Hella wiring project - need help

darkalian

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2005
120
0
Centennial, CO
I have a 2001 D2 and bought 2 cornering beams for the front bumper - along with the Hella harness. I wired it up last night and couldnt get it to work. My only lingering question last night was with the green wire coming off the relay. After scouring Discoweb and the mass of threads about this same topic this morning I discoved that the green wire was the 12V wire so I connected it up to the battery just now but still have no lights.

The lights are connected to the harness and the relay is mounted in the engine compartment and Ive run the switch into the cab of the truck. Everything is grounded properly. So what am I missing?

I want the lights to function independantly of any of the existing lights (Im not trying to tie them into the existing beams etc) I am also currently using the switch that came with the harness - not trying to wire it into the binnacle yet etc.

Fuses are not blown

Anybody have any ideas?
 

stu454

Well-known member
Dec 15, 2004
5,407
61
Atlanta, GA
When I assembled my Hella 500 set, I had a hard short in the light assembly itself. Not sure if you have to put the cornering beams together, though.

Good luck.
 

Bwestone

Well-known member
Jul 26, 2006
401
0
Charleston, SC
Just hook the ground to a ground and the positive to the positive with the actual light wires and just see if they com on. If they do you may have a bad relay, but it could just be a mistake in the wiring. Hope you can get. Feel free to ask more.
 

darkalian

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2005
120
0
Centennial, CO
Bwestone said:
Just hook the ground to a ground and the positive to the positive with the actual light wires and just see if they com on. If they do you may have a bad relay, but it could just be a mistake in the wiring. Hope you can get. Feel free to ask more.
Cool - Ill give it a try, I appreciate the help.
 

vaden87

Well-known member
Aug 26, 2004
417
0
Alabama
darkalian said:
I want the lights to function independantly of any of the existing lights (Im not trying to tie them into the existing beams etc) I am also currently using the switch that came with the harness - not trying to wire it into the binnacle yet etc.

If you are not wiring the Hellas to work with other lights, then why are you using a relay?

To wire lights so that they work independently, you just need to use the hella switch - (Ground, Power In, Power Out). If you want the lights to only be able to turn on when you have other lights on (for example the high beams) then you would need a relay.
 
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darkalian

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2005
120
0
Centennial, CO
This is so infuriating. Normally I love tooling around with my truck but this just has me pissed off.
There are 3 wires coming from each light - Blue, Brown and Yellow. I used the brown as the ground (this should be right) and the blue runs to the relay. I didnt hook the yellow to anything as it appeared this wasnt needed because I wasnt integrating it into the other lights. So I snipped the blue in front of the relay and hooked it directly to the battery (meaning the blue ran from the light to the battery. I assume this is what you were talking about? Still the lights do not come on. I even took the light housing apart to verify the damn bulb was in there and it was. I just dont know what to do.
 

nrene

Well-known member
Dec 16, 2006
759
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Lovettsville, VA
photobucket.com
Ok, so what are you trying to do. Let's start from the beginning.

You should have 2 wires coming from each light. For my reference, what colors are they?

Just touch one to the + lug of the battery, and one the the - lug. Be careful, but you should be ok. You may have to 'touch' them hard depending on the age of your battery.

The light should come on. If not, reverse the wires and try again.

Which ever way the light comes on, you know which is ground, and which is +.

From there, the ground wire needs to be hooked up to the chasis of the car. Find a useful ground post (with other black wires hanging off of it) and use that.

Next, the + wire from the light goes to one stud of the relay.

(note, at 100w, you SHOULD use a relay, don't go straight through the switch)

The other wires out of the relay are as follows:
- Relay Ground
- Constant Power
- Switch

Hook the Relay Ground up to the same grounding post as your - wire from your lights.

The Constant power should go through a FUSE, and to the + post on the battery..

The Switch wire goes to your switch on the dash.

Your switch config may vary, but at the least, you need to have one wire from the switch hooked to some + battery source. If you are running your lights independant from all other lights, you can wire that to the same wire that goes between the Fuse and the Constant Power on the relay, or some other place closer to the switch in your dash. If you want to integrate your lights with other lights, hook this wire up to the OUTPUT of that switch, or the light itself. Give me more details here to help more.

The only other wire you might have is a ground wire from the switch. Espescially if the switch is lighted.

Let me know if the makes any sense.
 

darkalian

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2005
120
0
Centennial, CO
If I ran that blue wire directly from the light to the battery and it was grounded properly - why do you think it didnt light? I tried both lamps this way.
 

nrene

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Dec 16, 2006
759
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Lovettsville, VA
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It wasn't grounded properly.

...or the blue wire is ground, and the other is +.

If the bulb looks intact, and the light won't light. It must be an assumption you are making. Check the assumptions, like that "it was grounded properly"

I'm assuming you don't have a volt meter?

The basics are attached. Forgive the crudeness, but I did it quick... and I have NO idea what colors your wires really are.
 

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darkalian

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2005
120
0
Centennial, CO
Nrene - thanks a ton for the awesome reply - I will try to clarify:

the leads off of the wiring harness that connect the lights have 3 wires: Yellow, Brown, and Blue. Im making a safe assumption that the brown is ground, blue is power, and yellow is not needed (because I dont have city lights etc). The brown wires for each of the lights are very short and have to be ground so I did ground those to the truck (actually the bumper). The 2 blue wires (1 each from the lights) run into the fused relay.

The relay then has the following wires coming off of it:
Red - power - I hooked into the battery
Brown - ground - I grounded to the truck
Green - this green wire runs to the switch
Blue - runs to one light
Blue - runs to the other light

The switch in the truck (not custom, its part of the Hella harness) has 2 Green wires running to it - the one from the relay and then it has another small green wire that runs to no where. From reading some other threads here I figured this was the 12V wire and connected it to the battery but I dont know if that was correct.

On another note: when I tried to test the lights manually by bypassing the relay and connecting straight to the battery - I left the ground connected to the truck - did it have to be connected to the batteries "-" terminal?

Hopefully this clarifies. If this drags into tomorrow Ill try to take some pics.

Thanks again!!!!!!!!
 

darkalian

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2005
120
0
Centennial, CO
nrene said:
It wasn't grounded properly.

...or the blue wire is ground, and the other is +.

If the bulb looks intact, and the light won't light. It must be an assumption you are making. Check the assumptions, like that "it was grounded properly"

I'm assuming you don't have a volt meter?

The basics are attached. Forgive the crudeness, but I did it quick... and I have NO idea what colors your wires really are.

Check my other post for wire colors.

The brown has to be ground because there is no black and the browns coming off the lights are like 10 inches long and could never run far enough to reach the battery. Of course you are right - I could be wrong.

I dont have a volt meter :(
 

nrene

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Dec 16, 2006
759
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Lovettsville, VA
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Your discription sounds right.

What bumper do you have? Is there any chance the bumper isn't grounded to the chasis (and I can't think of *how* that could happen, but...)

You can rule this out by running a ground wire to the battery "-" and hook it up to the same place(s) on the bumper where you terminate the brown light ground wires.

Other than that, try the Yellow wire, either alone or with the others.

Everything else sounds good. Did you check the fuse?
 

nrene

Well-known member
Dec 16, 2006
759
0
Lovettsville, VA
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I just saw you have a RoverTym...

You might not have a good ground connection the the bumper due to the powdercoat. In theory, the screw/bolt should do the trick, but you might want to check that connection, or try the other option with a dedicated wire.