The lights in question are Hella FF1000's. The install went smoothly, and for a week everything was great. I used them Friday, but then saturday, they just don't turn on, and I hadn't even touched anything! (promise)

Anyway, I'm stumped. This is what I've done so far:

Tugged at all the connections (crimped not soldered) but nothing is obviously loose.
Pulled the in-line fuse - it's fine.
Checked the bulbs - not burnt out. (it's only been a week, but I am using 100W as oppoised to 55, so .... )

With a DMM: the lights are wired so that the high beams need to be on, but there is also a second switch in the cabin that operates them. I checked at the switch, it gets a solid 12V when the highbeams are on, and .5 ish when they are off. The wire leading to the relay, likewise, is 12V when the high beams are on, and the switch is active. So, my understanding is that the signal from where I tapped into the highs is fine.

At the lamps themselves, with everything supposedly on, I use the DMM at the wires leading into the backside of the lamps, pos + neg - I register no current.

I guess my question is, .. what the hell could be wrong? is it possible for there for be a problem with the relay even though the fuse is fine? Is there something else I can check? :confused: what's my next step!?

what about the relay.

ummmmm... what about it? it came from hella as a ready-made relay with all the wires coming out of it, all good to go. How would I go about figure out if this is, indeed, the weak link?

Originally posted by bleuquila
ummmmm... what about it? it came from hella as a ready-made relay with all the wires coming out of it, all good to go. How would I go about figure out if this is, indeed, the weak link?
Get another one and swap it out...
I'm going to be doing the same install soon and I'd like to make sure I'm not doing something wrong...or right...

Do you hear the relay click when you switch the lights on? If you don't I'd suspect the relay. Also I've had fuses in the past that looked good, but were bad. Change the fuse out with a known good one.

okay, to add to what I know: checked at the relay. Yes, it clicks when you switch the lights to "on" in the cabin. There are four wires going into the relay: to ground, power, the switch, and the lights. The constant-on power reads a healthy 12.4 volts, and likewise the switched power is ~12 when it's turned on. But the line leading to the lights is at best 0.1, 0.2 V. what do I blame? the relay, or something to do with the connection at the lights? this is probably obvious to some people, but electricity mystifies me :D

Replace the wiring to the lights, check that you don't have a short to ground...check to see if a mouse ate the wiring...???:rolleyes:

When all else fails...start at one end(you did) and work your way to the other and eliminate what can and cannot be problematic(you did) and when all else fails...rip the bitch apart and start over, checking one piece at a time....I don't like being defeated by a simple 12v circuit:lol: :alien: :huh: :banana:

HTH

okay, well I bypassed the relay to see what would happen and the lights turned on. :p so!

My guess is that the combination of 100W bulbs, and my excitement at the new system (turning them on and off a lot) led to burning out the relay. Soooo, I'm trying to figure out if I ought to just replace the relay with another of the same capacity (12v 25 amp) since in theory, that's well within the range of the current I need for the 100W bulbs, or if I ought to just find a more solid one. If so, what rating? :confused:

Edit for update: Well, like 5 min after I posted, Hella gave me a call! I talked with Jack, in their automotive lighting tech assistance, and he was really helpful. He wasn't sure why the relay would have given out so fast even using the 100W bulbs, but he said he'd send me a few relays. The ones he wanted to send (w/ built-in fuse) were on backorder, so in the meanwhile he's sending a 40 amp relay which ought to do the trick.

So, hopefully that fixes the problem, and mad props to Hella for being so darn personable and helping me figure out what the problem is! I was very favorably impressed with everyone I spoke to on the phone. :banana:

And for anyone considering these lights, seriously, it's amazing! I was suprised at how dim the highbeams seemed afterwards, and it's so much less strain when driving on backroads when you can actually see what's coming up ahead. I can't wait to get them back in action.

The relay for my Supertone's went after about 6 weeks, too:rolleyes: found a replacement one at the boneyard for cheap...REAL cheap:devil:

I'm not sure if I'm gonna go with the 100w bulbs or just the 55w's for the FF1000's.....:confused:

go for the 100w bulbs! Though, honestly I can't say what the difference is between the stock 55w bulbs and the 100w as I installed the 100 watters from the get go. RallyLights have said everything is good to go up to 135w bulbs so if you are wondering about things burning out, it shouldn't be a problem. but neither should fried relays! Anyway, I haven't had any problem in the few months that I've been running these things. Still very satisfied. Just keep the 55w bulbs in the trunk in case you burn out on the road. I usually keep all my stock bulbs in the car, just in case.

yeah, in spite of my relay issue, I'd still recommend the 100W bulbs. (heh, the guy at Rallylights sold me on them as well!) Don't know if I'll just wait patiently for the new relay to get here, or try to find one on my own :confused: is this the sort of thing I can just go to radio shack and find one that'll fit for 5 dollah, or is it more difficult than that?

Standard automotive relay at(most) any autoparts store....take the baked one with to match it up, and :D

Gee Bleu, I guess we took care of this in that "other" forum.:lol:

I have not had time to check here until today.

I tried a standard relay from advance, it fit fine, and all the numbers were the right ones, but for some reason it only put out 4V in spite of a solid 12V from the battery = weak, weak lights. :(

but! got my relays in the mail from Hella today (they were fast for me, guess they like me better :D ) and everything is good with the world again. 30 amp relay this time, so I'll have to see if it lasts, or if there is some other underlying problem that lead to the first one's early demise. Oh, I took apart the old relay, the inside was extremely corroded, which I guess is what happens from severed arcing - at least that's what they tell me :)

Glad Hella came through for you. Does the 30 amp relay have a fuse like the 25 amp one that came with your light kit? If not don't forget to put a inline fuse in the power wire.

no, the 30 amp doesn't, so I'll need to rig something temporary up until they send me the relay with the fuse in it, which they were out of stock of till mid december. Maybe I'll go back to advance and see if I can trade them back their worthless relay for a fuseholder :D I'd prefer not to cut the wire to put in a fuse, only to later take it out and solder everything back together, but what can ya do?

As much of a pain as it might be (rerunning wires and the like), maybe invest in the heavy duty wiring harness from Susquehanna. I'm running that with my 4000's and I've never had a single problem. And the wires are already put together and taped into tubing, so it keeps things nice and clean.

And it's rated to run 100w bulbs just fine. :D

I've had the 4000's on for over a year, with plenty of use, and nothing has burned out on me (yet, knock on wood).

Hope this might help a bit.

AJ

what gauge is that wiring harness? I couldn't find any info on their website. I'm using the harness that came with the lights from hella, I think it's 12 G but I'm not 100% positive - anyway, it seems like it's fully capable of handling the load, I hear that 15-20 amps is a good estimate and I'm pulling 16.

The wiring that comes with the Hella FF1000 kit is 14 ga. That's plenty for two 100w driving lights. Put the fuse on the wire at the battery. When you get the relay with the fuse all you'll have to do is cut the in line fuse off & put a ring terminal on for the battery connection.

hehe, oh yeah, that's so obvious! brilliant, thanks! :D