Headlight relay mod revisited.

[GOOSE]

I went to Napa and bought the necessary components to do the relay mod this evening. My lights were about as good as candlesticks! Here's what you need.

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I decided to solder and shrinkwrap my connections and sleeve everything in wireloom.

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Those pictures are of the drivers side socket. I bought new sockets. Unplug the drivers side socket and simply abandon it. I tie wrapped the new harness across the radiator support and soldered in the passenger side replacement socket.

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Once the passenger side socket is soldered in, you can install new headlights and bring the 2 wires from it, high and low beam, around to the passenger side fender.

You also want to cut off the factory headlight socket from the passenger side and extend the red wire (low beam) and green wire (high beam) around to the passenger side fender.

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On both the drivers and passenger side I left about 2 feet of black wire hanging out of the loom, that will be a new ground for the headlights.

Theses are the relays I got from Napa. The premade pigtail was too nice to pass up!

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I mounted the relays on the passenger side inner fender, behind the large solenoid.

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Here I have an auxillary fuse block that I am using for a clean 12V+ source. The green wire out of the pigtail gets grounded. The high and low beam leads from your factory socket that you cut off goes on the other side of the relay(blue wires) to trigger it when your lights are turned on.

The red wires on the pig tail get the new 12V source from my fuse block. Either one of the two wires left, orange or yellow I believe, get soldered to the leads from the new harness that you already made and should be waiting for you.

With these 4 connections made, you accomplished 2 things. #1 you eliminated about 10' of light gauge wire that goes through your headlight switch and all the way back out to your headlights. You replaced that long length of factory #18 wire with a much shorter length of #14 wire. This will allow more voltage to reach your headlights making them brighter. #2 You relieved your headlight switch of the amperage from the headlights. Now your switch sees a very small load (the coil inside the relay) instead. Your harness that connects to the switch is far less likely to burn up now!

Lastly, put ring terminals on the black wires coming off of your new headlight harness and screw them to something close by to establish a new ground.

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I may go back and tidy up some more but this is my final product for tonight.

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[79jasper]

Nominated for sticky/tech thread.
I know it should be easy to figure out, but anyway you could draw up a little diagram?

Sent from my SM-T537R4 using Tapatalk

 

[GOOSE]

I will do my best but there already is at least one headlight relay mod in the tech section. Thanks anyway, I appreciate it.

 

[GOOSE]

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[anotheridi]

Does this make a fairly noticeable difference in light? Or is it more of a preventative maintenance? Either way I will be doing this along with new battery cables, I'm thinking of using marine terminal posts so I can solder eyelets on the ends to prevent the cables from fraying. Nonetheless you did a great job and I appreciate the pictures.

 

[gandalf]

Could you write out an actual list of part/items you used? Item description, part numbers, wire sizes, that sort of thing.

I think that would help many of us. Thanks.

 

[anotheridi]

Looks like
- 50ft 14AWG (three different colors, black for ground, and two colors of choice for high beams and low beams.
- two weather tight single throw single pull relay sockets.
- two single pull single throw relays. I would think they would only need to be rated at 8-10 amps.
- Heat shrink colors of your choice.
- zip ties
- 25 amp inline fuse/holder, unless you plan on tapping into the factory fuse box.
- new headlamp sockets? May not be needed.
- new headlights to make the most drastic change

If this looks like the actual list I get bored at work sometimes when I have free time, and I can get part numbers. Please feel free to update this list with the correct items if I listed something wrong, I'm just trying to help

 

[GOOSE]

I learned something at Napa yesterday. The heat shrink is color coded just like crimp connectors.

Yellow: #10 and 12 wire
Blue: #14 and 16 wire
Red: #18 and 20 wire

 

[GOOSE]

Anotheridi, you got the list just about covered. I have an aftearket fuseblock already so I didn't need an inline holder. Some ring type crimp terminals and tek screws were needed as well. Its a pretty easy project.

Tool wise I used a cordless drill, heat gun, soldering iron, diagonal cutters, wire strippers and a utility knife.

 

[anotheridi]

Alright cool, this is something I need to do, so I will try to get a parts list from my local auto parts store, or possibly from rockauto since I have a few other things I need from there

 

[GOOSE]

Napa part numbers:

EC23-relay pig tails
787119- 9004/9007 high temp headlight sockets
192D-heavy duty ISO base relay(40 amp rating!)

 

[riotwarrior]

Nice write up, and I agree...should be tech article.

I picked up some 80/100 watt Hella bulbs...true 80/100 9004's for the grey ranger and plan on doing this as well.

What did you do to TIE into the stock headlight wiring?

I'm considering doing this to a few vehicles and rather than CUT into harness or use those speedi tap thingys I would rather have a plug that goes INTO the headlights receptacle and can the take leads to the relays for hi/low and larger wire then direct back to replacement plugs for the headlights.

Just curious...

Again thanks, helps me stay on track for my relay mod...

Oh BTW just snapped these pics...

Bulb package see 80/100 nice n bright!

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and Part #

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These bulbs fit Brick nose BTW IIRC

 

[OLDBULL8]

Whatever you do, don't buy Sylvania bulbs. They don't conform to what is advertised. Fact is IIRC they have a recall on them. I bought them a couple of years ago and they are poop.

 

[anotheridi]

Nice write up, and I agree...should be tech article.

I picked up some 80/100 watt Hella bulbs...true 80/100 9004's for the grey ranger and plan on doing this as well.

What did you do to TIE into the stock headlight wiring?

I'm considering doing this to a few vehicles and rather than CUT into harness or use those speedi tap thingys I would rather have a plug that goes INTO the headlights receptacle and can the take leads to the relays for hi/low and larger wire then direct back to replacement plugs for the headlights.

Just curious...

Again thanks, helps me stay on track for my relay mod...

Oh BTW just snapped these pics...

Bulb package see 80/100 nice n bright!

You must be registered for see images attach

and Part #

You must be registered for see images attach

These bulbs fit Brick nose BTW IIRC

You could probably use one of these to tap into the stock headlight plug.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/130812246134?lpid=82
That would make it plug and play if you ever wanted to return to the insufficient stock wiring.

 

[smolkin]

Everyone should do this mod, best benefit-to-cost ratio. Driving at night is a joy now! Relays in a nice weatherproof box can also be found in junkyards, mine was $4 and came off a 98 Lincoln...

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