Hella Smoked Headlights Question

[evil_twin]

My girlfriend has smoked headlights from hella on her car. I was taking a look at it, when the head lights are on, and the high beams are turned on, the low beams turn off and the 194 bulb in the low beam smiley turns on... Anybody know why? I looked at the wiring and it looked like OEM wiring...

[straight6pwr]

My girlfriend has smoked headlights from hella on her car. I was taking a look at it, when the head lights are on, and the high beams are turned on, the low beams turn off and the 194 bulb in the low beam smiley turns on... Anybody know why? I looked at the wiring and it looked like OEM wiring...

its a relay thing. on cars equipped with sealed beams from the factory, the low beam is a dual filament bulb. therefore, when you flip on the high beam, the power is switched to the 2nd filament of the low beam, and is removed from the 1st filament which is what the new smileys are wired into. solution: theres a relay jump you can do to eliminate this. youll have to search for it, its one of the tricks to get independent fogs that also allows you to keep on highs/lows at the same time.

[evil_twin]

Really? I didn't think 90's were seal beams though... The wiring looks all factory, even the Hella wiring is factory plug and play.

[straight6pwr]

Really? I didn't think 90's were seal beams though... The wiring looks all factory, even the Hella wiring is factory plug and play.

are they smoked euro hellas? if so there is no way it is factory wiring. someone obviously modified and wired in the right connectors, if thats how it appears to be. and yes some or all 1990 model year e30s had sealed beams for some reason.

[evil_twin]

Hmmm, if that was the case, then you are correct about the wiring then. The wiring in the low beams have 3 prongs going to them. 1 which is ground, another which has power for the low beams, then the 3 prong for when the high beams turn on and the "city" lights turn on in the low beams. Looks like I'm going to rewire it all so the low beams turn on with the high beams, and the city lights turn on when the side marker lights turn on.

Sigh, more work to do in the head light electrical section then. Thanks guys.

[straight6pwr]

Hmmm, if that was the case, then you are correct about the wiring then. The wiring in the low beams have 3 prongs going to them. 1 which is ground, another which has power for the low beams, then the 3 prong for when the high beams turn on and the "city" lights turn on in the low beams. Looks like I'm going to rewire it all so the low beams turn on with the high beams, and the city lights turn on when the side marker lights turn on.

Sigh, more work to do in the head light electrical section then. Thanks guys.

no problem. find that relay jump, then you wont have to do wiring. if i get to working on my car in the next couple days, ill pop mine off and tell you which relay and pins it is. then all you have to do is tap into the sidemarkers or front turns for the city light.

[gearheadE30]

Sealed beams were discontinued at the end of '89, apparently for cost vs. benefit reasons.

[straight6pwr]

Sealed beams were discontinued at the end of '89, apparently for cost vs. benefit reasons.

somewhere along the line (90-91) sealed beams showed up again. i see sealed beams on them all the time. i just looked at a dozen e30 FS threads for 90-91 model year and almost all had sealed beams.

[Mohammed_A]

this maybe a silly question but what are "city lights", are there actual globes behind the smiley?? sorry for the question but we dont get those here...would be nice to have something like that

[evil_twin]

City lights are the small 194 lights that come on normally when park lights are on. See sig above your post.

[Mohammed_A]

City lights are the small 194 lights that come on normally when park lights are on. See sig above your post.

Im still confused, they look like normal park lights on the normal smileys (top of light) or are you talking of the indicator lit up?

[Mohammed_A]

City lights are the small 194 lights that come on normally when park lights are on. See sig above your post.

im still confused.... are u talking about the lit indicator, the other one looks like the original park light??

[straight6pwr]

Im still confused, they look like normal park lights on the normal smileys (top of light) or are you talking of the indicator lit up?

city light refers to the small bulb on the top of any euro projector low beam. NOT the bumper indicator.

[nando]

Sealed beams were discontinued at the end of '89, apparently for cost vs. benefit reasons.

I think you mean ellipsoids.. they were only on 88-89 cars, 84-87 had sealed beams as did 90-94.

[evil_twin]

So i jumped #30 on low beams with #30 on high beams, and now they stay on. I don't really like it, kind of goofy lol.