fancy headlight upgrade

[Ratrace427]

I bought the headlight switch upgrade and triple checked the wiring and it does not work. As soon as i plug the fancy white box into the headlight switch wiring the headlights come on and the switch does nothing no matter how many times i hit it. I would call them tomorrow as i am upset that i cut my harness for this thing to make my situation worse. Has anyone hooked one of these up?

[Delorean Industries]

There should be a fuse in line. Did you check or install a fuse? Also make sure that you have power to the circuit in general. It is piggybacked off the stock harness so the factory fuse block still applies.

[Ratrace427]

Both the high beam and low beams work but i cant turn them off. The new switch does nothing. Is this new box broken? As soon as a plug the box in i hear a click from the back and the headlights come on.

[Delorean Industries]

I would recheck to make sure that the unit is wired correctly. Can you post a picture of the harness section where you made the splices?

[Ratrace427]

Hear are some pics i took of the locations of the wires within the plugs. Once i plug the black plug in thumbnail #2 into the harness going to the new headlight box the headlights come on with no way to turn them off. I also just noticed that only the headlight are coming on. no tail lights or marker lights.

[Bitsyncmaster]

When the new switch first came out, a few people installed them without pulling the battery. If the switch hit a ground during that installation, it blew a circuit board trace in the unit open. A jumper can be soldered onto the burnt trace if that happened.

[Ratrace427]

Thats interesting. I didnt read the instruction till after because the pictures were plenty of info for the hook up. I did see that it said remove the battery after i had already did the install. So something in the car got fried? The box was laying in the floor till the wiring was complete so i dont know how it was hurt. The instructions said that i could blow a fuse if messing with the wires with the battery hooked up. I knew this with my own knowledge, so after i put a wire end on i would put it into the new plug so it wouldnt touch anything. After i did that to each wire i plugged the unit in. I dont know how the unit would be hurt but i did leave the battery hooked up. Can you better explain what and how it was damaged. At this point i want to take the box apart and look for damage but im not sure i was the reason behind it.

[Ratrace427]

I did notice that the plug was really hard to snap together with one side going in and the other side not. It took some hard squeezing to get the plug into its new socket fully. Could the box fry from not having all the wires hooked up with power applied? To better explain only half the plug was making contact for a few min before being fully seated. If this is the case the box seems fragile. Are these a good upgrade? Not that there is a choice.

[DMC5180]

I had something like that happen to me. I was working in the Driver foot well and reached up under the console cover end flap. I must have bumped something and heard a Zap POP!. I blew the inline fuse to the switch box. After checking things out looking for evidence of a short to ground. (did not find anything) my assumption was that the pigtail harness adapter I made between the Factory Harness plug and Module connector (I did not want to CUT-OFF the connector to the ORIGINAL SWITCH) which is a deviation from the installation instructions, had made contact with the Radio rack (ground). When I replaced the inline fuse just the headlights came ON and would not go OFF via the switch. What I noticed when installing the fuse was NO CLICK from module box, this told me that one of the internal relays had STUCK CLOSED (welded contacts). After cycling the power ON/OFF by pulling the fuse and cycling HI/LO, the relay Unstuck (fixed itself). Whew, that was a close one! The unit has been working flawlessly ever since. 6-7 years now.

I doubt this is your problem though what you are describing is different, you hear the relays clicking. Oh wait, is the clicking sound coming from the module box or the relay compartment?

BTW the contacts in the connector they supply ARE a tight fit which is why it is so hard to plug together. Certainly don't need to worry about them ever coming loose.

[Bitsyncmaster]

You just take the box apart and look for a burned copper foil. Then you follow where that foil goes to and use a small wire jump at those two points.

[Ratrace427]

the click i hear is from the relay compartment when i plug the new module in. The high and low beams will cycle just fine. I will take the box apart and have a look see at first chance.

[Ratrace427]

I opened the module up this morning with my cup of joe and found nothing unusual. So i looked at the wiring once more. LOL I found the problem. They work great now and i would have to say the board inside the module looked of good quality. Im no electronic engineer but i have seen thinner and less marked boards before. I wish i still had the plastic covering though. Im a big "babby" when it comes to that kind of stuff.

[DMC5180]

I opened the module up this morning with my cup of joe and found nothing unusual. So i looked at the wiring once more. LOL I found the problem. They work great now and i would have to say the board inside the module looked of good quality. Im no electronic engineer but i have seen thinner and less marked boards before. I wish i still had the plastic covering though. Im a big "babby" when it comes to that kind of stuff.

Dude, don't leave us hanging :biggrin:

What wires did you have crossed up? What Plastic covering are you talking about? (Fuse box cover)

[Delorean Industries]

Dude, don't leave us hanging :biggrin:

What wires did you have crossed up? What Plastic covering are you talking about? (Fuse box cover)

Think he might mean the warranty seal on the dmch box maybe?

[DeLorean03]

So what turned out to be the problem ...?

[Ratrace427]

I was talking about the warranty/water safety wrap thing from Houston. Ok so what i messed up was so simple after taking another look. The wires will only go into provided plug one way after putting the wire ends on. In the illustration photo it shows a back view of the plug on where the wires go. To my defense it doesnt say it is a back view. I was setting it up as it was the top view so the wires on left were on the right. I knew something was hooked up wrong when i took the inline fuse out and nothing changed. How can the headlights be on with the fuse out?

[DMC5180]

Fair enough explanation. Glad it all l worked out that easy.