Have any of you great people ever noticed that when you turn the running lights on and have your hood open that the head lights are on but real dim. Almost like daytime running lights on newer cars. Is this normal? I just happened to notice it over the weekend.

Thanks
Pete

 

No replys???????

 

Mine arnt My headlights dont turn on until they flip out... Wouldnt be very good daytime running lamps if theyre pointed in your engine compartment... :rolleyes:

 

Yeah, it is probaby because someone has installed a higher wattage fog light than stock. There is a post in the tech tips section that outlines how to install the 885 (I think off the top of my head) fog lights to pump out more light. When I did this on mine I found the same issue as soon as I put the lights in, it has to do with the fact that the fog light circitu connects to the headlights, and with the bigger fog lights in it causes the headlights to look very dim, almost like they are not on, an orange ish glow.

So you have a choice to make. Either cut both wires that go to the headlights from the fog lamp circuit, which is part of the fog lamp upgrade. This will stop the headlight wierdness, increase the brightness of the fog lights, and let them stay on when you have your high beams on.

Or, you put the stock foglights back in, and the problem will go away. Check the part numbers to see if this is the case.

good luck

 

Cliff,

thanks for all the info...that explains it... mine are doing just what you said yours do or did. What did you do to fix yours and if I was to cut the wire like you said which one is it?

I did do the fog light upgrade, just never noticed this issue til now because I was replacing some marker light bulbs...

Pete

 

I plan on doing the same upgrade, bought the 885's this w/e. Where do I need to cut the fog light wiring in order to prevent this from happening?

 

ttt :confused:

 

Let's yer engine see where it's going.
:flag

Bob

 

I notice you have an 88, nice colour by the way, and I remember when I was looking at posts that there are some wiring differences in the different years. For mine one side of each fog light gets power from the fog light switch (.8 PPL), and the other side of each fog light (.8 Lt. Green) goes to the switched hot side of the high beam circuit for each headlight, throught the headlight and to ground. This is what turns off the fog lights when you put on the high beams. You get power on both sides of the fog light so no votage drop across the fog lights and they turn off. When the high beams are off you got a path through the headlight to ground.

You need to cut the LT Green coming from each fog light, and then connect the side of the wire coming from the fog lamp to a ground. Do this for each light. This gives each fog light its own ground, and the headlights are out of the circuit. The other end needs to be terminated, and don't forget it is hot when the high beams are on, so you need to make sure you tape it up real good, and don't have it near any metal. I taped up mine and then wrapped it back up in the wiring harness.

This fix makes quite a difference is brightness of the fogs as well, as you have eliminated the voltage drop caused by the headlights. The other benefit is that the fog lights stay on when you have your high beams on. My headlights really suck, so the upgrade really helped my night vision problem. You havent done any upgrades to your headlights have you? I understand the 6054GE HO's are supposed to be a lot better, but I haven't gotten around to trying them out yet.

Make sure you trace the wires first to make sure the circuit is the same for your car. If you have a manual look at the section titled Headlights: Fog Lights. Make real sure of what you are doing before you do it, like I say the circuit on your car may be different. I think there are some other posts related to the wiring fix, do a search and see if there is other info out there as well. I don't know if you upgraded the fuse or not but you need to do that too, cause with the fogs on as soon as you try a turn signal, or hit the brakes... pooof. I was kinda leery about upgrading it, but I have had no problems to date, and I did the upgrade about 6 months ago.

Good luck, let me know how it goes.

 

I'll be checking out my wiring this w/e before I do the upgrade- thanks for the info! BTW- those GE 6054 halogens (I think they're the high output ones: 55 watt, but throw out more light than a 65 watt -) they are bundled in pairs at Walmart for $17.96- way cheap.