30 replies to this topic

[Dan]

Ok, now I'm seeing what you've done.

I honestly thought the instructions I gave were very straightforward and easy to follow but you seem to have added in a few steps of your own and left out the most important bits.

The headlamp wiring is all base coloured blue. The dip-beam circuit is blue/red (that's blue with a red stripe) and the main beam circuit is blue/white (blue with a white stripe).

Frankly I can't work out what you've got connected into bullet connectors, so remove everything from everywhere and put it all back the way it was.

I've checked the Clubman harness again and all the bullets you need should be on the drivers side. You should find a set of bullet blocks there. You need one with blue/white wiring, one with blue/red wiring and one with black wiring. These should each have three original cables running into them, the ones on the passenger side should only have two cables each. You need to use the set of blocks with three cables each, and identify which of these wires comes directly from the switch gear by elimination.

The main and dip circuits are entirely seperate from one another, you need to use two relays. One for the dip beam and one for the main beam. Each headlamp is two seperate lamps, they just happen to be inside the same glass bubble. The main and dip beams are seperat electrical filaments. There is a way you could do this with just one relay if you like but it's more complex, will mean more cutting of wires and will mean the full load of the lighting is still on the dip switch so only eliminates half the problem. In my opinion that is not such a good solution.

If you apply all that and follow the instructions above I can't see how you can possibly get this wrong. Just follow the instructions and stop making up your own bits.

If it's really outside your abilities to do this, please admit it and get someone else to do it. The possibility of you starting a fire in your car by getting this wrong is pretty great. I'm surprised you haven't started one already by doing this the way you have.

[Clubby1275GT]

i compare the instructions u gave, which im my opinion were pretty damn good to the ones that came with the relay kit. the wires u desribed coming out of the relay were different colours to that on the relay instructions, that was the main problem.
the instructions that came with the relay kit consisted of everything u needed to know, i think, except obviously which wires ur plumming into, and it didnt give numbers on the relay of which to connect what to, so i had two instructions telling me two different things, that both made sense, if i kinda blended them together!

Would a simpler solution to this be wire it back up the way it originally was and change the switch on the dash (the rocker two click one) to a higher ampage switch??
or even change the bulbs in the angel eyes back to something with a little less wattage?

everything ive done works fine, i only have two problems, which i now no why after u explaining,
1. ive wired it the the sidelight switch when it should be into the loom for the headlights.
2. i have flash but no high beam when u push the stalk forwards, as u said this is due to me needing two relays!

to find out which bullet packs to pull apart i turned the lights on then pulled them apart till the correct one made the light go off, then plummed the wire in there, then it ran in parallel to the next light using the next cluster of bullets.

Edited by Clubby1275GT, 12 July 2006 - 11:06 AM.

[Dan]

The reley terminal numbers are on the relay itself, look at the base of it or the diagram on the side of it. There is a universal standard for terminal numbers in cars.

The instructions in the kit are meant for fitting additional lamps rather than how to fit relays to the headlamps and aren't written with a knowledge of Minis. Without knowing how you have combined the two sets of instructions, I wouldn't be able to say whether or not what you've fitted is safe. to be honest you can ignore the instructions in the kit for everything apart from them telling you which wires fitted to the relay are which. If you'd sounded more confident in the first place I wouldn't have said to use relay ktis at all, I would have given you a list of parts and materials to get from a car wiring specialist including the correctly coloured wires and proper terminals and relay boxes.

You won't be able to find a higher rated switch that will just fit directly in. I believe you can do this and get everything working how you want it to and safely. It's really not hard and the result will be worthwhile.

Have another go, I'm sure you can get it working.

[Clubby1275GT]

well i ent doing b*gger all tonight so may give it a bash, so u want me to follow your instructions and disregard the ones that came with it?
the colour wires on the relay are....
yellow - this goes to the headlamps from the relay, its a singel wire that runs in parallel goes from relay to a bullet, out the back of the bullet runs another yellow wire that ends with another bullet to the other headlight
black - earth
red (with a fuse attatched) - ive plumed into the solenoid on the starter
blue (meant to be switched to turn lights on and off)

can these coloured wires be implemeted into your instructions, may help loads?

Edited by Clubby1275GT, 12 July 2006 - 12:09 PM.

[Clubby1275GT]

right Dan, ive just read the original instructions again and again and they really are good, after trying on my own i now understand what you have been writing. if u dont work in electrics then u damn should do!
just a couple of clarifications that i need.....
u mentioned that two wires (hopefully black) arent black earth wires? u didnt mention earthing the relay to anything.
so far i understand that i need two relays and why.
im pretty sure i can wire the headlamps themselves and the solenoid cables im just unsure on what u meant by the pin 86 ones and where to put them, because surely if i u-do a bullet connector there will be dormant wires?

and just to confirm, i wire one relay to the appropriate coloured wires on the drivers side slam panel bullet packs, and one relay should be connected to the passenger side slam panel bullet pack with the appropriate coloured wires?
or are the two sets of colours sharing the same bullet packs?

Edited by Clubby1275GT, 12 July 2006 - 01:41 PM.

[Dan]

You are making all your connections to the same set of bullets. The headlamps are already connected to each other, side to side of the car. All you are doing is disconnecting the paired headlamps from the cars original loom and connecting them back up to the relay, using the original connection into the loom as the relay trigger. One relay for dip beam connected into the blue/red circuit and one for the main beam connected to the blue/white circuit. Each relay drives both lamps on one circuit.

Black is very much earth.

Pin 86 is the relay terminal that needs to be earthed. This is what you are doing by connecting them into the black cabled bullet bundle as this carries the earths from the headlamps back to the engine bay earth. I've said you should join the two cables to the same bullet terminal as there should only be one open port in the bullet multi connector to fix them into. If they are both connected to the same terminal you can fit them both to the same empty slot. The coils of the relays draw very little current so joining them together isn't a problem. You shouldn't be removing any wires from the bullet bundle with the black wires, it should remain undisturbed apart from adding the two new wires into it.

Two sets of colours should not share a bullet block, one block for one circuit at any given point.

[Clubby1275GT]

Dan your instructions were spot on mate, i wired it all up, just to unwire it again as it didnt work, but silly me didnt check the switch on the dash that was loose so i unwired it for no reason.
ill give it a whirl again tonight as i reckon ive learnt loads from what youve told me, i even took an old relay apart to see how it worked.
just one quick question.....
can i crimp the two wires together that go to the solenoid?? if i crimp them after the two inline fuses or should they be independant cables?
only one downfall to all this, im running out of original loom to connect things to, and i dont want to be stretching wires in fear of the connectors pulling out. DOH!

Dan thanks again, you've been ace and its much appreciated

[Dan]

There is a possibility that the low and high beam lamps can be on at the same time if something fails. In that case the cable from the solenoid to where they are joined would be carrying the power for all four filaments. But having said that, so would the earth cable and there's nothing you can do about that. If it's 17 amp cable or higher then it's probably fine to do it like this. The fuses should be on independant cables so you can run a cable from the solenoid and split it into two just before or at the fuse holders.

[Clubby1275GT]

yeah thats what ive done!
my main problem that induced alot of head scratching was that the relay came with a black earth cable connected to a different connection on the relay to what u said, pin 85 i think it was, but u said pin 86, ive checked other relay diagrams and they have earth as pin 86 too, so why would they put the wrong cable on th ewrong pin on both relays? they just stupid or can it be done this way?

[Dan]

85 and 86 are kind of reversible, it's just that there is this standard for what the terminal numbers mean that it's good to stick to but it's not completely essential. The two are different ends of the coil and can be reversed in most (but not all) circumstances. For this purpose it's fine. If you were driving something electronic or building an engine immobiliser and there was a diode accross the relay it would be more important.

[Clubby1275GT]

ahh right then, Dan parts of this, ie all your explanations i think should be pinned on how to wire relays for angel eyes because youve done a real good job, and i reckon it would be really helpful for others who are having trouble! ill post a pic up shortly of just why its worth the trouble, they look ace

[Dan]

I've been meaning to do a series of FAQs for ages about wiring headlamps, fogs and spots and lighting in general. Since no-one seems to read the FAQ though it doesn't seem worth the bother.

[Clubby1275GT]

heres why its so important, i think it looks ace!

[minipip]

any dusk fotos so we can see the car lol

'Since no-one seems to read the FAQ though it doesn't seem worth the bother.'

ahhem!
i always check the FAQ b4 i come to u guys with my problems, if i can be assed ill do a serch if it has alradey been braught up and not FAQ'd

Edited by minipip, 13 July 2006 - 11:19 AM.

[Dan]

Sorry, should have said 'no-one except Minipip reads the FAQs and he's obviously bright enough to work this bit out for himself'.

I'll get round to it one day.

Clubby, glad it's all working. Your light switch should run a bit cooler now, and you may find the lamps are a bit brighter since they have a direct feed instead of being fed through the dash.