Sealed Beams to US Hella Ellipsoids Wiring Help

[Das Delfin]

The main thing I don't like about the candlepower forum is they don't take account for erroneous US laws about headlights. On a new car with updated and relevant headlight laws there's less of a reason to upgrade but on our cars the only legal lights we can run are sealed beams and stock US ellipsoids, both of which pale in comparison to pretty much every other type of headlight.

Those hella bifocals, while really cool, are about as legal as projector retrofits in our cars in the US. Also, it's widely recognized that LEDs are best in high beams because it's hard to control the beam pattern in low beam headlights. The main objection the candlepower forum has with LED retrofits is that they're blinding and unsafe to other drivers. But every high beam bulb is blinding and unsafe to other drivers. So what are they really trying to say?

[hankolerd]

I had LED high beams, the Morimoto XB LED. It is when I switched to the 9011 HIR that I started hitting problems and dug out the wiring diagrams. More info on the LED high beams here - http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=371831

I am going to be updating that thread when I get a chance to give all the details on the wiring, and issues with running the 9011 HIR on the stock 7.5A fuses.

[Das Delfin]

If you feel comfortable modding your harness I say do it.

Now that you mention it you can totally just jump pins 30 and 87a on the high beam relay. Must have missed that one

Are you going to go with LED high beams? That's what I want to do. But to color match them with xenon lows..

[hankolerd]

I'm under the impression that the trigger wire for the bixenon solenoid (the wire which plugs into the third contact of the low beam connector which used to be for the high beam filament) doesn't activate the xenon bulb? It just moves the cutoff inside the projector?

Right now I have the ballast taking all 3 of the original low beam wires, low, high, and ground, using the Canbus harness. After the 3 wires go in to the magic canbus box, two very small gauged power and ground wires double back to be the input for the bi-xenon solenoid. When I flash my high beams it actually does send 12.X volts through the ballast and the HID bulb is lit, as well as the bi-xenon solenoid is triggered to flip down the shield.

Now, instead of sending that high beam input through the ballast, I could splice it directly to the bi-xenon solenoid, and then I would no longer flash my low beams with my high beams, but also I would not get any low beams with my high beams, until I jump the relay that you mention. Though, I don't know why I would jump pins 30/30 on the low and high beam relays, why not just jump pin 30/87a on the high beam relay? Seems like it would be easier to do and easier to revert.

[Das Delfin]

The lows on a sealed beam car are already separated from the high beam circuit. There are two filaments inside a low sealed beam: both are 35w but are at different placements regard to the reflector so that the high beam travels further down the road. So when you flip on your high beams, you're really turning off the low sealed beam and then the high filament inside the low beam is activated. If you splice ellipsoid lights into a sealed beam car, you eliminate the high beam lead going into the outer lights. Thus, if you retain the K4 unloader circuit, your low beams turn off when the high beams come on. When you flash to pass, the same thing happens.

If you connect Pin 30 of K3 and pin 30 of K4 both will be connected to C100 (hot at all times), but the switch which engages them is separate. So they should still be separate.

(I'm doing the exact same mod on my car right now and I WOULD go out and wire it up right now but I haven't finished aiming the headlights and don't want them all on when I try to do the high beams)

I'm under the impression that the trigger wire for the bixenon solenoid (the wire which plugs into the third contact of the low beam connector which used to be for the high beam filament) doesn't activate the xenon bulb? It just moves the cutoff inside the projector?

I'm looking the wiring diagrams over and can't find a reason why your lows would come on with your highs. If anyone wants to chime in

[hankolerd]

The only downside I see to this approach, is if I want to just flash my high beams when my lights are otherwise not on, it will attempt to ignite the xenon each time I flash them. Here is a video I made showing the issue - https://youtu.be/ySfFKQGJqmE

I really would like a plug-and-play way to get the lows off the high circuit, but it sounds like there is no easy solution. From what I have read one solution is to add a "rear fog" relay in the fuse box, and then re-wire the low and high beam relays to make use of the rear fog relay, to separate the two circuits the way the ellipsoid cars were - http://users.rcn.com/nifftylion/head...%20-%20Pub.pdf
Then I would need to remove the jumper wire that connected the high beam and low beam circuits just before the headlights, and use a high beam splitter to trigger the bi-xenon shield when the highs are turned on.

[Das Delfin]

hankolerd, that's perfect. You have a plug and play wiring harness. All you have to do is the relay mod and you'll be set

[jeffnhiscars]

^ With just the relay mod wouldn't the fog lights stay on with the high beams?

Thanks for the links Das Delfin.

My fogs work independently of the headlights and both beams stay on together.

[hankolerd]

It is hard to see, but 3, red/white/black, here is a better picture:

[Das Delfin]

Does your top pin (the one that connects to stock SB wiring) have two pins or three?

[Das Delfin]

^ That's a valid concern. In the end it won't be an issue though. The unloader relays in these bmws do two things: they conserve current by using a remote switch, and they perform an auto-off function for unnecessary or redundant lights. This mod defeats the "unloader" part of the circuit but the headlights still function with a relay, just as they should otherwise. In english, this means that even though the relays have constant power, they still won't turn on unless told to do so by the headlight switch.

The two mods listed above will remove the low beam unloader, which is the circuit that tells the low beams to turn off when you flip on the high beams, which is great for bixenon lenses. You want the lows to stay on. All you have to do for the bixenon element which moves etc etc is tap in to the connector that plugs in to your high beams. I guess the important thing to draw from this is that even though the relays will all be seeing constant power, none of them actually transmit that power until told to do so by the headlight switch.

[hankolerd]

So, now I have another problem... I was thinking I just jump the high beam relay so I always have power to the lows, as it seems like the easiest route for now, and easy to revert.

But, if I do this, then I will have both the low beam and high beam circuits hot. And I am not sure if my Morimoto Mini H1 bi-xenon shield activator will like that. My low beam wiring harness takes the standard sealed beam low/high inputs, and when the high circuit is triggered it triggers a solenoid to flip a shield out of the way of the projector, making it a bi-xenon projector. I am worried if I leave power to both the low and high circuits it could cause issues with this. Any ideas?
The top plug goes to the car.
The middle plug goes to the shield solenoid.
The bottom plug goes to the HID bulb.


EDIT: I guess if push comes to shove I can split my high beam circuit directly to the actuator plug, I just am not sure if having both circuits providing power is OK or not.

[Das Delfin]

Those two mods essentially do the same thing. One is just a prettier way of doing it. This link has some wiring diagrams and some other useful info.. after reviewing it for the 1000th time, it looks like the fog light relay will have power when the low beams are on regardless of whether or not the high beams are on.

But if you're running HID's and/or upgraded projectors in your ellips, you don't really need fogs.. You'll notice a huge improvement in lighting anyway. I took my fogs off when I made the jump from sealed beams to Hella H4's. Ellips are even better. So it may be a non-issue

[hankolerd]

^ With just the relay mod wouldn't the fog lights stay on with the high beams?

Thanks for the links Das Delfin.

[jeffnhiscars]

Best to mod the relay and leave the fuse box alone. There's a write up on this in my barn find build thread that may help