Relays for D2a Upgrade Headlights

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gavinwibrow

Many thanks Paul. At the risk of sounding more like a complete idiot, does this suggest that the 2a upgrade headlights have larger wiring and would not benefit as much as earlier models from the proposed mods, or are we still at risk of burning out our headlight switches - especially for those of us that have put the stronger bulbs in (NOT HIDs)?
Afterthought - if these lights are also in D3 etc, do they not have the same issues/problems?

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The headlight wiring on both D2 and D2a is 1.5mm^2.

I try to avoid doing anything to the harness that cannot be reversed without leaving any obvious evidence. So what I'm trying to suggest above is a way to implement the Traxide wiring diagram without irreversible changes.

The Traxide harness plugs into one of the existing headlight sockets on the D2. If you look at the wiring diagram low beam triggers one of the relay pairs and high beam the other. So you need to access the wires for Low and High coming from the switch. These are UO (purple/orange) and UB (purple/black).

What I'm suggesting (and being me it's probably more fiddly that most people would bother with) is extracting the contacts for these wires at the plug on the back of the head light. I'd then cut the wires as close to the contacts as possible and add crimp terminals to suit the relays. You use these to two wires to trigger the relay as per the Traxide wiring diagrams. If you ever need to revert to standard, the cable is still virtually intact and won't need patching.

The existing portion of the harness between headlight switch and headlights is basically used to switch the relay. The relay handles the high current loads from the headlights.

The idea is to put the relay close to the battery to minimise the voltage loss due to long cable runs. If you have a search on the forum for "headlight relay upgrade" you'll find the best location for the relay is behind the headlight on the drivers side. This give a short run to both headlights, and you can tap the existing headlight wiring with minimal fuss to switch the relay. The traxide kit is designed to be used in this manner.

cheers
Paul

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OffTrack

The headlight wiring on both D2 and D2a is 1.5mm^2.

I try to avoid doing anything to the harness that cannot be reversed without leaving any obvious evidence. So what I'm trying to suggest above is a way to implement the Traxide wiring diagram without irreversible changes.

The Traxide harness plugs into one of the existing headlight sockets on the D2. If you look at the wiring diagram low beam triggers one of the relay pairs and high beam the other. So you need to access the wires for Low and High coming from the switch. These are UO (purple/orange) and UB (purple/black).

What I'm suggesting (and being me it's probably more fiddly that most people would bother with) is extracting the contacts for these wires at the plug on the back of the head light. I'd then cut the wires as close to the contacts as possible and add crimp terminals to suit the relays. You use these to two wires to trigger the relay as per the Traxide wiring diagrams. If you ever need to revert to standard, the cable is still virtually intact and won't need patching.

The existing portion of the harness between headlight switch and headlights is basically used to switch the relay. The relay handles the high current loads from the headlights.

The idea is to put the relay close to the battery to minimise the voltage loss due to long cable runs. If you have a search on the forum for "headlight relay upgrade" you'll find the best location for the relay is behind the headlight on the drivers side. This give a short run to both headlights, and you can tap the existing headlight wiring with minimal fuss to switch the relay. The traxide kit is designed to be used in this manner.

cheers
Paul

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Many thanks Paul - lucid but simple explanation - well done