Headlight malfunction..relay/mod?

[montokboy]

I have had an ongoing problem with my car since I bought it. When I have the low beam headlights on and flash the brights, the low beam goes out. So I have to wait till it resets, then try again and again. So I try to not ever use my high beams. I recently bought a set of ellipsoids with the intention of replacing everything to root out the problem. I posted this problem before and the replies I got were that the problem was caused by a short. I checked all the wiring and it was okay. When I bough the ellipsoids the person I bought it from emailed me instructions, with a note on how to get around the problem installing the ellipsoids. I am going to post the instructions (which involves a little modification). If anyone has had or know how to get around this problem or if this mod is legit, would appreciate some insight. pic attached.

thanks
Sean

Below is emailed instructions.

To do this you must first identify the high and low beam relay, to be
certain
you will want to have the Bentely manual handy to confirm the placement in
the
fuse box. Remove the relays and locate pin number 30 on
each relay. Tap a small hole in the very top of the pins with
about 1/16th of an inch between the hole and the relay
housing. Feed a small amount of 18ga wire through the hole
of the low beam relay, then bend it back so it would be
pointing toward the high beam relay. Wrap it around the
section of wire. Its not a problem if there is some insulation
touching the part where its wrapped, just as long as there is
nothing but bare wire touching the relay pin. When the wire's
wrapped solder the twisted part together, any insulation in
the way should burn back while soldering. Do the same to
the other relay making sure that youhave them aligned right
so they will go back in with this jumper attached.

The only glitch with this setup is the fog lights do not
turn off when you engage the high beams. I have yet to
experience any ill affects since I don't use the high beams
unless I am moving and the alternator is supplying enough
power

 

[bichmgnt]

Are the low beam lights still on when have the high beams on? I would guess yes. It sounds like you have a bad High beam relay. For some reason, when you release the switch for the high beams, the relay doesn't go back to the normally closed position. Doing this mod would eliminate that problem.

You could accomplish the same mod by wiring from pin 30 to pin 87a on the high beam relay. That way you don't have to pull both relays at the same time. Or you could do what I did and pull the fuse box apart, take the wire off pin 87a on the high beam relay socket on the inside, cut the end off and crimp a small eye connector in it's place. This then gets connected to the 12vdc bus bolt that is right there.

Basically all you are doing is providing 12v to the input of the low beam relay rather than letting the bigh beam relay switch it off. You need to do this because the ellipsoids have only one filament that needs to stay on all the time, rather than the stock bulb which has two filaments, low and high.

Not sure how the fog lights are affected by this. I'd have to check my car since I never use them. Unfortunately it is in the shop right now and unavailable. However, the mod, as described, should work and I would guess your low beam issue would go away in the process. I would still replace the high beam relay since, if one side is going, the other side of the relay may not be far behind.

Steve

 

[montokboy]

Thanks

When I hit the high beams on, the low beams completely go out, and I guess reset after a little while. I just wanted to find out if this mod was legit. My car is in a body shop now so I'll try it out this weekend when i get the car back. I hope its a bad relay so I wont have to do a mod, but it looks like in order to put the ellipsoids in I might have to.

thanks

ALSO
THANKS for the advice on the superchip not having a problem passing smog!!!!!!

Sean

 

[bichmgnt]

Have you already done the mod? If you haven't and your low beams go out when your high beams go on the bulbs are probably bad. The power for the low beams comes from the high beam relay when the high beams are on. If you have done the mod the low beam relay may be bad or the mod you did isn't working. But we'd need to do some troubleshooting. I have the Cibie CSR lights which should be set up the same as the ellipsoids.

Steve

 

[Bmw 325i 7803]

Anyone know what would cause a click sound from the relay when turning on the foglights in an e46?

 

[mjbst111]

it is the same as a turn signal except it only happens when you turn it on and when you turn it off. a relay works as a switch. When you push your fog light button, it sends as signal to the relay. the relay then acts like a switch to power on the fog lights. They do it this way so that all the power that runs the fog lights does not have to run through the swith itself. Only the signal power to turn on the relay has to run through the switch and the relay then gets as much power as it needs from another source to run the fog lights.

So the click is the metal meeting metal making a contact to power the fogs

 

[Bmw 325i 7803]

Ok weird thing is it never happened before, the sound is new, after the dealer did some ihka?? module program tweaking. If I didn't hear it before, why would I hear it now?

 

[mjbst111]

interesting.... all he did was program something?? he didn't replace anything or move anything around in the dashboard? that is weird.

 

[montokboy]

Bad relay?

I haven't done the mod yet. I'm going to try first putting in the ellipsoids this weekend and see if it has the same problem...if it does..then Ill replace the low and high beam relays, I dont knwo which I should replace first to perhaps solve the problem without having to buy another relay too, one or the other. I do know that one of the low beam bulbs has a leak, but I cant see why it would work normally and not when the high beams are engaged. Know of the best place to get the relays?

thanks
Sean

 

[Bmw 325i 7803]

interesting.... all he did was program something?? he didn't replace anything or move anything around in the dashboard? that is weird.

I do not know what they did. According to them "we did not touch anything" yet everything seems to point to the fact that they did. I am going insane here trying to figure out what exactly they did.....

 

[bichmgnt]

The high beams have only one filament on them. The low beams have two filaments - one for low beam and one for high beam. Power for the low beam filament comes directly from the low beam relay. The high beam filament is wired to the high beam lights and gets power from the high beam relay. If you haven't done the mod yet and both low beams go out when you turn on the high beams , them it seems as if both high beam filaments in the low beam lights are bad (unlikely) or the wiring to the lights is bad. Check both bulbs first then check the wiring.

If you install the ellipticals without doing the mod the low beams will go out when the high beams go on. Also, I believe the relays are the same so you may be able to switch them and see if any symptoms change. Check the part numbers on the relays and see if they match.

Steve

 

[montokboy]

Relay

Thanks

I'm having a hard time finding the headlight relays online to order them, part #'s? I checked and theres no headlight relay, the relays are categorized as 4 prong/5prong etc...

 

[bichmgnt]

I looked up the headlight relays on the ETK parts disk and it doesn't give a part number for the relays or show where they go. So it's hard to say. Have you tried to find a part number on the relay itself?

But I am also a bit confused. Tell in detail exactly what happens. Are all four headlights on when the high beams are on? Do the low beams work after turning off the high beams? I think that's the exact issue.

If all four headlights are on when the high beams are on then no filament problems yet. If both low beams work normally then all the lights are good. If the low beams don't work after turning the high beams off the the high beam (five prong) relay is bad. You might try taking the relay apart and cleaning the contacts on the relay. Take a bit of emery paper or maybe a points file and clean the contacts up. It should work well enough to until you can find another.

Again, doing the mod as described, or just doing the mod between pins 30 and 87a on the high beam relay (same thing electrically) would make it work for the ellipsoids.

Steve

 

[BMW Punk]

I was having a similar problem, what I did was to replace the turnsignal highbeam switch. Aperently the switch itself was shorting. The new switch, $120, made the problem go away. Just a thought for you

 

[montokboy]

Relay/mod

Well, I installed the ellipsoids and did the mod, I had a hard time trying to tap a hole for the bypass wire on the relay prongs, so I soldered one relay and just pushed the other end of the wire right down with the prong, Everything seems to be working fine now. Low beams go on, when I flash the brights all four lights go on, and the low beam doesnt go out. Now my issue is focusing the lights properly, I started adjusting them when crack, I broke a bushing. IM wondering how high the horizon line of the light should be, let's say 10 feet from a garage door. Anyways thanks for all your help and advice, I'm almost there


Sean

 

[bichmgnt]

Glad your headlights work.

Check out this site regarding headlight aiming.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.

Steve

 

[montokboy]

Thanks for the link for headlight aiming!!!

 

[Abe]

Have a high beam problem too

Well all the info. on the thread looked very informative. I have a 87 528e and the high beam doesnt work properly only two lights come on both the high beam and low beam on the drivers side. On low beam both the lights work (left and right). Could this be a high beam relay problem? Would the mod adviced earlier in the thread work for me too. Thanks in advance

 

[bichmgnt]

I would look for a broken wire or a bad connection between the headlights. If the wiring is the same as the 325 then all the headlights are controlled by three wires - ground , low, and high. The ground goes to all the headlights, low goes to the low beams, and high goes to all the headlights. The bunddle comes from the fusebox to the driver's side front headlights then goes across to the passenger's side headlights. Since the low beams are ok and the high beams are working properly on the driver's side, I'd say your relays are fine and switching are ok as well. That leaves either wiring or two bad bulbs.

I'd pull the plugs on the back of the passenger's side lights and do some basic voltage checks to see if you have power on the high beam. Then start working back to see if you can find a problem from a visual inspection.

Good luck,

Steve