trouble shooting drivinglight install

marvellous_matt

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Joined
Oct 10, 2008
Messages
23
Location
Central Oztralia
Hi all.
I recently fitted some light force 170 to my 04 forester. basically: I mounted the fuse and relay close to the battery, ran the switch wire through the firewall, mounted the lights to the bull bar. as Im new to electical things i followed the instructions. I was told that the forester uses the negative to activate the highbeam, so followed the part if the instructions that says dont connect the earth/ground, plug it into the spare wire on the realy.

My problem is that while the on off switch works, and the lights go on with the highbeams as I intended, if the driving lights are left on, when the ignition is turned off the lights come on!! Key out, driving lights on!!Im worried that some time ill run the battery flat.

I am sure I have spliced into the corredt wire on the lights, I tried the other twowhile trying to trouble shoot and they dont work. I wonder if I should connect the earth to the relay, worse thing I can do is blow a fuse right?

thanks for any imput.

cheers Matt
 
I will have to check later but I did a slightly different tap for the control wire. I tapped the red wire with blue stripe and it allows me to only use the switch when the lights are on low/high beam (just on in general) but when ignition goes off so do they. I think the reason your lights turn on when the car goes is because of the weird way Subaru uses ground for high/low beams.

Edit: I installed Hella 500s
 
hi,
with the dash switch on, the driving lights only come on when hi beam are on. if the switch is off the driving lights will not come on at all. if the dash switch is left on, the driving lights come on when ignition is turned off.

I did try all the wires, however the one I spliced into is the only one that turned the lights on with the highbeams.

not sure if I have explained it any better this time. Im new to this electricity stuff!

cheers Matt
 
I'm not expert with relays, but I'd say this is something to do with the relay default i.e. open or closed when powered / not powered. When powered you have an open circuit hence the circuit closes when you use the switch; when unpowered the relay defaults to closed. You may have created a "latching" situation where the relay stays closed.

There is a very good write up over at SF.ORG that may help:

https://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f85/relay-tutorial-49528/
 
Thanks to PMD at Ozfoz I followed his diagrams when I installed my Narvas and they run fine

drivinglightwiring-1.jpg



Location of red wire:

MY05LightSwitch.jpg
 
Last edited:
up date on my driving light problem

Hi,
sorry for the delay, with some help from light force its now all sorted out. with their permission I am including there response to my questions. Im very impressed with their product and customer service.

cheers Matt

Hi Matt,



Thank you for your email

I understand that this can be quite frustrating. The two setup layouts
we have included in the harness setup are to suit 99% of vehicles. 99%
of vehicles have no power running to the lights when the vehicle is off.
Yours must have power getting to the lights upon turning the ignition
off oddly enough although some manufacturers now are doing it. Newer
Subaru's I've noticed have been doing this.

You have two options really. A quick fix would be to just ensure that
the in-cabin switch is installed correctly and set to the off position
when turning the car off.

Secondly, some rewiring will need to happen. I am assuming your vehicle
uses H4 globes as headlights. H4 globes have 3 pins at the rear for two
positives and a negative. 1 positive is for high and the other for low
as these are dual purpose globes.

Your brown wire should already be connected to the high beam as
instructed. Now the grounding wire should be looped into itself
according to the setup #2 in your instructions. What you will need to do
is unplug the ground wire from itself and extend it. You will need to
make this wire coming from the relay long enough to reach the negative
side of the globe that you have your brown running to.

This is apparently the 3rd setup option I've been told that is rarely
used that will resolve this problem.

Give this a try and see how you go. I understand it may be a bit hard to
understand through reading but if you are unsuccessful, possibly
contacting an auto electrician for advice could be beneficial. With any
setup, the lights are supposed to remain off when not in use.

Best of luck!
 
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