The SAE J581 Aux High Beam Thread

Absolute units.

 

Finished wiring everything today. It's amazing how long it can take to run a few wires and mount a simple relay - if you want everything to look as close to factory as possible. I'll post some pics of where I mounted everything in the next day or two, but here's what she looks like all lit up. The Oscars are tied into a relay that triggers them with the high beams, so no wires needed to be run through the firewall. All that's left is to wait for a night with no rain so I can do the final aiming. Oh, and I ordered some new Osram 100 watt bulbs from Powerbulbs that should be here in a couple of weeks. Guess what though? I can aim without removing anything except the upper plastic trim panel under the hood. Replacing bulbs requires removing the bumper cover. Shrugs.

 

Forgot to mention this, but your DRL setting may mess with the relay tap. Since the 4Runner uses PWM to dim the lights for DRL use, you may be buzzing the relay unnecessarily which could cause premature wear. I've been meaning to get around to this but haven't yet.

So, I found this thread that describes a very similar situation:

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/filtering-pwm-on-12v-circuit.128439/

One of the posters provides a diagram for the solution, seen here:



I'm going to order some parts to build little protoboards with this filter, and try various capacitors to find one that works. If there's any interest, I might make some extra for anyone looking to run auxiliary high beams without the PWM pinging the relay in DRL mode.

 

Hmmmm, hadn't thought of that. Good catch! I honesty haven't been able to finish up this mod due to all sorts of other stuff getting in the way. I'm eagerly awaiting your next thoughts!

 

I'd be interested. I want to add a 12" driving beam DD bar to the front of my '08 civic, and it has highbeam DRL's.

 

I doubt a 2008 Civic uses PWM to dim the high beams. You might be ok with just the relay.

 

I'll have to check for it.

 

Installed Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro driving lights behind the grill. Bought the lights with yellow lenses then swapped to clear so I could get that 4k color goodness. Thanks @memario1214!!

Mounted using the BAMF bracket which is well designed and solidly made. So many options for lights now!





Maximum stealthmode when not on

 

Sweet setup! Gota love that 4000k. I have a similiar setup but with a different grill and cut outs. Have you done a comparison with and without the grill on to see how much output lose there is? Been thinking of going back the OR grill to be more stealth and the OEM look.

 

I've often wondered about this too. A few people on reddit gasped when they saw that I cut my grill (oh no, he touched OEM plastic!). My lamps are tucked back far enough that they're a little tougher to see though.





A layman's guess would be that any percentage of the lamp covered by the grill would have some corresponding drop in intensity. Though I'm not sure it would be linear. There are probably too many variables (thickness of grill pieces, orientation, distance from lamp to grill, type of optic, etc.) to give a definitive answer.

 

Your setup looks good and doesnt look very "aftermarket". I would be happy with that. While i dont think mine looks bad, i kinda just want a change and more OE look. Im also considering another pair of SS3's aimed outwards towards the ditches for a total of 4 SS3's behind the grill. That would be all the forward facing light i would need.

 

Thanks! Had to click back to see your setup again, I think you did a great job. That custom bracket is sweet, and I like how high your lights sit.

I'll have to get some night pics, but I dont really remember seeing a huge difference when I fired the lights on after getting them mounted vs after I put the grill back on. With how open the grill is hopefully any loss would be minimal. And I might be one of the few but I do really like the OR grill... once the chrome surround has been dealt with of course

 

Appreciate that. Yea i did the same with my OR grill. Painted the surround and main grill a matte black. Looks pretty good that way. I really just need to get out there and hold the OR grill in front of the pods one night.

 

So I have an aftermarket grille that I don’t feel would let enough light through, so I’m going to cut sections out for the lights. I really wanted the KC Pro6’s, but didn’t want to cut 6in holes in the grille, so I went with 2 12” Stage Series bars(the red marks on the grille pic are where I’m thinking I’ll cut out for the led light bars). Only reading through this thread more thoroughly after ordering them, and realizing it’s ONE 12” that’s street legal, or two 6”... Oh well, hopefully the cops/inspection technicians around here won’t know the vehicle code well enough to notice... I was hoping someone could help me out. I ordered the Diode Dynamics Heavy Duty Dual Output Wiring Harness. I don’t need a switch in the cab, I would like to wire these to come on with the high beams. My thought was to use an add-a-fuse on the high beam fuse, and then ground it. But there are three wires to the switch. I’m guessing the third wire is for switch illumination, but I’m a wiring noob, so I really don’t know. Which wire should go to the add-a-fuse, and which one should I ground? And what should I do with the third wire? I just ordered this, so I don’t have anything in hand yet, just trying to prepare for the install.

Thanks for any help!
Nate.​

 

It'd help to see how the relay is wired up but I suspect yes, switch illumination. If you open the tape/heat shrink around the relay and get a photo of how the switch wires feed in. Black is likely ground for the entire system including the switch and one side of the relay coil, one red is power in, one is switched power out so that's the only one you'd need to connect to + from high beams. You could source the high beam + from a T at the headlight or add a fuse as you mention.

 

So I would only need to connect the one wire from the switch to the high beam circuit? I don’t need to ground the switch ground as the whole harness is ground through the relay then? Sweet, that makes it even easier!

Thanks for the response!
Nate.

 

It's not super easy to say with certainty without seeing how the relay is wired. But for sure a relay just needs current across the coil and add-a-fuse or T on the high beam connector gets you the + meanwhile ground is everywhere. Assuming you're going to cut the switch off you can just ignore the black and try one of the two reds, 50/50 chance you pick the right one

 

It's also possible that it's ground switched to activate so in that situation you would have to rewire the relay to get ground on the other side instead of +12v.

 

Here’s the three wires that go to the switch, this is off of Diode Dynamics Q and A section for this harness... “The black wire will be for ground, the white wire will be for power in, and the blue wire will be for power out.” So blue goes to high beam circuit, and black and white just get capped off?

Thanks again, sorry for clogging up your thread crash!
Nate.

 

I believe that should work.