• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Headlight wiring question

J

Jeep839

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Highlands, New Jersey
i had replaced the headlight switch on my 90 XJ and during that replacement i noticed that the plastic conector was melted and before i replaced the switch i noticed that there was a smell of burning plastic.(this is why i though it was the switch). so anyway new switch in and months after i replaced the OEM fog light with the KC 57 Series which are only 55 Watts, so what i am gettting at is i am smelling burning plastic and i am thinking that it is the switch again and i was thinking that maybe it is that the KC's are drawing to much current, b/c it seems to me that the smell is mostly only when the foglights are on. (these fog lights are hooked up to the existing wiring for the OEM foglights) so is this problem bc they draw to much for this wire or is it something that i am not aware of please help thanks
 
Loose spade connectors will get hot in circuits that draw a lot of amps. The dimmer control at the rear of the light switch, gets hot and is open, if a wire is laying on it, it will melt.
I use the finger test a lot, if it feels hot, you´ve found the culprit, usually hotter near the connector.
I often touch test the fuses and fuse block also. Some are gonna be a little warm, but hot is usually a problem.
 
Good reason to throw in a relay, use the current supply voltage to operate it and wire the fogs directly thru a fused relay to the battery.
All a relay is is a remotely controlled electric switch, your fogs will also be much brighter that way...
 
RichP said:
Good reason to throw in a relay, use the current supply voltage to operate it and wire the fogs directly thru a fused relay to the battery.
All a relay is is a remotely controlled electric switch, your fogs will also be much brighter that way...
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure the original fogs used a relay, and neither the headlight nor the foglight switch can handle the load straight through. If somehow or other the relay was eliminated, that's likely to be the problem. But Jeep839 says he simply replaced the lights. Assuming he or a previous owner didn't bypass that relay I'd check for a wiring problem or a short in the relay itself.
 
Yes, but I bet the factory relay goes thru the headlight switch just like the headlights do. When I put my Hella's on I put the jeep add on wiring kit inside the jeep and ran one wire up to the hella relay next to the battery, powered the lights from there. With the amount of owners here having headlight switch problems on their older XJ's I'd tend to relay my headlights too, that would reduce the current going thru the headlight switch and back to the headlights. Probably use one of the aftermarket harness's...
 
does anyone have this relay wiring diagram or something that they could make up that includes where to put the relay and what type of relay(part number) and you guys are saying that it will reduce the amount of current that goes to the switch and put it threw the lights???
 
Basically the aux harness plugs into your headlights and one of your existing headlight sockets plugs into the aux harness, from then on the headlight switch operates the two relays that are in the harness. As for relays I prefer the Hella fused relay, makes for a neater install as the bayonet fuse is on the side of the relay...
Gojeep in australia has a schematic on his site where they use those weird right hand drive relays :D as well as www.rallylights.com Hella and IPF both make them also....might find them on Ebay too...they are relatively easy to make if you understand switches and relays....
 
i have to agree to the relay version.
my xj had a bad lighting and so i used thicker cabels and 2 relays (1 for the normal beam and 1 for the high-beam). now it's perfect. good light. :sunshine:

greetings from austria
Rainer
 
and here is a scheme for the wiring. the needed thicker cables are drawn thicker.
lighting.gif


The fuse (if you only use it for the normal beams with about 55 W) should have 20 AMPs.
Each relay should have 12 V and about 20 AMPs (normal ones have 15 and above).
the thicker wires should have 2,5 square-millimeters or higher.

and so it's now easy to add an extra relay for fog-lights (with extra fuse).

only be careful with the wiring for the original high and low-beam cable. Sometimes they don't carry 12 V + . Instead they have 12V - . Then you have to connect the relays to 12V +.

greetings from Austria
Rainer
 
My Low beams decided to call it quits out on the highway one night a week or so ago. I couldn't figure it out at the time (cold, dark, snow, etc) So I just pointed my hi's down and drove the last 200mi home.

I tried to remove the pull switch, but how the heck does it come out??? I removed all the dash trim and such and even the panel to the right of the switch, but how does the switch come out??? 87 Waggy, 4 lamp system.

Thanx...
 
Feel around the switch, theres a push button on it that when depressed allows you to pull the button/handle out...
I too had both low beams on an oldsmobile go out at the same time, spent 2 hours troubleshooting it, turned out to be two bad low beams in a 4 headlight setup, oldsmobile starfire, check the obvious first. I keep an old set of stock sealed beams around just for that, set of rounds for the TJ's and squares for the XJ...
 
At first that's what I thought. I had just replaced them a month earlier an I was ready to go storlmin back into the shop I bought them from but they both work fine (the lamps themselves) It's either in the Head Lamp swith or the hi/lo switch. I have a few minor probs associated with the turn signal lever.
 
tthompson10 said:
At first that's what I thought. I had just replaced them a month earlier an I was ready to go storlmin back into the shop I bought them from but they both work fine (the lamps themselves) It's either in the Head Lamp swith or the hi/lo switch. I have a few minor probs associated with the turn signal lever.
Click to expand...
If the high beams work, the headlight switch works. Look to the dimmer switch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
3d XJ parts library ?
Replies
12
Views
226
Matt89XJ
M
Badvudoo
One Dim Headlight
Replies
1
Views
390
RCP Phx
R
Z
1990 renix electrical issues
Replies
3
Views
73
cruiser54
C
Ecomike
87 Renix XJ No fuel, No brake lights, cranks fine
2
Replies
27
Views
855
Anak
Anak
G
Red and Purple ignition wiring hot to touch with A/c and blower on high
Replies
0
Views
1K
gmcchamp99
G
Back
Top