Help please! Lights on the blink

[jc109]

Hello all,

I'm on my way across the Nullarbor after having had a Traxide headlight upgrade and driving light kit installed yesterday. Rookie mistake, I know.

So, night falls tonight and I power everything up. The 24V Fyrlyts looked great for the 10 seconds or so that I got to see them working. I then lost all lights. Everything. Thank heavens it wasn't too dark yet.

When I stopped the car and switched it off I regained everything. When I tried the spotties the same happened again.

So I'm now in serious roo territory with factory lights only.

Does this sound like an overloaded circuit breaker (40A) to you? It seems like it must be, but how could that be given the design of the system? And is there a quick fix given the lack of parts available where I am right now?

One other thing to note is the fact that it was damn hot today and I was pushing things pretty hard. Could high temps cause this? I'm pretty sure that's what's causing other issues I've seen today, with my stereo dropping out. I think the amp was overheating.

Any help you guys could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

James

[biggin]

I don't know the system, but given your lights work okay with the spotties switched off, I would think a relay, if there is one, is not holding in when the lights are pulling to much current. This would be due to voltage drop at the relay coil, suggesting either your electrics are not up to scratch, or a faulty relay, or bad connection.

[bee utey]

The spotties should have their own circuit breaker/fuse so if they overload the stock headlamps stay on. It shouldn't take much effort to find the power feed to the spotties relay and breaker/fuse connect it directly to the battery feed.

[jc109]

Cheers Biggin. Yes, there's two new relays. One for the headlights and one for the spotlights. The wiring for both is pretty much all new and it's either at or above spec. I'll check all the connections, but how do I check the relay?

[jc109]

Cheers bee utey. Tim's wiring diagram only showed one breaker, and although the sparky said he thought it was odd he fitted only the one anyway. He put that in the battery box, but it's only run with one cable so I'm guessing there's something splitting the supply downstream. I guess I could connect it directly or maybe find a higher rated breaker and try my luck, but I'd be a little worried about what might then happen.

[67hardtop]

Disconnect one driving light and try again. If the fault is still there then disconnect the other one and reconnect the first one. If the fault is still there then disconnect both lights and try again. If the fault is still there then the lights arent faulty. Look for a trapped power wire or wire that has rubbed thru somewhere on the harness. Obviously if u disconnect one of the lights and the fault is gone then that light or the wiring to it is faulty.
Hope this helps u.

Cheers Rod

Ps check the relay connections as that is a common fault, wires connected to wrong terminals

Sent from my GT-I9507 using AULRO mobile app

[drivesafe]

Hi folks, just had a long rewiring session over the phone, and hopefully James will be OK till he gets home.

The retard of an autolec ran his own cabling instead of what was supplied.

He ran a single 8B&S cable from the battery box to the relays. The kit is specifically supplied with 2 x 8B&S cabling for this job, and the instructions clearly show this in the diagrams.

I specifically supply two 8B&S cables ( totalling 16mm2 ) to reduce the voltage drop, and I supply two 8B&S cables instead of one 16mm2 cable because standard YELLOW crimp connectors will fit 8B&S cable.

You can then use any standard terminal crimping tool, where as if I supplied 16mm2 cable, you would need a special tool to fix the large terminals to the cable.

The idiot of an autolec also wired up the relays incorrectly and this was after I gave the autoelec instructions over the phone, while he was doing the installation.

Is it any wonder I prefer people do their own work rather than refer them to auto electricians.

[jc109]

G'day guys.

Thank you all for the replies and the helpful advice. Particular thanks, of course, to Tim.

Sadly I wasn't able to get the driving lights working properly, but Tim's generosity and patience in working through the problem with me was very greatly appreciated.

I agree that doing your own work is best. In this case I paid a significant sum to a supposed professional as I had no time to do the work myself before the trip. As a result I've done that dough and inevitably quite a bit more in due course. I was also left with no driving lights and, at times, no lights at all, and now I'm home I need to do all the work over again. When my 7mth old permits...

You live and learn. At least I didn't hit anything during the run across.

Cheers all.

James

[p38arover]

Losing one's lights on the Nullarbor at night is no fun. It happened to us several times in our Hillman when the Eyre Hwy was still dirt and not always straight. We'd hit yet another bump and, bang, no lights. Great at speed on a dirt road in pitch blackness. :D

I'm glad I had a few spare fuses. The car only had 3 fuses for the whole car so losing one fuse took out a lot of stuff! :(

I traced it to the wiring for the boot light, the insulating cover over the connect wasn't pushed on all the way. Every so often, the dangling wiring would swing sideways and hit the boot hinge and short to earth.