Z28_1991_Camaro

I recently purchased these headlights and I installed them this past weekend.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWNX%3AIT


The low beams work fine, but when I turn the high beams on, the low beams shut off.
Since in this kit all 4 lights are identical, the high beams are essentially useless if the low beams shut off when the high beams are on.

When hooking up the headlights I just used the connectors that were currently on my car.

Each light had 2 wires coming from it to power the blue lights around the perimeter of the light(power and ground). My bro wired them up for me, he just spliced into the headlight wiring harness that was already there.
Is it possible he did something wrong or spliced into the wrong wire? Or could it be something else that would cause this to happen?

Rolling Thunder

Idk maby its just me but im alittle confused here. What is it exactly they do that there not suppsed to? The way our headlights work is they switch between high and low beams its not like when on high beams the low beams and high beams are on only the high beams.

Z28_1991_Camaro

With my original lights when I turned the high beams on, the low beams stayed on. So I had all 4 lights turned on.

Now with the new lights, if the high beams are on or off, I can only have a max of 2 of the 4 lights turned on.

In the kit, all 4 lights are identical, there are not 2 brighter ones for the high beams. If there is no way to have all 4 lights on at once then my high beams are non existant. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's kind of difficult to explain.

Rolling Thunder

I think i kinda get what your saying. Theres one thing though on a factory system when the low beams are on you have the outer 2 lights on with highbeamsall 4 come on but its alittle decieveing as even though all 4 headlights are on its not quite so simple as high beams are just having an additional 2 lights on. The outer 2 lights from the factory are dual element hi/low beams and the inner 2 are just high beams. So when high beams are on the only the high beams are on it just happens to be the case the outer headlights have a low and high beam element so one element of the outer headlights are always on when the headlights are on. Now a word on what high beams actually are. High beams arnt just more lights on there actually the way the lights are reflected in the headlight. Low beams are kind of shielded to aim light pretty much down at the ground where as highbeam elements dont have any shielding to block the light so light is just shined in every direction. From the way your describing it, it sound like youve got 2 sets of low beam only lights and no high beams headlights? If thats the case no matter how you wire it up youll never have high beams. How many connections do you have on your lights just 2 i imagin? The ebay add dosnt really give much info as to whats actually included in the kit.

Z28_1991_Camaro

There are 3 connections on each light.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Litec...24178002r15347


These are the lights that came with the kit, there are 4 identical ones. That is the best pic I could find of them. The wiring harness gets plugged in directly to the light. If you look at the ebay add you can kinda see the connections on the lights.

I would think there must be a way to get high beams out of this? Otherwise this kit is kinda useless, unless just the regular lights are that good.

My girlfriend moved back home now that she graduated...she lives in the middle of nowhere and they dont have streetlights out there. THe reason i upgraded was because i was getting tired of having to switch the high beams on and off all the time just so i could see. I havent been out to her place since I installed the lights so i dont know how much better these actually are yet

Z28_1991_Camaro

One more thing that may or may not be of relevance.

On my car 2 of the wiring harnesses had 3 connector plugs and 2 only had 2 connector plugs.
The kit comes with another wiring harness to convert the 2 connector plugs into 3 connector plugs.

I didnt bother installing this wiring harness as my brother suggested it probably wasnt necessary. He just plugged in my 2 connector plug into the light bulb so that the 3rd connector is not used at all

Does that makes sense?

Sorry if this is confusing

Rolling Thunder

Well actually thats probably your probelm rght there as the connections are not the same. In otherwords i cant remeber quite how it breaks down but if the ground on the old sealed beam was the middle pin on an h4 it might be the one on the right side so if you just plug it in the wireing wont be right. Since you have 3 pins all your headlights are dual element beams so its just a matter of wireing it up correctly. If you do a search online on this site or on the net in general youll see the pin out for an H4 then you just have to take a meter and measure which wire on your current headlight connector is for the highs the lows and the ground. Once the wireing is corrected you should be fine. However you should also note that H4s draw more current than a standard sealed beam so they always say to install a relay to supply the power for the lights as this set up might burn out your headlight switch or atleast shorten its life significantly.

Z28_1991_Camaro

I was at work all afternoon and evening and didn't have a chance to attempt to fix my wiring but I think I may have figured things out if someone can please verify that I am correct.

I drew up a copy of the wiring diagram that came with the new lights and have attached it.

The way it is now, my low beams have a 3 prong connector and my high beams have a 2 prong connector. So my brother just plugged in my stock connectors and the lights work just not properly. He thought the new wiring harness should have replaced the 2 prong connector only he didnt think it would be necessary and just plugged the 2 prong connector into the new lights. Tonight when I was at work, I unplugged the high beams and when I started my car to go home from work I noticed the high beam light was on even though they werent plugged in. I pulled the high beam switch and the lights got dimmer but the high beam light still stayed on.

So what I am thinking is that, I need to replace my 3 prong connector on the low beams with the new one and adjust my pass and drive wires accordingly. Then I should use the stock 3 prong harness that i will have cut off to hook up my high beams. Does that sound right or am I still missing something?

How would I go about putting a relay in, and where would I put it. I'm a rookie to the electrical system. That's why I had my brother hook up my lights for me

Rolling Thunder

Well i personally would just get all new 3 pronged connectors as the old ones tend to be pretty tired out and their only 3 bucks a piece give or take a little. Next seeing as how i dont know exactly what the pin out of a factory harness is off hand ill tell you by the wires and there color. For starters im not too familiar on your schematic what the pass and drive connections are? But i can tell you if your looking at the back of the bulb with the middle pin on top the ground is as you have it on the left side, the low beam is on top, and the high beam is on the right. What you need to do is hook the factorys headlight connector's light green wire to your high beams, the tan wire to your low beams, and the black obviously to ground. On your high beams you would only need to hook up the green and black wire as stated earlier. Thats should correct the wireing but i cant stress enough the need for added relays to power these lights otherwise your just asking for trouble.

Z28_1991_Camaro

I switched the wires around and my lights work properly now.

I work in the same building as some electricians and I asked one of them how important it would be to install a relay. He said since the kit didn't come with any relays they probably aren't necessary.

My uncle is supposed to wire the relays in for me, however, my uncle gets work done at an unprecedentedly slow rate. If I wait for him it will probably be at least another month or two before he does it for me. That's why I asked the electrician how important it would be to get a relay in the system.

I don't know anything about relays or the electrical system of a car. Anyone have any specific detailed instructions on how I could go about installing a relay or two? My uncle has some plan on how to do it using 2 relays. I dont know how many i need

Rolling Thunder

Well no offecnce to your electrician but this is ebay your not dealing with the most knoledeable and reputable companies in the world just gettign a good price and most kits dont come with them because its just not something thats genrally included. Again these are genaric buckets put together by someone who wants to make a buck with probably no knowledge of specific applications. If you ask any reputable place thell tell you you need relays at year one when i was ordering my buckets they mentioned to me i would need them without even me asking them just because i was ordering them. As for the relays, its not hard really i would use 2 relays as well. All you have to do is apply 12V to one side of the normally open contacts and the other side to eather the high or low beam circuit. Then just hook your low or high beam wire the car originally had and wire them to the relays coil. You will also need a ground to the other side of that coil. Its hard to give overly specific details as to connect wires to what pins or what wires to what color wire on the relay because you dont have the relays yet and there different ones out there. I got ones from summit racing 40 amp general perpouse automotive relays with connectors for just under $6 a piece.