headlight relay harness doesnt work on high beam

[jeeptorino68]

i can post pics, but when i put in the 5 pin relay the high beams worked, without the 5 pin they high beams didnt work, i tried swapping both relays that is when i noticed that one of the sockets is wired with 5 wires, hence it needs the 5 pin relay in that socket and a 4 pin in the other.

it is wired different then most would wire it up. and different then the e autoworks harness that people are farmilliar with. but it still works the same

 

[fyrfytr1717]

here is what i found out last night:
i swapped in a relay i had, with the 5th pin(87a), and the harness finally worked!

here is how it is wired

relay 1 (5pin with pin 87a) (note i had to supply this relay, they gave me the wrong one for this socket!)
12v in pin 30
12volt out at pin 87 to the lights and 87a to the second relay (4pin)
85 is the activation wire and 86 is the ground

relay 2 (4 pin no 87a)
12volts in at pin 30 from pin 87a on the first relay
ground pin 85
pin 86 is activation wire
pin 87 is power out to the lights

Yeah, something is screwy there. I'm guessing that you have it wired so that Relay 1 is your high beam and relay 2 is your low beam. With everything off, Relay 1 is supplying Relay 2 with 12V. When you turn on your low beams, Relay 2 would activate your low beams using the power being supplied by Relay 1 in its off position. When you turn on your high beams, Relay 1 would cut power to Relay 2 (turning off your low beams) and would instead send the 12V to your high beams. I can see how this would work, but it's not the way the factory intended it. The headlight switch and high beam switch should be determining which lights get power, not your relay. If I'm not mistaken, aren't both the high and low beam circuits supposed to be powered when you flash your high beams? Your set up would prevent this from happening.

Sounds like it's either a bad connection between the power wire and Relay 2, or it is simply a design flaw in the harness. If it was wired correctly, both relays should receive power independently (and should be fused independently). Additionally, your factory low beam wire should activate one relay and your factory high beam wire should activate the other relay. They should not rely upon each other to work. If they do, losing a fuse or Relay 1 will leave you with NO lights at all.

 

[fyrfytr1717]

If I'm not mistaken, aren't both the high and low beam circuits supposed to be powered when you flash your high beams?

Just wanted to correct myself here, I was mistaken. Both highs and lows are only on momentarily as you switch from low to high or from low to flash. Once the beam selector switch is moved all the way into either the high or flash position, the low beams shut off. Having both elements stay energized for any length of time overheats the bulbs and will eventually cause them to fail.

I still think the highs and lows should be fused independently and the relays should operate independently for safety reasons. I know some folks even take it a step further and independently fuse and switch each high and each low so that a failure only results in the loss of one individual beam. I just didn't have enough room for that many relays in my chosen mounting location. Interestingly enough, in the factory configuration the headlamp switch and beam selector are both shared, but each high and each low are individually fused (3,4,5,&16 in the fuse box).