existing single high beam wire? Heating the wiring and fire risk (I'd hope I'm protected by the existing high beam fuse)? Loss of voltage impacting reliability of the LEDs?
Now that I've done this electrical work, I'm up for another project rewiring for the correct size. For simplicity sake, could this be done with a single relay per side? If I used a relay with dual 14ga wires running out of the relay, at least this calculator (DC Cable Sizing Tool - Use The Correct Sized Cables - Free Calculator) says that should be fine given the fact the 14ga wires are only running about 3-4 inches.
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If each assembly was being run from its own corresponding connector, power draw wouldn't be an issue. The problem comes from one high beam connector powering both a high beam and a low beam headlight for a long period on a 62. Since these are heated, they still each draw just shy of 40W when the heating element is powered (which is thermostatically controlled by the controller integrated in the assembly itself). No problem at all when one connector is dedicated to one assembly. Problem is, if you do wire the lights to be powered from their appropriate factory connectors, while it would work, you would lose the high beam indicator.
I may honestly dig into this a little more, because it seems like there should be a more simple way to accomplish this while retaining the high beam indicator without blowing fuses and overly complicating the installation.
Spook, what is your concern with the power draw? Headlamps could go out if the heater is activated and they don't get enough current?
I have H4 pigtails and new relays on the way. Here is my plan....
High Beams - These are essentially plug and play with a reversal of pins for correct polarity.
Low Beams - I plan to insert a normally open 5-pin relay into the low beam circuit between the low beam connector and a new 2 prong H4 terminal for the LED.
Common + wire to relay terminals 86 AND H4 positive.
High beam wire to relay terminal 86.
Low beam wire to relay terminal 87 with a 10 ohm 25W resistor in line.
H4 negative to relay terminal 30
Relay terminal 87a grounded to horn bolt.
When switch is set to low beam:
Relay is open as terminal 86 will not be grounded
LED on using +12V from common positive and grounded through 87a to body (horn bolt)
When switch is set to high beam:
Relay closes as terminal 86 is grounded
LED on using +12v from common positive and grounded through 87 to low beam pin. This activates the high beam indicator as it is now in series with the LED and resistor.
How does that sound?
My concern is that with the original layout, too much current will be pulled through the too small positive lead from the factory high beam connector. If you drive with your highs on for extended periods, this could cause the wire to heat up and worst case scenario break and cause a short and risk for a vehicle fire. In OP's original layout, it's set up so one low beam and one high beam are both powered by one factory high beam connector, and the low beam stays on when the high beam is on (which is an arrangement I really like). Problem is, each JW Speaker light pulls 3.3A. So figure when you have the high beams on, you'll be trying to pull about 80W (combined current of one 40W low beam and one 40W high beam) each through the factory high beam connectors, which were only designed to handle 55W halogens.
As a side note, the JW Speaker lights that most of us are buying are the ones with the integrated heating elements. It's when this heating element is on (which is automatically controlled by a temp sensor integrated into the light) that the light pulls its 3.3A (40W). Still considerably lower current than stock halogen lights, but not so low that two lights together wouldn't be potentially dangerous when running them off one factory high beam connector.
I think the idea of relays may be overcomplicating things though the more I think of it. I'm going to do some playing around with my headlights and the factory wiring and see if I can simplify it down to a simple matter of repositioning the terminals on the JW Speaker lights so the lows stay on when the highs are on, no risk of pulling too much current through too-small (and old) wire (since each light will still be powered its own connector on the factory harness, as Toyota intended when they designed the systems for the old halogens), and addition of only one adapter that can go on either the driver's or passenger's side low beam connector that'll trigger the high beam indicator when you "flash" the high beams.
My apologies if I've made this more confusing than necessary. I'm admittedly not very good at explaining things in layman's terms.
Got it.
I built my connectors and relay as above, but it did not work for a reason I can't quite figure out. I'm correctly seeing 12v across my headlamp connector with high and low beams selected, but the bulb won't light up. Maybe there is so much more resistance in the LEDs that all the current is flowing through the relay coil? Interestingly, the headlamps did light up if I reversed the polarity but would flicker with poor light output.
Back to the single power line for now.
I built my connectors and relay as above, but it did not work for a reason I can't quite figure out. I'm correctly seeing 12v across my headlamp connector with high and low beams selected, but the bulb won't light up. Maybe there is so much more resistance in the LEDs that all the current is flowing through the relay coil? Interestingly, the headlamps did light up if I reversed the polarity but would flicker with poor light output.
Back to the single power line for now.
Most likely. I won't have a chance to yutz with it until weekend after this coming one (got my kids this weekend), but it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out once I'm in there with a multimeter and play around with the connectors and my resistors.
Pulled the resistor out and it is working!
Only issue is the dashboard high beam indicator light is quite dim. I have only made one relay setup so far, and the two sides (driver and passenger) appear to be tied together. I'm hoping when I make one for the other side, the current available doubles and the indicator brightens.
Edit:
Ugh.. this is really frustrating... Today the lows only flicker when high beams are on. Its the same circuit that was working previously. It's a bit colder here today (42F), so I'm wondering if the heaters are triggering and the indicator light is keeping me from sending enough current?
Edit 2:
So further testing....
Low beams on
Relay is open as 85 gets +12v from common positive and 86 is NOT grounded through the high beam (middle) pin of the low beam connector
Low beams are on with + connected to common positive and - connected to ground(horn bolt) through 87a
Perfect!
High beams on
Relay is closed as 85 gets +12v from common positive and 86 is grounded through the high beam (middle) pin of the low beam connector
Low beams flicker and high beam indicator is very dim.
Low beams are receiving +12 from common positive, - is connected to the low beam pin of the low beam connector. This should ground the circuit via the high beam indicator bulb.
If I disconnect pin 87 (to low beam pin) and directly ground it, then the low beams work. From pin 87 directly to the negative terminal I see it drawing 4.4A. I'm a bit surprised it is drawing this much current as it is rated at 3.3A@12V.
If I connect 87 back to low beam pin it is only drawing 0.03A while flickering? Additionally in this configuration, I see 10.7v between the pin and ground which I would think should be plenty to drive the high beam indicator.
If I directly jump the positive terminal of the battery to the low beam pin with a 10ohm resister in series my indicator light comes on and draws 70mA with 10.3v being provided to the pin after the resistor. Seems like the LED negative terminal to low beam pin should be providing plenty of voltage. My only guess at this point is there is some sort of issue with the LED and bulb being in series. My next move is to just switch my indicator light to an LED bulb to see if it cooperates better.
Any ideas?
Only issue is the dashboard high beam indicator light is quite dim. I have only made one relay setup so far, and the two sides (driver and passenger) appear to be tied together. I'm hoping when I make one for the other side, the current available doubles and the indicator brightens.
Edit:
Ugh.. this is really frustrating... Today the lows only flicker when high beams are on. Its the same circuit that was working previously. It's a bit colder here today (42F), so I'm wondering if the heaters are triggering and the indicator light is keeping me from sending enough current?
Edit 2:
So further testing....
Low beams on
Relay is open as 85 gets +12v from common positive and 86 is NOT grounded through the high beam (middle) pin of the low beam connector
Low beams are on with + connected to common positive and - connected to ground(horn bolt) through 87a
Perfect!
High beams on
Relay is closed as 85 gets +12v from common positive and 86 is grounded through the high beam (middle) pin of the low beam connector
Low beams flicker and high beam indicator is very dim.
Low beams are receiving +12 from common positive, - is connected to the low beam pin of the low beam connector. This should ground the circuit via the high beam indicator bulb.
If I disconnect pin 87 (to low beam pin) and directly ground it, then the low beams work. From pin 87 directly to the negative terminal I see it drawing 4.4A. I'm a bit surprised it is drawing this much current as it is rated at 3.3A@12V.
If I connect 87 back to low beam pin it is only drawing 0.03A while flickering? Additionally in this configuration, I see 10.7v between the pin and ground which I would think should be plenty to drive the high beam indicator.
If I directly jump the positive terminal of the battery to the low beam pin with a 10ohm resister in series my indicator light comes on and draws 70mA with 10.3v being provided to the pin after the resistor. Seems like the LED negative terminal to low beam pin should be providing plenty of voltage. My only guess at this point is there is some sort of issue with the LED and bulb being in series. My next move is to just switch my indicator light to an LED bulb to see if it cooperates better.
Any ideas?
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I have a redesigned working version still based off a single relay.
High beam connector is still just reversed.
Connect the common positive of the low beam connector to 85 and 30 of the relay as well as positive on the H4 pigtail going to the low beams.
Connect relay 86 to the high beam pin (middle) of the low beam connector.
Connect relay 87 to the low beam pin (opposite common positive) of the low beam connector with a 10ohm resistor in series
Connect the negative side of the H4 pigtail to ground.
This works, but splits the 12v from common positive into 3 parallel circuits: 1) relay coil, 2) low beam headlamp and 3) 10ohm resistor and high beam indicator
Any issue with this spook?
High beam connector is still just reversed.
Connect the common positive of the low beam connector to 85 and 30 of the relay as well as positive on the H4 pigtail going to the low beams.
Connect relay 86 to the high beam pin (middle) of the low beam connector.
Connect relay 87 to the low beam pin (opposite common positive) of the low beam connector with a 10ohm resistor in series
Connect the negative side of the H4 pigtail to ground.
This works, but splits the 12v from common positive into 3 parallel circuits: 1) relay coil, 2) low beam headlamp and 3) 10ohm resistor and high beam indicator
Any issue with this spook?
That's dead-on exactly what I was planning to do to see if it would work. Glad to hear it seems to be a good way to go. I was however thinking the resistor needed to go to the high beam terminal on the factory connector for the high beamindicator to work in "flash" mode though. Was that not the case?
Didn't get a chance to work on it this weekend though
Great! I'll make a more robust version over the next few days.
The high beam indicator works by splitting off the low beam pin in and running to the light before ground.
When the low beams are activated, the low beam pin is grounded at the switch so no current runs through the higher resistance path with the indicator lamp.
When high beams are on the high beam terminal is grounded. The low beam pin is not grounded at the switch, so current now flows through the indicator to find ground.
It's weird wiring.
The high beam indicator works by splitting off the low beam pin in and running to the light before ground.
When the low beams are activated, the low beam pin is grounded at the switch so no current runs through the higher resistance path with the indicator lamp.
When high beams are on the high beam terminal is grounded. The low beam pin is not grounded at the switch, so current now flows through the indicator to find ground.
It's weird wiring.
Ah that makes sense. I haven't even looked into my wiring diagram yet so was going off assumption when thinking through it in my head. It'll be nice to have a much more simple, but still robust, installation method for the LED headlights on a 62. Looks like the inboards will only have to have the pinout changed on the headlights' adapter harnesses to match the hot and ground leads on the factory connectors, and the outboards will need one with the relay/resistor circuit and the other with just the hot lead matched to the factory connector and ground on the headlight's connector sent to chassis ground.
Been driving around for a few days with this setup and no issues. The relay is only on my driver side harness. Passenger side will soon be switched to a simpler harness without a relay: high beam plug flipped, low beam plug with common positive to headlamp positive and headlamp negative to ground (horn bolt). Relay should only be needed on one side to push 12v back to the high beam indicator.
