headlight wireing problems

[mr.nitro]

I converted my 97 camrys headlight to the 2000-2001 headlamps, and split the ground wire so that i could go from a 3 wire system to a 4 wire system. in lowbeam all lamps illuminate, in high beam only the centers illuminate

ok heres my first problem, the headlamps operate fine in hi-beam, but in low beam they where very dim. I noticed if I unpluged one lamp the other would light up significantly brighter.

ok heres my second problem, in trying to fix the dimming I pulled the relay out and started jumping the wires out to see which ones controled what. now I got no lights at all unless I pull back on the highbeam switch and hold it. the 15amp fuses are not blown but are not reciving any power. if I backfeed the fuse with 12v my headlights will work (but still dim on low beam)

#1 what did I blow and how do I fix it?
#2 how do i make the low beams illuminate at full power. ive considered running the lows to their own power source and turning them into daytime running lights that stay on all the time. Id rather not go this route if i can find a better way.

[mr.nitro]

well I took the old 3 wire for the stock light and used a tester to find what lights up with high beams and low, so I determined I have two power wires and a ground. so i ran one power wire to each light and took the single ground wire and used it to feed both lights .

ive found 2 fuses for the lights, are you saying theres 4?

[Pvt-Public]

Actually if you have Daytime Running Lights there are 5 (2)10 amp in the small fuse box in front of the battery (1) 5 amp for DRL's and a DIM relay same box and (2) 15 amp in the fuse box between the battery and left fender.

If you don't have DRL's there are (2) 15 amp in the left side fuse box. The head light control relay is in the left side box. If I am reading the schematics correctly. If you look at the schematic For head light w/o DRL you will see that the headlight switch actual controls the ground side so you may need to look at how you wired the the bulbs. You spliced the wrong wire and that's why the "back feeding" works.

Take the connector off the bulb hook your test light to ground and see which wire is hot with the head light switch on there should be only 1. That is the wire you need to splice to one side of both bulbs. This should be a solid red wire. For the other wires, the red with black goes to the other side of the high beam and red with blue goes to the other side the low beam.

If you have DRL's I haven't figured it out yet. Too many relays, way too many.

[fenixus]

PM sent.

[mr.nitro]

Originally Posted by Pvt-Public

Actually if you have Daytime Running Lights there are 5 (2)10 amp in the small fuse box in front of the battery (1) 5 amp for DRL's and a DIM relay same box and (2) 15 amp in the fuse box between the battery and left fender.

If you don't have DRL's there are (2) 15 amp in the left side fuse box. The head light control relay is in the left side box. If I am reading the schematics correctly. If you look at the schematic For head light w/o DRL you will see that the headlight switch actual controls the ground side so you may need to look at how you wired the the bulbs. You spliced the wrong wire and that's why the "back feeding" works.

Take the connector off the bulb hook your test light to ground and see which wire is hot with the head light switch on there should be only 1. That is the wire you need to splice to one side of both bulbs. This should be a solid red wire. For the other wires, the red with black goes to the other side of the high beam and red with blue goes to the other side the low beam.

If you have DRL's I haven't figured it out yet. Too many relays, way too many.

ok this officially sucks.
let me see what i did wrong.

got it fixed, kind of. the wires where wrong. I fixed that now they light up full brilliance. butttt the relay box has a problem somewhere. I think I fried it. right not I have the coil end of the panel hooked to an aligator clip, when i want light I have to connect it to the ground. I think I need a new panel from the junk yard.

see if I can explain this better. i jumped out the relay and shorted out the ground. its a switched ground though (I think) so now im backfeeding the coil on the headlight relay (ground prong) to close the contacts. only problem is it wont turn off. so now I have to disconect the wire when I park the car.

im working on getting a new fusebox, im thinking once thats fixed it will switch on and off normally again without the jumper wire to the ground.

[Pvt-Public]

I would try just a relay first, before I went through the trouble of a fuse box. Also just for kicks and grins, if you now have the schematic in hand. Try putting the wires back to stock and start from scratch. Worse comes to worse you only lose an hour +/- of your time, right.

[mr.nitro]

Originally Posted by Pvt-Public

I would try just a relay first, before I went through the trouble of a fuse box. Also just for kicks and grins, if you now have the schematic in hand. Try putting the wires back to stock and start from scratch. Worse comes to worse you only lose an hour +/- of your time, right.

tryed a new relay, no luck. so I pulled the entire fusebox out and used a tester on the connectors. one of them is open . pin #2 on the headlight relay. it should have continuity when the headlight switch is on and its not.

I got a new fusebox on the way from a member on this board. Im confident this will fix the problem. in the meantime I have a jumper from pin #2 on the relay that I connect to ground when I need lights.

on the bright side, the fusebox is super easy to change. 4 tabs pop it out of the housing and then unplug all the connectors in the back.

[mr.nitro]

im having trouble with my headlights. I thought replacing the fuse box would fix the problem but it did not. the problem is deeper somewhere.

heres what happened, I was jumping out wires at the relay (see pic) to determine which jumper powers which headlight. well I inadvertantly fried something. now the only way I get headlights is to ground out the bottom right jumper ( see pic) ( this is the ground for the coil on the relay) when i do this I hear the coil click and I have working headlights. only problem is now I have to open up my hood everytime I want headlights or when I park to shut them off.



what do I need to do to get normal working lights again?

[mr.nitro]

do you think its in the switch itself? or is there some kind of fuseable link I overlooked?

[Pvt-Public]

From the schematic, the relay is grounded through the integration relay and the head light switch. It could be either of those. My guess would be the integration relay because it would be easy to blow out a transistor and or the diode especially if the current got reversed by accident. The switch is more resistant (although not immune) to this.

[88 LE]

Originally Posted by mr.nitro

heres what happened, I was jumping out wires at the relay (see pic) to determine which jumper powers which headlight. well I inadvertantly fried something.

Thats why you don't jump wires without understanding how a circuit works. To many chances of shorting something.

Your pictures don't work, but it sounds like you fried something between the relay and whatever supplies a ground to the relay. This explains why the headlights work when you jumper the relay to ground, your bypassing whatever is suppose to supply a ground to the relay.

So you need to figure out whats not supplying a ground to the relay. Usually when you have an open to ground you'll see power (+12V) at the point where the open is and nothing (0V) after the open.


I'll have to pull up a schematic on TIS and see what I can find out.




I found a schematic and component location diagram on TIS. I uploaded the files to my host, so if you need them feel free to grab em.

http://networkgeek.dreamhosters.com/camry/


Looking at the schematic I would have to agree with Pvt-Public that its most likely the integration relay thats fried. This can happen if you jumper pin 3 (ground) and pin 4 (power) of the relay socket together.

The integration relay (I 17) is behind the drivers side dash in what looks like a junction block / fuse box. It has a white 4 pin connector that plugs into it. Look at the component location diagram for where it is.

[Mister_Perkins]

[mr.nitro]

might be the intragation relay. is that easy to access?

also I don't know if this makes a difference, but when I pull the headlight lever back to flash my higheams, it works without having to ground out the relay.

edit: fixed the pic

more edit: I can"t find this relay. ive look everywhere and don't see a white 4 pin connector

[88 LE]

Originally Posted by mr.nitro

I don't know if this makes a difference, but when I pull the headlight lever back to flash my higheams, it works without having to ground out the relay.

Thats the way its suppose to work. The flash function does not make use of the integration relay.

Ground starts at the ground point IG, from there it goes to pin 16, 8, and 7 of the combination switch (C 13). Theres some connectors and juntion blocks in between, but for the purposes of explaining how ground flows, I'm going to ignore them. Pin 8 supplies a ground to the relay and bypasses the integration relay (I 17).
Pin 7 supplies a ground to the headlights.


You need to look at the schematic and see how the combination switch functions.

I can"t find this relay. ive look everywhere and don't see a white 4 pin connector

Your not looking hard enough or looking in the wrong place. You may have to remove the lower part of the drivers side dash to access it / get a better look at it.

5th page of the component location diagram. The page itself is labeled as page 30.

[88 LE]

Originally Posted by Mister_Perkins

http://www.autoelectric.ru/autoalarm/audiovox/tsp-550/tsp-550-8.gif

A test light may work for testing some things on a car, but not all. Especially not on any PCM controlled circuits.

Personally I hate test lights and never use them. They can draw to much current thru a circuit and end up frying something. Besides that they don't tell you how much voltage is present.

My tool of choice is a DMM. With its high input resistance (~ 10 Megaohms), theres really no chance of frying something unless you prob stuff like a jackass with it (not knowing what the hell your doing).