Was sitting at my local Wendy's for lunch just a little while ago; upon gazing at my car head-on, I realized that the orange blinker bulb is really ruining the clean look of these lights. I've noticed this all along, but I guess today I realized it in a different way :lol:

Has anyone modded their light so there's no orange blingin' out of the blinker assembly? If so, what type of bulb and wattage will I need? Thanks!!! :)

Phillips makes a Silver Vision bulb that is silver and illuminates amber!!!

http://www.powerbulbs.com/products/product.php?prodid=psvoffer&type=IND

Thanks for the link and option. Do you know if the bulbs in that link will work with the Prodrives? And also, the actual bulb is silver coated then? Will that be seen through the headlight assembly lens? I mean I guess silver wouldn't be as obvious as orange, but I was thinking maybe a clear bulb? Don't know if that's possible...

Bump

I wish I can help. The blinker bulbs were the only unknown piece in the assembly.

However, I don't use my UK300 lights any longer. I crashed at a track in New England and one of the assemblies was basically shattered. :( I'm back to oem lights now.

I'll take out the blinker bulb and give you the info that I can gather. post back in a few days.

Bummer xstar :( That stinks that you have to drive at night w/o the lights. These lights are great - even better since I put HID's in them back in February. I just wanted to clean up the look a bit, so this seemed to be a farily easy and cheap mod :) Thanks for offering to help. I'll keep an eye on this thread...

Originally posted by Hank3
Thanks for the link and option. Do you know if the bulbs in that link will work with the Prodrives? And also, the actual bulb is silver coated then? Will that be seen through the headlight assemble lens? I mean I guess silver wouldn't be as obvious as orange, but I was thinking maybe a clear bulb? Don't know if that's possible...

The silver is more like a mirror finish, so you won't see it from the outside.

I think this should work based on this thread:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=377715&highlight=Prodrive+silvervision

I have also been thinking about ordering these. (I should just do it and answer this question once and for all.)

Orson - thanks for the link and your response. I went ahead and ordered a pair last night. Hopefully they'll get here soon - and if you still haven't bought them by then for your Prodrives, I could send you a pic :)

Please post a pic when you get these. I was thinking about using them as well on mine!

Originally posted by Arnie
Please post a pic when you get these. I was thinking about using them as well on mine!

Will do Arnie :)

Shoot me a PM or email if you want pics :) They look schweeet!!! :banana:

Thanks for letting us know about this nice mod for us UK300 owners! The pics you sent look fantastic. I've got this down on my "things to do" list for sure now.

GoodFinder :)

I'm really glad I did this mod. Fairly cheap and it never ceases to amaze me how little things can change your opinions on your own car. I really dig the cleaner look now of the lights...:banana:

Hank3 - I hope you don't mind me sharing the photos you sent. If you do mind, e-mail me and I will take them down.

http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/18213/p/472337_343583065745134507_vl.jpg
http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/18213/p/472338_8104374953797973320_vl.jpg
http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/18213/p/472339_904214138605816968_vl.jpg

And for reference, here's my yellow-eyed version:
http://www.digitalpose.com/mbr/1/18213/p/415307_272094016983682576_vl.jpg

Orson - thanks for posting them up for me. Don't mind at all. I couldn't get those sites you referenced to work - or I guess I should say that I didn't really know how to link pics onto there. I've got some clearer/crisper version of those three pics. Email me again with your email and I can send those versions to you and you can post those up here instead? I'll downsize them to 640 x 480? LMK :)

Yeah, looks great. Thanks for taking the plunge!

Now, a question for you UK300 folk, have any of you wired up your lights using an external relay with direct connection to the battery? So that you get maximum volts to the lighting system? I'm thinking of trying this out when I get the time. I know that there was a 1 volt drop at the high beams on my system using the RAlly Performance harness adaptor, so that is not too good.

Originally posted by Arnie
Yeah, looks great. Thanks for taking the plunge!

Now, a question for you UK300 folk, have any of you wired up your lights using an external relay with direct connection to the battery? So that you get maximum volts to the lighting system? I'm thinking of trying this out when I get the time. I know that there was a 1 volt drop at the high beams on my system using the RAlly Performance harness adaptor, so that is not too good.

I tried a harness from SUVlights.com (http://suvlights.tripod.com/suvlightscom/) but that didn't work because it separated the low-beam and high-beam circuits so that only one came on at any time. In the stock 9007 bulb, this is what you want, but with the UK300 lights, we want both the low-beam and high-beam on at the same time.

Since we have a ground-switched system, though, mulder gave the idea that it would be easy enough to run a fused wire from the battery to the common high wire on the harness. The only question that remains, then, is which wire is the common high? I'll try to make time to run out with a voltmeter.

Orson, riiiight, I got the relay notion from reading your posts in that one thread discussing this. I will be installing some Hella FF1000's on wednesday with Andrew Bacon (he's an electrician) to help me out. We'll check the wiring out on the headlights and see what we can find.

I'd ideally like to run direct power for both the low and high beams. ya know, make sure that the lamps are getting the max voltage possible.

I just did a quick multi-meter. I checked on the OEM vehicle 9007 vehicle-side connector (not at the conversion harness).

The middle wire is the common high and the other two are switched grounds. But it looks like making a direct link from the battery to the common high is only half the problem. With the low-beam and high-beam on, I measured a 1V drop from one switched ground to the battery ground and a 2V drop from the other switched ground to the battery ground. I forgot to measure the voltage drop from the common high to the battery. Doh.

Time to study that Rallyperformance harness a little closer.

Yeah, we got the same 1 volt voltage drop as well.

As an aside, one of my Rally Performance harnesses was completely dead. We tested each of the wires and absolutely nothing. It looked like the wires made no contact to the spades in the 9007 adaptor and they just epoxied the whole thing together. :rolleyes: What we did was buy a cheap 9007 bulb and soldered the wires to the base of that bulb after cutting off the bulb part.

I'll try to get Andy on this thread as he was doing the meat of the rewiring.

Arnie

Arnie- We can wire up a deal so that the OEM circiutry in your car is just turning 3 relays on and off, and the relay switches are making/breaking ground. Also, I think the 16-18 AWG wire that is in there is a bit small for the UK300, definately too small for those monster fogs, but is fine to turn the relays on and off.

You'll have to get some 14 AWG wire, 2 more relays & some split loom. I'll bring up my iron & stuff.

I'll draw up a quick scematic ASAP and fax it to you; send me your fax number when you get a chance.

I haven't looked at UK300 wiring closely, but I assume that the input to the UK300 is still one common high and two switched grounds - is this correct? If so, it seems the only way to avoid butchering the UK300 wiring is to use relays to switch the ground and running a fused high wire to each headlamp.

Originally posted by Orson
I haven't looked at UK300 wiring closely, but I assume that the input to the UK300 is still one common high and two switched grounds - is this correct? If so, it seems the only way to avoid butchering the UK300 wiring is to use relays to switch the ground and running a fused high wire to each headlamp.

[edit] deleted misinformation regarding UK300 B+/Gnd. arrangement :)

Here's Andrew's schematics:


{edit: deleted - see post below}


My quick time with a multimeter indicates a common positive on the middle pin, so I guess the second schematic applies here. The second schematic is pretty much what I had in mind.

Question, though: isn't the stock UK300 input connector also a single common high?

Originally posted by Orson
...Question, though: isn't the stock UK300 input connector also a single common high?

[edit- see schematic]

Originally posted by Andrew Bacon


Probably should pull those schematics off the board, and I will draw up yet another one with the relays switching grounds instead of B+. :D

Yeah, now that matches up exactly with what I had in mind.

Originally posted by Orson


Yeah, now that matches up exactly with what I had in mind.

Post it up and delete the first 2. ;)

Ahh, now that's more like it!

Edit: see schematics below

BTW, anyone know a good online place to buy relays, fuses and such? My local auto parts place is sorely lacking in selection.

Hank3 - Sorry, we seemed to have hijacked your thread a little bit here with our relay/harness stuff.:devil:

Originally posted by Orson
BTW, anyone know a good online place to buy relays, fuses and such? My local auto parts place is sorely lacking in selection.

www.partsexpress.com They are more of an audio/video kind of thing, but they have lots of good DC hsit, decent prices.

Originally posted by Andrew Bacon


www.partsexpress.com They are more of an audio/video kind of thing, but they have lots of good DC hsit, decent prices.

Don't apologize man - that's what this forum is for...Information. IT's good that y'all are discussing this stuff here since people down the road who will have these lights can find two in one info :) There aren't too many threads about these lights. And these lights rock in the freeworld!!! :banana:

I'll be picking mine up this weekend after encouraging feedback (thx Orson!), so now I'm more than just an interested spectator ;)

Looking at the schematic above there seems to be one piece missing: a way to keep the low beam on when the highs are turned on.

Since this is all controlled from the stock connector, unless I'm missing something, the low gnd will be cut when the high gnd is activated by the stock switching circuit. I.e. the lights won't be on at the same time, a la the stock bulb.

Looks to me like the Lo gnd and Hi gnd connections from the stock connector to the relays need to be bridged with a diode so that the lows will continue to be activated via the Hi gnd, but not vice versa: diode to flow toward the Hi gnd.

Also, is there a single connector for both high and low bulbs? The schematic seems to imply this, since there's only the single B+ connection shown. If not, i.e. individual bulb connections, then I assume the B+ has to be connected to both bulbs...?

Btw, nice bugeye simulation :)

Originally posted by GravelRash
I'll be picking mine up this weekend after encouraging feedback (thx Orson!), so now I'm more than just an interested spectator ;)

Looking at the schematic above there seems to be one piece missing: a way to keep the low beam on when the highs are turned on.

Since this is all controlled from the stock connector, unless I'm missing something, the low gnd will be cut when the high gnd is activated by the stock switching circuit. I.e. the lights won't be on at the same time, a la the stock bulb.

Looks to me like the Lo gnd and Hi gnd connections from the stock connector to the relays need to be bridged with a diode so that the lows will continue to be activated via the Hi gnd, but not vice versa: diode to flow toward the Hi gnd.

Also, is there a single connector for both high and low bulbs? The schematic seems to imply this, since there's only the single B+ connection shown. If not, i.e. individual bulb connections, then I assume the B+ has to be connected to both bulbs...?

Btw, nice bugeye simulation :)

Yes, you are right about the diode, it needs it IF the UK300 doesnt have somthing internally to do the trick itself, like tie low and high together with its own relay or SCR when it sees high applied. :confused:

HEY, IIRC on my RS, the OEM plugs carry 2 switched B+ signals and a ground. The last schematic reflects the plug with 2 switched grounds and 1 B+. Which is it on the WRX??? Anybody got a Fluke and a minute to poke around and see? I want to make 1 last schematic. A correct schematic. A complete schematic. With bigger dots to better illustrate the connection points...and the diode....:lol:

(The B+ connections to the bulbs are tied together in the diagram, so yes, B+ has to be connected to both bulbs...unless there is a problem?) :confused: :confused:

When we get Arnie's lights 100% working with dedicated HD lighting harnesses and motor control, we are going into the "complete UK300 harness" buisness. :D

BTW, Arnie, I have some fat arse diodes, but I'm not sure if they are fat enough.

Hmmm...seems like some monkeying around with jumper wires might be beneficial. I've only looked at / handled the lights once, about a year ago, and don't have much recall of how the connections are laid out.

We'll see this weekend...unless you beat me to it ;)

Re the diode issue: they only have to handle the relay current, which should be prettly low. Of course "low" is relative: probably not as low as inside most electronic circuits. May have to do some current measuring to size the diodes.

But...now that I think about it, someone who's already got these installed should be able to tell us if a) they've got both beams when on High, and b) if they did anything special to accomplish that. I.e., is there an internal connection as you suggest there might be.

Anyone?

I did some poking with a multimeter and here's what I came up with:

{edit: see full diagram below}


Please double-check me - I might have mirror-imaged one of the connectors and I'm not exactly an electrician.:p

First of all, in reading this picture, consider this a "how to make an adapter" schematic. That is, the roundish thing is what is attached to your WRX and the squarish thing is the connector on the UK300 assembly.

This confused me at first, but I think I figured it out. Andrew - correct me if you find something different.

What I found:
1) The middle vehicle pin is a common high (with only about 3mV voltage drop from battery)
2) When I turn on my high-beam and low-beam, both circuits are completed, suggesting that the WRX is already set up to turn on both the high-beam and low-beam at the same time.:confused: This suggests that the stock headlights assemblies have something internal to turn off the low-beam when the high-beam is on. (Also, when I used a harness from SUVlights.com, it had the strange effect of turning off my low-beams when my high-beams were on - the harness had two diodes, but I didn't think about what they were for. But now that I think about it, the diodes were to turn off the low-beams when the high-beams are on!) Anyway, looking at my lame adapter harness, it is a one-to-one pin adapter as I have outlined above, so that suggests our job should be easy and shouldn't require any diodes.

<rant>
My lame adapter harness had wires twisted together and taped! Oh well, at least that makes my job of inserting relays easier.
</rant>

OK, how about this for an all-in-one diagram for dummies like me?
{edit: see diagrams below}

Andrew: I hope you don't mind me robbing your diagram. I modified it slightly. I used the headlight socket common + instead of going straight to battery for the switching. I noticed that the common high on the vehicle socket is actually off when the ignition is off and thought that this would be an added safety and save an extra fuse.

Other than that, I just added the socket/plug pictures into the diagram.

Looks good, and of course I don't mind at all- In fact I thank you for taking the task. The only thing I'd recomend is putting a big black dot where leads are to be connected together. There is a lot of intersecting wires that don't get connected, and that can make a bit of confusion. Rock on!

Cool, more info...

However I'm quite sure that the hi/lo issue isn't resolved yet: the stock connector plugs directly into the 9007 bulb, so there isn't any additional circuitry in the headlight module.

Also, if you pull slowly on the lighting lever for flash-to-pass you can see that there's a point where the low beams are still on and the high beams also turn on. Pull farther and the lows turn off. Thus proving that there's nothing on the headlight end to prevent both filaments from illuminating.

I suspect that the diodes in your lame harness were actually supposed to turn on the low beams when the highs were engaged. But I'm guessing they were burned out or otherwise not doing their job.

So I remain convinced that the circuit as shown will activate the high and low beams separately. Of course "convinced" and "correct" aren't necessarily synonymous...:lol:

Also, while poking around on ScoobyMods last night I realized that even if I'm correct we don't need diodes: we can use a 3rd relay to do the job. In fact I did just that when adding lighting to our Prelude awhile back but I'd forgotten all about it!

Gotta go now...will add details later.

The stock headlight system is designed for low and high beams to be mutually exclusive. If dual-filament bulbs such as the 9007 are run for any significant period of time with both filaments on they will quickly burn out, they aren't intended to be used this way.
If you have aftermarket lights with separate low and high beams it's a different story although of course if you do a "plug and play" installation they will still work the same as the stock lights. The exception is Morettes which have internal relays to keep the lows and highs on together, and also power the highs directly from the battery so with both lights on there won't be excessive current drawn through the common headlight power.
For other lights with separate lamps but no relays or separate power, my suggestion for the simplest safe way to run lows and highs together is this-
First, disconnect the negative side of the low beams from the factory low beam switched ground, and connect them to a direct chassis or battery ground. Once they are wired this way, the low beams will come on whenever the headlight switch is in the full on position and will remain on regardless of the "high-low" position of the switch. You now have your highs and lows on at the same time, but this will result in a higher-than-normal drain on the headlight power circuit so, the next step to make the mod safer-
Second, disconnect the positive side of the high beams from the factory common headlight power, and run them together to the battery positive through a 10A fuse. This is what Morette does. You now have independent power and ground for the high and low beams so they can safely be on at the same time.
Note that this mod is very simple and requires only some wire, connectors, butt splices and a fuse. No relays or diodes are needed. If you replace your low beams with HIDs the ballasts can be connected directly in place of the low beam bulbs using the same common power and direct ground.
I have my Morettes wired this way and they work very well. I have also added a relay to the high beams to provide a better ground and make them a bit brighter but that's just an extra touch, not necessary.

just wanted to add, in case its not clear, the UK300's, with the Rally Performance harness, turns on both low and high lamps when the high beam is selected. That seems to be their normal mode of operation, like the morette.

Originally posted by Arnie
just wanted to add, in case its not clear, the UK300's, with the Rally Performance harness, turns on both low and high lamps when the high beam is selected. That seems to be their normal mode of operation, like the morette.

Yeah, this is the part that confuses me. There is apparently no relay in the UK300. The adapter harness is a straight pin-to-pin adapter.

Also, when I poke around with a multimeter on the vehicle connector, I found that both switched grounds were connected. That is, when I turn on the high-beam:
1) voltage from common_high to lowbeam_switched_ground was positive and
2) voltage from common_high to highbeam_switched_ground was positive

Doesn't that indicate that both circuits are on at the same time with the stock vehicle-side harness?

Version 3!!! Now readable by dummies like me.

http://pix.darwenstheory.net/upload/uk300_3.jpg

It didn't register until mulder pointed it out, but the common B+ is switched, so to take mulder's idea further, if you want to make absolutely sure that the low-beams stay on, you can modify the circuit so that the low-beam_relay coil_ground is always connected to ground (rather than going to the headlight low-beam switched ground).

Hey mulder - thanks for the low-cost rewiring idea. Back when I had the Morette's, I didn't understand your grounding idea, but now I do. Orson=doofus.

Personally, though, I think a couple of us here are willing to invest the cost of some solder and a few relays to get an extra few milli-volts on the lights - on my vehicle I measured more than a 1 volt drop on the ground side on both the low and high beam!

Personally, I like simplicity :)
I'll use relays, diodes etc. where they are necessary and useful, but not just for the sake of adding components ;)
The majority of the voltage drop in the headlight circuit is on the ground side, so the direct ground provides the most significant improvement. With stock wattage bulbs the drop through the common positive isn't all that much so adding relays there won't be too beneficial. If you're planning to go up in wattage, maybe. I'm running HIDs on the common positive with direct grounding and they work well, no startup or flickering problems. A relay there wouldn't hurt, but I haven't found it necessary.

Originally posted by mulder
With stock wattage bulbs the drop through the common positive isn't all that much so adding relays there won't be too beneficial.

Yeah, I found only about 0.2V drop on the common high, but:
1) with low beam on, there was a 1V drop on the ground side
2) with high beam on, there was a 2V drop on the low beam ground and a 1V drop on the high beam ground!:eek:

I appreciate your comments about simplicity, though, and my measurements back up your suggestion that simply grounding the low-beam ground gives you the biggest bang for the buck.

"version 3" above installed and working on Arnie's UK300's. What a difference!

Huge thanks to Orson and Mulder for all of the support! :D

Very resourceful thread guys - now it's time for my stupid n00b question. What does all of this mean to people who have UK300's arriving tomorrow, and just want them to work? Does the schematic above have anything to do with the initial installation? Will a dude with a voltage meter who's installed some STi lights before be able to get these going for me?

Thanks!

If you just want to hook them up and get them working without any of the fancy wiring here, all you need to know is the pinouts for the factory headlight connectors, as follows-


Driver side- common positive = red/light blue (center terminal on connector)
low beam switched ground = yellow/red
high beam switched ground = red

Passenger side- common positive = light blue/white
low beam switched ground = yellow/red
high beam switched ground = red

The commons on the UK300s should be connected to the common positives on each side, and the low beam and high beam should each be connected to their respective switched ground.
Also disable your DRLs if you haven't done so already, by disconnecting the control module by the glovebox, unless you want to have your low beams on all the time.

Which lights are the low beams on the UK300's. Is there actually another UK300 owner in NYC?

The low beams are the projector units on the outside.

The stock headlight system is designed for low and high beams to be mutually exclusive. If dual-filament bulbs such as the 9007 are run for any significant period of time with both filaments on they will quickly burn out, they aren't intended to be used this way.
If you have aftermarket lights with separate low and high beams it's a different story although of course if you do a "plug and play" installation they will still work the same as the stock lights. The exception is Morettes which have internal relays to keep the lows and highs on together, and also power the highs directly from the battery so with both lights on there won't be excessive current drawn through the common headlight power.
For other lights with separate lamps but no relays or separate power, my suggestion for the simplest safe way to run lows and highs together is this-
First, disconnect the negative side of the low beams from the factory low beam switched ground, and connect them to a direct chassis or battery ground. Once they are wired this way, the low beams will come on whenever the headlight switch is in the full on position and will remain on regardless of the "high-low" position of the switch. You now have your highs and lows on at the same time, but this will result in a higher-than-normal drain on the headlight power circuit so, the next step to make the mod safer-
Second, disconnect the positive side of the high beams from the factory common headlight power, and run them together to the battery positive through a 10A fuse. This is what Morette does. You now have independent power and ground for the high and low beams so they can safely be on at the same time.
Note that this mod is very simple and requires only some wire, connectors, butt splices and a fuse. No relays or diodes are needed. If you replace your low beams with HIDs the ballasts can be connected directly in place of the low beam bulbs using the same common power and direct ground.
I have my Morettes wired this way and they work very well. I have also added a relay to the high beams to provide a better ground and make them a bit brighter but that's just an extra touch, not necessary.

Not to bring up the past, but has anyone tried upgrading their light output this way. I'll be putting on my UK's within the next couple of weeks and this seems to be the simplest way to get better lighting. I know that involving relays is the best bet but I want the simplest way. I have tried PM'ing Mulder, but I have yet to hear back. What gauge wire should I use if I choose to do this? By reading it, it seems logical and that it would work. I just don't want to fry anything. Let me know guys!

Mike

^^^^^^