G'day people.

Is there anyone here that could assist me with a slight non working spotlight problem?

Some time ago I had two spotties wired up by people working for Autobahn, these worked brilliantly without problems. These where wired up to work with high beam switch as well as separate switch if I wanted to cancel power to the spotties and just use normal high beam.

I have HID fitted to my vehicle.

HID low and high beam works good.

250 Watt Spotties have stopped working 2 days ago.

I could not find broken filaments in sealed beam , fuse is till good...30amp fuse.

I have two relays, for both spotties.

How do I go about testing for power problems? Do I need to have light switch on to high beam to test power going to spotties?

I have Terminals 30, 86, 85, and 76 I think.

Any help on this will be appreciated.

Cheers

track wiring back to power source, may just be a fault with a switch lol


to test remove power feed to spotties relay's. apply power directly to relay's & that will verify that section as either working or not.

Mad2,

Thanks mate, will do some wire tracing tomorrow.

Cheers

hmmm,

Not sure what part terminal numbers I need to test on the relay with the voltage meter.

I'm assume I need to turn the headlights on plus the highbeam, I never heard the relays kick in or alternator noise (high load) kick in, sounds like a power failure somewhere. It's got a 30amp snap fuse, visual inspection does not show any blown metal or burn spots.

Is there a way of testing fuses with a multimeter to see if they are still good?

Cant see where the earth wire goes to from the relay.

Number 30 should be power, 85 might be switch, 86 might be spotties, 76 might be earth. It was wired up by the techs working for Autobahn.

Hi,
grabbed a few relays here to make sure of connections & newer style show 85/86 as connections for on/off [one to earth & other to switch], 30 for power in [ie for powering spotties] & 87 [can be more than one 87] as power to spotties. with multimeter on 12vdc [may have 20vdc as mine does] connect positive lead to battery '+' & with neg lead check the 85/86 to find which is earth, disconnect the other lead which does not show 12v. this should be your power in to turn relay on. with a small wire lead run it from battery '+' to the relay terminal that you removed the connection from. won't need a fused line coz your only powering the relay. this will either turn spotties on ...... or not. if not there is either a faulty relay or no power to relay for spotties. to check the fuses i use the continuity checker on me multimeter.

oh on the side of the relay there 'may' be a small diagram of the connections, you can also just hook the positive lead from the multimeter to the number 30 connection [with ya neg to earth] to see if the power for the spotties is there [power should be there fulltime if they ran power lead straight from battery]

Mad2,

Thanks for your help . I'll check the wiring as suggested . There is a small diagram on the relay, I think its a NARVA brand relay. You're right about the same multimeter, select 20Vdc.

I'll let you know how I went (what I find).

Cheers,

no prob


if the spotties work ... then you will have to check power coming from your headlights/headlight switch/s to relay

Mad2,

I looked at the diagram of the relay, its NARVA P/N 68000 - Normal Open 4 Pin.

I have power to HID driving lights and high beam no problems, the spotties should normally come on and go off when high beam switch is back to normal driving lights.

I had an additional switch toggle installed to act as an override / independent switch to enable me to choose whether I want to use spotties in conjunction with high beam.

I have no idea as to where the relay is for the headlights, they were converted to HID about 2 years ago and have two ballasts (one for each headlight).

Might be bit of a challenge to trace if spotties do light up.

Cheers

don't worry about the headlight relay's. check spotties relay & the "an additional switch toggle installed to act as an override / independent switch" for incoming power

Mad2,

Ok, will do

Update.

Done the test as suggested previously, spotties failed to light up. Override switch was checked, failed to register voltage, traced wires, seem ok, Checked wires with multimeter with high beam engaged, voltage registered at the wires leading to override switch leads.

Reconnected switch to override terminals, engaged high beam, still spotties failed to light up.

so you applied 12v to the relay directly from the battery? ... and did not work?

have you made sure relay works or replaced it? is wiring to spotties connected properly [power & earths]? have you tested spotties with multimeter to make sure there is a circuit re globes?

Yep, applied 12 volt directly from the battery to the terminal that never gave a 12volt reading. Spotties failed to light up.

I tested both relays with multimeter, probe on earth terminal and probe to power terminal, registered 12.55v

Have not replaced relays at this stage.

Wiring was originally undertaken by techs at Autobahn couple years ago so I would assume they would have been wired up correctly.

I have not tested spotties with multimeter as yet.

Mad2,

When I done the testing on the relay, that is after checking which terminal was not reading 12v. I ran a thin wire from the positive pole of the battery to the terminal on the relay. That terminal on the relay is the one that goes to the spotties.

The spotties did not light up. When I done this test, I did not have the headlight switch to "on" position and did not have the high beam diper switch to "on" position either.

I'm wondering whether that should have been done when I was testing the relay at the time.

Cheers

Usually spot lights are wired into the high beam circuit... This way when you dip for an oncoming car both your highs and spot lights go off with the dipper switch...

Set your multimeter to ohms and check across the lights to ensure you have a low ohms reading (10 ohms or less probably) This will prove their circuit... (spot lights unplugged)

Plug one spot light in and force one probe into the back side of the plug... put the other probe to the car chassis or negative bat terminal (everything turned off)... One pin should register 0 ohms (proving the ground connection) the other should register about the 10 ohms (filament plug earth connection)... Unplug and repeat for the other side...

There is two types of relay... So particular attention must be paid to the picture on the relay showing coil and contacts... Holden and Ford use opposite relays... That is, on Ford the coil terminals are 85 & 86 while Holden uses 87 and 30... If it was wired at and auto store I'd suggest they used Holden relays as they seem to be more common (probably because more derros drive Holdens and Fords)...

Once you know your coil wires unplug the relay and work where these are in the base... connect the multimeter probes to each terminal (87 and 30 if a Holden relay)... Set is to the 20VDC range or just DC Volts if autoranging... You need to see power here... Turn your spot switch on and check for power... Turn your high beams and check for power...

If you get nothing doing this test the earth feed which picks up off your high beams, runs into a switch and then comes back out to the negative pin is buggered... They probably put a scotch lock under the dash on the high beam wire in the combo switch wiring... Chances are that's failed... If so remove it and solder the wire in... Maybe the switch has failed internally (again with everything on you can use your multimeter (or test light) to check for earth to both sides of the switch (to check for earth you must hook the aligator clamp or second lead to a power source)...

You can prove the positive in the relay base wiring... Same deal, with the multimeter on DC volts you stick one probe on nagtive battery and the other in one pin at a time... One pin should give you 12 volts... That's your positive pin, the other one should be the switched earth one...

Then you can check your output side of the relay, the contact terminals (refer the relay picture)... One of the two pins should have power all the time... Should be supplied from that fuse you found... Check it for power as above... The other should be spot lights... Multimeter to ohms... One probe to ground and one in the terminal... You should see that 10 ohms (or half the original ohms if both lights are plugged in)...

This proves the entire output stage... You should then be able to prove the lights... Leave the relay out... Find a heavy piece of wire, if you have a terminal kit put a male spade lug on each end (I have a few relay bridges already made in the boot in case I have a failed relay on the side of the road...) you then stick it in the contact terminals of the relay base (double triple check this again before sticking it in)... And you should have light... You wont be able to turn it off at all like this but is the final proof test for the output stage of the circuit...

There was too much of mad's stuff to read so he may or may not already have covered this... I just started from the start in my head...

Cheers,
Tim