Hooking up 4 led lights to high beams

Well, I had this posted under the lighting technical post and got no replies so thought I would try here. I'm trying to hook my 4 led auxilary lights to my high beams. I already have them to a switch an was going to just add in a relay harness from the headlight plug to the lights, but when I was trying to find out what the hot wire is for the high beams, it's almost like the high beam terminal is always hot, and when u flip the switch the circuit grounds and goes to a second(highs on) circuit. Help? How would I hook up a relay harnes to where I can flip my high beams on and my LEDs come on as well?

 

you tap into the wire on the headlight socket at the wire that shows 12v, when your brights are turned on. The one you are assuming is the "high beam terminal that's always hot" is not the high beam terminal. There is only three wires. One is 12v low beam (12v hot all the time), ground, and 12v on with high beam switch.

 

So there is a terminal that is hot when high beams are on. Cuz cuz this wire seemed to be the only one that changed. One was hot all the time, one was ground, and then this one changed from hot to ground. I'll check it again

 

Do not tap into the power going to your head lights to power your LEDs. You'll over load the circuit im sure and pop a fuse.

your a 99..do you have DTRL?

here are some diagrams.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l4hy12xmg9oe3am/headlight_w_drl.pdf

https://www.dropbox.com/s/khjkjpo0qtrutod/headlight_wo_drl.pdf

all you need to do is wire up a relay like normal for the LEDs. But instead of using your external switch. tap into the stock high beam switch send wire to also send current to the switch side of the relay you wired for the LEDs.

 

Ya sorry, I left that part out. The high beam tap should power the RELAY COIL ONLY.

 

Very interested in this..... If u figure it out post it up on here I'd like to know how this is done! Thanks!

 

I know. It will only be to flip the relay. And no I have parking lights. I'm confused because of the way my 99 switches from low to high is 1 terminal is constant hot, one is constant ground, and one switches between hot and ground when flip low and highs. I figured I would just use the one that switches as my ground but when I tried this I didn't realize that it will feed power back Into my headlights an turn them on when the truck is off

 

you just need to find the head light relay and you'll be done.

 

I know were the headlight relay is. The high beam system is a negative ground system on my truck so I'm confused on how to get a hot signal from the high beams because there is not hot signal. It just switches grounds between the lows and highs

 

So run 12v hot all the time to one side of the relay and run the ground to the same wire that grounds when high beams are on. Don't forget an inline fuse on this setup, as close to the 12v source as possible.

 

Simple..

on the relay for the LEDs..supply power from the battery to both the power side for the lights and the coil side. then just make the ground with the high beams common. It'll flip the coil on in the relay..and your done.

Bacially your putting the switching on the ground side. Its safer anyways. Its how i wire all my relays too. Like so:



As you can see, the power stays constant. But unless ground is supplied to the coil side the relay stays closed. In the diaram above, instead of a switch, the ground will come from the ground of the relay for the hi beams.

Make sense?

 

If you look at the wiring diagram for the 1st gen trucks, you will find something interesting. I am not sure WHICH year, if it was changed at all, but I know that the 95-99 Tacoma uses a ground circuit interrupt for the headlights and high beams. It works just the opposite of how you expect to see it done. When you turn on the headlights, the headlight relay applies power to one terminal of the head light. The other two terminals are high beam and low beam. Under normal operation, when the headlight switch is turned on, the switch supplies a ground to the low beam, thus illuminating the low beam. When you turn on the high beam, the switch sends a ground signal to the high beam ground, and removes the ground from the low beam. Now since the power is still applied to the low beam filament, the current still flows through the filament. This current then follows the high beam indicator circuit, applying power to the high beam indicator light. Since the high beam indicator light is a much lower resistance than the low beam, the indicator light will come on, but the low beam filament will still remain off.

This type of system was used years ago in the 70s Chevy pick up truck. If you remember those old-school trucks, the side marker lamp in the front was always on with the park lights, but when you turned on the turn signal, it would alternate the flash with the front turn signal bulb in the bumper.


If you want the high beams to turn on the LED light relay, you will have to use the GROUND side of the relay to switch it off and on. The wire that you will tap into at the head light connector would be the Red wire with the yellow stripe.

 

This is what I did. It won't work. Because this is a ground when the headlights are off, it flips the relay and will feed 12v back into the lights and my lights will stay on even with the truck is off. This could be because I have an HID kit so all my HID harness needs is a signal and it will turn my lights on

 

What? feed back?? okay..put a diode on it. Done.

 

This electrical stuff is confusing. I know what a diode is and does but how would that work? I would either still get a ground mounted one way or it wouldn't complete the circuit the other

 

Ground is common..doesnt matter where the ground is from.

You saying that if you tap into the ground to trigger the relay that power gets fed back into the stock relay keeping them on..yes?

So use a diodes on the grounds. They are like a 1 way gate.

 

It triggers the relay because it is a ground when the truck is off. I ran my 12v relay wire and then used this for the ground but when the headlights are off this is a ground. So it flips the relay but also passes12v into the lights and my headlights stay on when the truck is off. This style wiring is above my head so I'm going to try something someone told me and if that doesn't work just give up. I can't figure it out. And it's hard to get help over the web. I appreciate all the advice though!

 

You have something wrong..

Your new added relay should not be feeding power at all too the head lights.

Post a diagram of what you did..even if its a picture of a hand drawn one

 

I think my problem is I have an HID kit. I'm not good with diagrams, but I'll tell you what I did. There are the 2 poles that are always connected in my new relay. I hooked the 12v on the battery and the ground to the plug on my headlight that is the one that switches from hot to ground. But as soon as I plug it in, it is passing voltage into my headlight plug, and somehow that signal is getting to my HID harness and signaling it to fire the ballasts to turn the headlights on

 

you have the relay wired wrong..

the 12v from the battery should be going to the switch side of the Relay. The side that feeds power to the LEDs.

then with another lead, with a diode, put it on the coil side of the relay, the ground/hot from the head lights should be connected to the other side of the coil side of the relay.