Hi,
I hope I am in the right place with this question. I bought a 1970 Cutlass a little over a year ago and it already had "Autopia" H4 headlights installed. As far as I can tell, the are high intensity lights (maybe Xenon or halogen?) I have separate low beam and high beam lights (they appear to be sealed beams) on each side. I can't seem to find anything about them on the Internet except these lights seem to come mostly on high end foreign cars. Here is my problem. The low beams work fine (even great). When I punch down the dimmer switch on the floor to put the high beams on, they come on for about 3 seconds and then all the headlights go out completely. I have always switched back to the low beams quickly and the low beams come right back on. The fuse doesn't blow. I have no idea if these headlights require special ballasters or wiring. Has anyone used these types before and can you shed some light on what my problem might be? Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

Never heard of that exact brand, but if the high beams and the high filaments of the low beams together all draw more current than the system is designed for, the circuit breaker in the headlight switch will kick off (there are no headlight fuses). Since it's a thermal breaker, it should click back on within seconds, then click off again, etc.

I would recommend running your lights through a relay - they will get more current, and work better than before.

Also, H4's and sealed beams are mutually exclusive - you've got one or the other, but not both (unless one light is an H4 and the one next to it is a sealed beam).

- Eric

 

Thanks Eric. Upon closer inspection, they are H4 halagen bulbs and not sealed beams. Would you mind explaining a little more about using a relay? I'm not familiar and don't have much electircal experience. What kind of relay? Where do I find one? Is there a part number or name for them? Do you have any schematic of how to wire a relay in? Do I have to take the headlight switch out of the dash to wire in a relay or can it go out front by the lights? Thank you so much for your help. I'm a lot relieved already.

 

I'll give you a quick synopsis, then a bunch of links, all giving about the same information in slightly different ways.

A relay is simply an electrically operated switch.
You put the juice to the right terminals, the switch closes (makes a connection), and the current flows.
The reason relays are good is that the current you are using to control them and the current they are controlling can be very different.
For instance, you can shut down a 13,600 volt, 10,000 amp, 60hz AC secondary line with a relay running on 12 volts DC at less than an amp,
or with 220 volts AC and a few amps (okay, you electrical engineers, keep your shirts on - it's only a theoretical illustration).
Some houses have electrical systems that switch the 120 volts AC overhead lights using 12 or 24 volts AC wall switches.

In your case, you want to use 12 volts DC at about ¼ amp (very little current through your headlight and high beam switches) to switch 12 volts DC to your headlights at about 20 amps. This relieves your switches of dealing with a damagingly high current, and also allows you to use short runs of thick wire right to the battery, instead of loping through the dashboard and back, for less resistance and higher voltage to the headlights.

I will link to a few very nice diagrams, and to pages with more detailed information.





"Relays: WHY AND HOW TO UPGRADE YOUR HEADLAMP CIRCUIT"
By Daniel Stern with special assistance from Steve Lacker

"Wiring Headlight Relays"

"Relaying Headlights"
HumanSpeakers.com (an Audi site)

"Headlight Relays – to do or not to do?"
By Allan Brown (an MG guy)

Good luck!

- Eric

 

Wow! This will take me a while to digest and comprehend but it will come. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the trouble you went through. The articles are very detailed and helpful. Thanks again.

 

You also might want to check the dimmer switch they do fail

 

Agreed with both. Check to see if your bulbs come out of the housings.
These are the best option I found that I bought for H4 style 5 3/4" housings.

For the relay setup go here and read.
Relays will give you up to 300% increased brightness because of voltage drop through factory wiring.
http://www.madelectrical.com/electri...adlights.shtml

EDIT:Okay I see Eric gave you some really good links and diagrams already.
I would advise you to use auto reset circuit breakers instead of fuses though.
http://www.petra.com/cooper-bussman-...et-20-amp.html

 

Good point.

Theoretically, headlights should either be on circuit breakers, or on a separate fuse for each side and for high and low, like in the German cars, so that if one blows on a dark road, you're not blind.

- Eric