Mikes Light Mods

new 4/9/2004

I was playing around with my multifunction switch today, have a pretty neat mod coming if I can get it to work. But I touched something together that should not have been and I heard the unmistakable click of a fuse going, and of course that wire no longer gets power the way it should, all car functions seem to work just fine, but the extra terminals on the multifunction switch that used to feed the corner lights no longer work. So, the wire is the one that feeds hot in run power to the multifunction switch, its pin 1, on the C269 connector I believe, anyone know which fuse feeds this power? I can’t find anything else that doesn’t work, so I don’t know what fuse to look for, I have a tester, but on the off chance someone knows what it is, that would keep me from going through them one by one,

Thanks,

Mike

No, but when I had the 50W backup lamps in it burnt the socket. I think too much grease is the problem there. The taillight mod adds no extra load to the lamps as they are just being turned on at a different time.

To use both filaments at one time puts the entire combined load on the single ground. In the case of the headlights that is 55w and 65w for normal bulbs or 60w and 70w for Silverstars. This is a +10 A load on the ground connection.

For that matter if you want the best I would just get two relays and solder all the wire directly to the bulbs and forgo the harness. A bit more work but the absolute best as far as lighting. I would also run the ground directly back to the battery or make sure the wiring is all copper, not grounded to steel.

Paul Nimz

Excellent, thanks Paul, I’ll get to it after I get back from class. I wish I could work on the mod more, I think I know what I have to do to finish it all up, but I probably won’t have the time until this weekend. Here are the details: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/migilles/taillights.html after I got it done though, I decided that I wanted to take it a setup further, with the running light under the turn signals, it…weakens the effect of them a bit, you can still see them clearly, but I wanted to make it better. So I’m using the terminals on the multifunction switch that you used for the corner lights, to energize a couple of relays to kill the rear running lights under the signals. But then I found that those corner lights only work with the full headlights, not just parking lights. So I’m going to eventually I think, cut both headlight wires on the multifunction switch, splice them together (kills 2 birds with 1 stone too, this will keep the low beams on when the highs are turned on, something I have been meaning to do for a while) and then where the original headlight signal goes into the multifunction switch, I’m going to attach a wire that is hot whenever any lights are on, I already have such a wire for my fog lights, I setup a relay so they won’t come on without the parking lights on first, I’ll switch that relay out with a dual contact relay, and use the second set of contacts to run to the multifunction switch, then the corner light pins should work with the parking lights too, which is what I want, since they aren’t corner lights, they are to energize relays to make my tail lights work the way I wanted them too. I had no idea it would be so complicated when I got started with this project, but except for blowing that fuse its gone pretty smoothly.

Thanks again,

Mike

Yeah, if I do it that way I’ll reinforce the ground at the sockets, I’m going for a high wattage harness eventually, but it might be a while before I try to put one on. I think I’ll also shore up the ground at the tail lights because they will be drawing more current than they were intended to. Did you strengthen the taillight ground when you did your amber/red?

Mike

Oh, you soldered directly to the terminals on the bulb? Without a socket at all? How that might take care of some problems…what kind of current draw did you find on the bulbs? Is 10A per filament good enough, or should I find an even higher capacity relay?

Thanks,

Mike

Soldering directly to the bulbs shouldn't be too difficult, just use a proper heatshrink between the solder point and the bulb. Locking forceps, self closing tweezers, roach clip, whatever will conduct heat faster to the air than to the other side.

Mechanical connections are ALWAYS inferior to a properly bonded (i.e. soldered) connection. Current is inhibited by any sort of resistance. Take Paul's formula below and apply Ohm's law.

Here is a website that will help.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

David

Yeah, I agree. I want to get a high wattage harness of some kind because it helps even the stock bulbs work better. Have you made your own with relays? I would do that but I’ve heard some people making their own by just adding better wiring still had trouble with the factory connector, I’ve heard some melted…I would make my own, much cheaper, and more fun.

I forgot about that, of course the stock wires should be fine, they are designed to be run all at the same time anyway, we just changed when. Still, they used awfully small wire. Any reason to think that the extra 1.2A of draw from my extensions would cause any trouble? Seems to be working great so far.

Mike

Regarding the high and low beams at the same time thought...

The two filaments inside the bulb are CLOSE and heat from one will influence the other. I believe that if you have both filaments fired at the same time you will seriously affect bulb life.

Back in the old days of sealed beam lights, running both at the same time was common and normal for most cars. But with the advent of the multi-filament replaceable bulb that has been done away with.

Try if it works tell us, but I think you'll find that your bulbs go pretty quickly is you use your highs much at all for spotting the bambis there in WV.

Scott Krietemeyer

As a proponent of there is no such thing as too much light, I' am just loving this thread.

U.L.

(if you have seen showhat9 in action at night you'd understand!!)

Right Eric???

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