Lights out?

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Gilaguy23

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Q town New Mexico
Headed home from a function last night with the high beams on and after 15 mins of driving the lights all went dead. Hit my aux lighting which is wired separately and off the battery so we wouldn't run off a embankment and within about 15 seconds or so all the lights came back on. I had this happen long ago on a crusty old F250 and from what I understand on that one anyhow, the switch has the circuit breaker built into it. It heats up,kicks out and then returns back to on after it cools and resets. Im doubting this, but is the factory switch in my 91 set up the same way? BTW, Ive had this thing 2+ years, been thru the grounds and light plugs and sockets etc and this is a first of lights out. Not much fun on a moonless night on a mountain road. :oops:
 
I don't know if there is a circuit breaker in the switch or not but I know the switches die when they get old and from the current flowing through it, which is why so many people put the lights on relays. They do not usually die too quickly, either, they usually do like yours where the lights are intermittently out until it finally dies. The problem is they can go out at any time like you experienced which could really cause you legal trouble or safety trouble if you're out and need to get home.

The headlight current, even both high beams, all flows through the headlight switch and then to the dimmer switch where the power is given to the low beam or the high beam depending on driver selection.

I'd probably throw a new headlight switch at it (mopar are available) and put the lights on relays. They usually brighten up significantly after that too, because of the much better new wiring path. Running through the switch really diminishes the electrical flow.
 
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According to the factory service manual, there is a circuit breaker in the headlamp switch.

"Circuit A3 from fuse 7 in the Power Distribution Center (PDC) supplies battery voltage to the head-lamp switch. The headlamp switch has an internal circuit breaker that connects circuit A3 to circuit L20. The switch connects circuit A3 to circuit L2 when the headlamps are ON. Circuit L20 connects to the dimmer switch. Circuit L20 powers the high beams of the head lamps on circuit L3 when the operator flashes the headlamps with the turn signal stalk."
 
Unless you plan to do LEDs, I would highly recommend the relay mod. Plus you can then upgrade to better halogen if you wanted to. If you already have upgraded halogen, that really speeds up the switch death without relays.
 
A few times, mine have gone off and on while idling in the driveway. PO had changed out the switch already though. I do plan on doing the headlight/relay upgrade because I can barely see shit with my current one's on anyways.
 
Yeah the relays basically remove all load from the switch, because what used to carry headlight current, now only triggers a relay. 10-20 amps vs 200 milliamps. Massive difference. The only way you'd ever need to switch in the future would be aesthetics, serious corrosion buildup internally (if the first switch made it this long, then that is unlikely), or an internal part to make the connection in the switch physically broke. Otherwise a new switch will work and the relay setup will keep it good forever. And the bonus is the halogen lights brighten up decently.

It's been forever ago since I did it but I think I went from like 11.2V to 12+ at my headlight plugs with the Jeep not running, after I did the relay swap.
 
I looked into the headlight relay last year but completely forgot about it. You can buy a complete harness conversion for about $20 - $25 at Amazon or other dealers.

I think I'll ask for one to be put in my stocking :)
 
Flyer58 said:
I looked into the headlight relay last year but completely forgot about it. You can buy a complete harness conversion for about $20 - $25 at Amazon or other dealers.

I think I'll ask for one to be put in my stocking :)
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Yeah, that is the way to go most of the time. Makes it brainless at the cost of a bit of extra wiring in the engine bay. I did a custom thing but it was built into a big relay box I did where I was doing a bunch of other stuff at the same time, so it made sense. I ran a $20 amazon harness for at least 5 years.
 
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Nah, cheap harness is fine. It's rated to support plenty more than the Hellas would ever pull. Hellas with the best bulbs are rated at 100W per bulb on high beam, so 200W...200 divided by 12V (really more like 13. 6-14.2V with engine running) is 16.67A total at the worst, and 14A at best. The cheap amazon relays can handle that. And if they gave you problems, you could literally just replace the cheap relays in the relay harness with better relays from bosch or similar.

The only thing I don't like about the amazon harness is it adds clutter since it plugs into your existing wiring, adds new headlight plugs, adds 2 relays that need to be mounted, and adds a positive and negative that need to go to the battery (+) and fender or battery (gnd). Other than the clutter it adds, it is great.
 
Is it the RENMAII-LIGHT H4 Relay Harness?

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Some reviews for the RENMAII were saying that they had to extend some of the wire. A few bad reviews stated the high beams would not work or they had to turn off the headlights just to get out of the high beam setting.

Also are these the correct Hellas?
 
Yeah I mean length just depends on how you end up mounting it. It says toyota in the description. The one I used I did not need to do anything, but it had a pretty long power wire. Extending the one power wire is no big deal though if you do need to do that.

The RENMAII kit looks like it has some quality issues but if you inspect it you could probably make sure it's good to go before installing.

Yes, that is the correct Hella kit. I haven't forgotten about you either, I still have my Hellas, and they are off my Jeep currently. I am just not 100% sure I want to sell still. The idea is JW speaker LEDs but those are expensive. I do have my crappy old LEDs in place currently and they will work as headlights but no way I'd keep them long term, they suck and they make high pitched squealing noises with high beam. The only reason I'm not 100% sure on the headlights is because I'm not sure what turn signals I want to stick with either. I figured no rush on mine because you don't seem to be in much of a rush either. They are probably for sale though. I just need to find the money to buy the ones I really want.
 
SirDoopYJ said:
Some reviews for the RENMAII were saying that they had to extend some of the wire. A few bad reviews stated the high beams would not work or they had to turn off the headlights just to get out of the high beam setting.

Also are these the correct Hellas?
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Now you have me going through the reviews and I've found some interesting comments.

The High/Low beams are controlled by only one headlight connection so if the High beams don't work then switch the connection to the light on the other side.

Also some comments about the wire size being smaller than the OEM wire. Maybe it the control wire is smaller and not necessarily the main power wire, I don't know. Others claim the wire insulation is very thick giving the impression it a heavy gauge wire but the strands are actually thinner.

Harbor Fright does that with their trailer wires. Thick insulation over thin copper coated aluminum wire.

Good luck verifying the truth.
 
Flyer58 said:
Now you have me going through the reviews and I've found some interesting comments.

The High/Low beams are controlled by only one headlight connection so if the High beams don't work then switch the connection to the light on the other side.

Also some comments about the wire size being smaller than the OEM wire. Maybe it the control wire is smaller and not necessarily the main power wire, I don't know. Others claim the wire insulation is very thick giving the impression it a heavy gauge wire but the strands are actually thinner.

Harbor Fright does that with their trailer wires. Thick insulation over thin copper coated aluminum wire.

Good luck verifying the truth.
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I can't figure out why they would have problems with one of the headlight plugs and not the other unless they had serious wiring issues on their jeep/truck. The two headlights are wired the same. If I remember right, the headlight plug that worked out best for me was the passenger side, because it was closer. I just let the old driver plug dangle.

As for the wire thickness, those reviews were there on the one I used ages ago too, never looked too much into it. The lights were noticeably brighter afterwards so I figured the kit was doing its job fine. If anyone cared enough to look, I suppose they could snip one of the thick looking wires, see thick the conductor is, and then crimp it back together with a butt splice and heat shrink. I just figured no reason to mess with it since the kit seemed to fix up my problems.

Issues like this are definitely a compelling reason to build your own setup though, if capable. Just kind of a pain.
 
machoheadgames said:
I can't figure out why they would have problems with one of the headlight plugs and not the other unless they had serious wiring issues on their jeep/truck. The two headlights are wired the same. If I remember right, the headlight plug that worked out best for me was the passenger side, because it was closer. I just let the old driver plug dangle.

As for the wire thickness, those reviews were there on the one I used ages ago too, never looked too much into it. The lights were noticeably brighter afterwards so I figured the kit was doing its job fine. If anyone cared enough to look, I suppose they could snip one of the thick looking wires, see thick the conductor is, and then crimp it back together with a butt splice and heat shrink. I just figured no reason to mess with it since the kit seemed to fix up my problems.

Issues like this are definitely a compelling reason to build your own setup though, if capable. Just kind of a pain.
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I usually take all reviews with a bucket of salt because you don't know what they're looking at and half the time they don't know either. I'm sure if I look long enough I'll find a review where a guy "likes the harness so much he bought one for his wife".

I'll bet most of their problems are corrosion on the all terminals. My headlight sockets and connectors looked like sea coral was growing on them so that's what got me looking initially for the relay harness. For the time being I just soaked and sanded everything clean.

I can't recall anything being different with the left and right plugs either.
 
I have read an article within the last couple years about wire coming from China that was not the proper size it was supposed to be. It had been causing electrical fires.
 
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