17 replies to this topic

[oliver122]

hi guys , well im tidyign up my wiring and going to run my headlights off relays , but im not to sure how i would go about it because of them being dipped and high beam , ive got a set of spotlights that ive wired up and they work fine , i want to use this http://www.ebay.co.u...#ht_2119wt_1344 and i was thinking of having the fuse box that you can connect together http://www.ebay.co.u...#ht_2097wt_1344 then i can do away with any inline fuses and will have a nice neat wiring loom with a tidy fuse box and relays ,i was also wondering what are the equivalent blade fuses for the glass as i know they are not the same

thanks in advance

[lrostoke]

Ignore the labels its the terminal numbers that are important.

For main beam it will be

30 connect to battery, solenoid terminal is ideal
85 connect to earth (car body)
86 connect to blue/white wire in your wiring loom... open up the loom on the left inner wing, you can cut the wire there.
87 the other side of the blue/white you cut that runs to the lights

For dipped beam as above on a seperate relay but replace blue/white for blue/red

can't help on the fuse ratings

[tiger99]

NO! Do not ever put a fuse or circuit breaker in the headlight circuit. It is illegal and downright dangerous.

As it happens, I lost both headlights suddenly, in the dark, many years ago, and lived to tell the tale, but it could easily have been fatal. It was not caused by a fuse, but by an incorrectly designed dip switch on a Triumph Herald, which when a bit worn, could stick in an intermediate position with main and dip both off. First drive at night, returning to main beam after a car passed in the opposite direction, the lights suddenly went out, and I was left in utter darkness. The car ended up at right angles in the middle of the road.

There is nothing wrong with fusing left and right seperately, but if you do that you will need more than one relay.

I would advise anyone who is not fully competent in electrical matters to never mess about with their headlight wiring.

[lrostoke]

Missed the fuse on the diagram it was just a generic relay wiring diagram, I did say ignore the labels its the terminal numbers that are important.

Appart from the fuse it will work as shown

Although saying that if the relay fails you will lose both lights, I'd guess uber safe would be 2 relays per side,
Then again dodgy mini wiring bundled behind front grill you have a bullet connector with a cruddy fitting you could easily lose both lights.

Edited by lrostoke, 13 June 2012 - 10:25 AM.

[jimnali]

NO! Do not ever put a fuse or circuit breaker in the headlight circuit. It is illegal and downright dangerous.

Maybe so, but a total headlamp failure is much more likely to occur because of the poor wiring and badly situated connectors installed by BL. Many forum members have being left in the dark by corroded bullet connectors and duff switches (myself included).

[jimnali]

Oliver
You will obviously need two separate relays - one each for the dip and main beam. You can use the blue/white and blue/red wires for the headlamps to trigger the relays (86 in the diagrams above). As irostoke suggested you can unwrap a section of the loom on the inner wing to allow you to tap into the headlamp wiring. I did this and at the same time used the opportunity to replace the wiring from this point to the headlamps themselves ad to incorporate wiring for spotlamps. You may find a roll of self amalgumating llom tape useful to rewrap the loom.

The relay holder does look a very neat solution and I cant think of any reason why you could not use it. You would need to think through how you wire it and provide a new power feed and earth fro each of the relays. Maybe the supplier can give you more advice on how the bar is wired.

Incorporating a new fusebox is obviously a complex exercise. I decided to stick with the standard 4 fuse box because most fuse boxes appear to only support a single connection whereas the mini has several connections to each fuse. This is not impossible to work around but adds another level of complexity.

Note that the blade and glass fuses are rated differently so you should not replace one with a blade of the same rating. I think one rating is the maximum continous current and the other is the current which causes the fuse to blow. There are threads elsewhere on the forum diuscussing this.

[oliver122]

thanks for the info , i was not to sure about the relays needed for the dim dip , as on moss it only has 2 but i can see why now , one for the dipped one for the main , sharing a relay between them , i have already wired a set of spotlights using relays so the relay bit i understand , just wasnt sure on the circuit for the headlights , thanks for the info guys

[tiger99]

Irostoke, thank you for reminding me about the point I often make, that the headlights should be connected to seperate earths, not via the bullet connectors. It is not much effort to put in an earth bolt on each inner wing, and it does make things safer, as the bullet connectors are a known trouble spot, although they don't often fail while you are on the move.

When it comes to relays, they are not all that expensive, so if you go that route, you could use 4, one each for main and dip on each side, and fuse the feed to each seperately. That way you get the advantages of being fused plus the safety of having them independent. You might only use 2 fuses, left and right, as modern cars seem to be wired.

Oh, and get rid of the dim dip. It is not required legally, and a well-known cause of headlight failure.

Edited by tiger99, 13 June 2012 - 12:31 PM.

[lrostoke]

I'm in the process of a front end rebuild...I'm thinking of a bit of a minor rewire by running a seperate mini loom to each light / indicator to get rid of the bullet connectors behind the grill.

Something like 4 or 5 core auto cable to each side

[tiger99]

Good idea.

[Captain Mainwaring]

NO! Do not ever put a fuse or circuit breaker in the headlight circuit. It is illegal and downright dangerous.

As it happens, I lost both headlights suddenly, in the dark, many years ago, and lived to tell the tale, but it could easily have been fatal. It was not caused by a fuse, but by an incorrectly designed dip switch on a Triumph Herald, which when a bit worn, could stick in an intermediate position with main and dip both off. First drive at night, returning to main beam after a car passed in the opposite direction, the lights suddenly went out, and I was left in utter darkness. The car ended up at right angles in the middle of the road.

There is nothing wrong with fusing left and right seperately, but if you do that you will need more than one relay.

I would advise anyone who is not fully competent in electrical matters to never mess about with their headlight wiring.

 

I can only second that. Am I reading this correctly? You want headlights to come from an ignition dependent supply with no fusing?

 

I must be reading this wrong - just a quick look at a late mini drawings shows left and right, dipped and main separately fused.

 

How on earth would wiring the whole kit and caboodle up direct to the battery have help your Herald Mishap? switch was faulty...end of story - no fuse or a thousand fuses, wired direct or ten relays, no difference. Switch didn't provide a signal for the relay/s or direct to the lamp unit makes no difference - no light.

 

I have to be completely misunderstanding what you say.

[Captain Mainwaring]

Missed the fuse on the diagram it was just a generic relay wiring diagram, I did say ignore the labels its the terminal numbers that are important.

Appart from the fuse it will work as shown

Although saying that if the relay fails you will lose both lights, I'd guess uber safe would be 2 relays per side,
Then again dodgy mini wiring bundled behind front grill you have a bullet connector with a cruddy fitting you could easily lose both lights.

 

You could do, however for every additional unnecessary relay comes yet another 4 connections to fail. Two relays is quite adequate, one main, one dip. You could run full redundant wiring too with all the additional complications.

If you use good quality components and carry out the installation well, then I expect the car will be in the crusher before the relays pack up....all this overkill,but with tungsten filaments

[tiger99]

Myh example of the Herald is merely to illustrate how downright dangerous a headlight failure can be, and that they do happen. My other remarks are intended to ensure that Mini owners do not fall foul of the law, and add extra failure modes which increase that risk.

 

Ideally the entire circuit would be independent left and right, with double pole light switch and dip switch, however if changeover relays were used, a single pole dip switch would be ok, as failure would make the lights revert to dip, not go out completely.

[lrostoke]

Captain must be board this topic is 12months old :)

[Captain Mainwaring]

Captain must be board this topic is 12months old :)

Really, it just popped up as a current topic......nonetheless, interesting to read, hopefully people took a great deal of care in picking the best bits of the advice from the thread - Not sure why the thread should pop up as current...SQL can do funny things from time to time...

 

As for bored - dumbfounded would not adequately describe the happenings of today.