Trouble wiring Hella 500s

My buddy and I were installing my Hella 500s this evening and although it seems like we've got everything right, the lights don't come on. The only problem I might could see is not having a good ground on the lights themselves, but after some tinkering with the wiring to the switch, the light on the switch doesn't light up (I bought the Toyota illuminated fog switch). It did come on at first. I have no idea where else we could be going wrong. Anybody got anything?

 

Tell us how things are wired up and I'm sure we can offer some suggestions.

Basics of how it should be wired:

Loop 1: Battery (+) -> fuse -> Relay (30,87) -> Lights -> Ground
Loop 2: Battery (+) (or something else to determine when the lights can turn on: acc fuse, HL fuse, etc) -> fuse -> switch -> relay (85, 86) -> Ground

If the switch is lighted, it will also have its own ground for the led.

If you have it wired up as above, do some tests.

1. Bypass the relay to test lights. Connect wire from the battery (to 30 on the relay) to the wire going to the lights (87 on the relay). The lights should turn on. If they dont, probably a ground problem at the lights. Double check fuse and broken wires as well.

2. Double check the relay is working. Connect your lights and battery back up to 30/87. Connect 86 to the ground. Run a test wire from 85 to the battery. The relay should click and the lights will turn on. If this doesn't, double check the ground. Relay may be dead.

3. Check the switch. Plug everything into the relay as mentioned above. Make sure you have 12v incoming into the switch. You can also test by bypassing the switch and see if the lights turn on. If only the led doesn't work, make sure the ground is correct.

 

great post dude, thanks. Fixin to take another look at it as we speak. What about if I wanna be able to turn on the Hellas anytime and not hook them up to the high beams, etc. ?

 

jeez i was thinking about picking up some hellas but the more i look into it, the harder it looks to install.

 

its probably a ground... or your taps are not penetrating, thats what I had trouble with.

 

OK, got the lights working. Only thing now is that the switch doesn't light up. It did yesterday at one point and it's still grounded in the same spot inside the cab...would it be better to run a wire into the engine compartment and ground it inside there somewhere?

 

I had a similar problem with my Hellas & it was the ground inside the cab. I finally grounded the switch to a bolt behind the left kick panel & all is fine. I have the OE switches for my Hellas.

 

I grounded mine inside the engine compartment