i was wondering, ok on the headlights you know how there is 3 wires, one ground and the other 2 are powers to the low and high beams, when the lows are on the power is only going through the low wire and when you turn the highs on then the power transfers to the other wire to the high right??? well if thats right, is there any way to set it up so that the lows and lows, but if you turn the brights on it will activate the lows AND highs at the same time? there forth giveing the "brights" a better meaning to the name "brights" ???, i wana see the inside of the oncomming deers eyeballs!! insteed of seing the deer when its already to "SMACK!!" LATE!!

[This message has been edited by 88 forumla (edited 12-01-2005).]

It might be possible, but would cause heat problems, I dont know if you've looked close, but 90% of headlight connectors, in almost every car, start showing heat deterioration, and many start to melt when they get old. They are operating at the utmost of thier heat capabilities as is, the same is true for the bulbs, they are designed to run only one element at a time, running both would increase the heat and decrease the bulb life. Nice idea though..

yes. it is very easy to do and i have done it to a few cars.
give me a sec to make a drawing in paint

^^^ good way to shorten your hedlight's lifespan..i usuly just wire up some high intensity fog lights to the highbeam switch

[This message has been edited by HI-TECH (edited 12-01-2005).]

I was thinking you could just get a diode and run it between the high and low wire at the headlight.

Just put it in so the power will flow from the highbeam back to the lowbeam.

As a diode will only flow power one way, when the lowbeams are on it won't flow to the highbeam.

This could be done fairly easily at the wire loom at the back of the headlamp.

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Some helpful links I've done
How to remove inner door panels, with pics.
How to remove outer door panels, with pics.
How to make rear coil-overs using factory struts, with pics.
How to replace the rear bearing hubs, with pics.

[This message has been edited by fierohoho (edited 12-01-2005).]

quote Originally posted by fierohoho: I was thinking you could just get a diode and run it between the high and low wire at the headlight.

I agree that this should work as well, but as a caution if anyone tries this make certain you use a diode which will not turn in to a smoking ruin when roughly 3.5 amps (assuming a 50w low-beam) are pulled through it.

ok as we know replacing these lights arent all that easy or fun so i definatly dont want to F em up, but i was thinking highbems are like city driving, you can only use them every great 1nce and awhile and even then you turn em off from oncomming cars. so they wouldent be like constantly on, and about the LED, what size volt/amp should i use? and is it just conect the 2 hot wires? and does a LED have polarity (ex does it matter what way you hook it up?) any body thats tried this, any reviews or recomendations? thanks!

The headlights are not all that hard to replace. I like this idea. I'm adding it to my to do list for all my cars.

A word of caution though, it might be illegal where you live...as 88 Formula hinted in the title. Tampering with the headlights to have high and low on at the same time will break laws probably in all 50 states. There is a reason the lows switch off when you put on the highs. Nevertheless, I wouldn't mind having a switch for those times when I really need all the light I can get.

well i replaced one when i got my 88, it was 2005 and it was an original light, every bolt was rusted solid! made for a really bitchin time., but yeah how could the cop prove anything? and besides everytime i see a car the brights get dimmed instantly, so who would notice? other than the people it matters to, you and me.

You could have really short life out of Halogen units. These things already operate under pretty high stress and many don't use the best glass for the halogen capsule inside the main shell. Don't be surprised if the capsule pops.

Burned connectors on the other hand... actually more a result of heat generated within the terminal itself due to resistance buildup from corrosion etc.

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quote Originally posted by 88 forumla: but yeah how could the cop prove anything?

Where I live we have yearly safety inspections. This feature would have to be switched off at inspection time.

i haven't noticed any shortening of the light bulbs life, but i live in the city and almost never get to use my high beam.
i bet i go 6 months between a chance to use my high beams.
even on the highway at 3am there's still other people around.

quote Originally posted by buddycraigg: ... but i live in the city and almost never get to use my high beam. i bet i go 6 months between a chance to use my high beams...

You live in a well illuminated city. I live 10 minutes outside of the 4th largest city in the US and we have little dark 2 lane roads that require high beams or you might end up in a ditch. I use my highbeams almost daily.

yeah i understand about the inspections, that would be a definate problem, but we just have the screw your car up "roller tests" here., i use my brights every day, just 2 seconds at a time, 2 seconds on, 10 seconds or more off., dono? any one have a LED diagram at the harness? i can try it and let you all know what happens.

i dont understand why you keep talking about LEDs.

quote Originally posted by buddycraigg: i dont understand why you keep talking about LEDs.

I think he's confusing a Light Emiting Diode with a Diode.

88forumla, the type of diode I'm talking about will not illumunate like a LED, it's just called a diode.

I was thingking about something like this:

On checking the Radio Shack site this one is the biggest I could find, 6A and 50V piv.

From what dguy said it may not handle the possible 7 Amps to light both high and low beams.

EDIT: of course it would only be handling the amps for one headelight so it should handle it OK without becoming a "smoking ruin".

IMO the strain would be on the single wire charged to power the highbeams that will now have to power bothhigh and low beams.

[This message has been edited by fierohoho (edited 12-02-2005).]

Interesting idea. I live and work in an area where there is a huge deer population . Spring (young aand dumb, getting weeded out) and Fall (old and horney, with watching for traffic priority 2 or 3 or lower) deer car collisions are incredibly common. In areas where I KNOW ther is a lot of deer crossing I have driven trying to hold the dimmer switch so both are on. I need to get some good wide angle driving lights and figure out how to wire them in.
I just saw an article on headlights in an off-road magzine. In almost all states you are restricted to a total of 4 lights forward at one time, unless you are off the public roadways.

Using a diode here isn't a good idea. Silicon diodes (rectifiers) have a voltage drop of 0.7 volts when they're conducting - this will cause the headlight to be dimmer than normal when it's powered through a diode.

Also, halogen lamps depend on operating at the right temperature for the halogen cycle. If they're run too hot OR too cool, their life will be significantly shortened.

You might want to give a set of SilverStar headlights a try first - they're significantly brighter than the stock bulbs and you may find that this is sufficient for your purposes.

But if not and you need to run multiple filaments at the same time, use switches or relays to control the power, not diodes or transistors. And be prepared to change bulbs much more often...

This is an old and well used concept revived.....take a look at most of the cars from thev 60's.......many of them turned both sets on when switched to high beam. I've yet to see any of them burn up wiring, or plugs.

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quote Originally posted by Strange Brew: This is an old and well used concept revived.....take a look at most of the cars from thev 60's.......many of them turned both sets on when switched to high beam. I've yet to see any of them burn up wiring, or plugs.

Agreed; that configuration was also common through the 70s and 80s. Keep in mind however that those cars were likely wired that way from the factory. What we're talking about here is "hacking" a wiring configuration which was only ever intended to drive two filaments simultaneously.

quote Originally posted by fierohoho: I don't think this is a legal issue, think about the older vehicles with the four headlight systems, when the highbeams were on on those vehicles all four lights were lit as it is with some of the newer vehciles.

Quad lamps have one lamp in each pair that has both filaments. That lamp is wired just like any 2 lamp car. When all 4 lamps are in high beam the low beam is off. that said....

quote Originally posted by Strange Brew: This is an old and well used concept revived.....take a look at most of the cars from thev 60's.......many of them turned both sets on when switched to high beam. I've yet to see any of them burn up wiring, or plugs.

Those vehicles didn't use halogen lamps. Traditional lamps used the entire shell as the lamp envelop and there was no capsule like halogens use. These also ran at much lower temperatrue than halogens and operated in a vacuum much like a traditional "3 way" bulb in a household lamp.

As I already mentioned, halogen lamps, all of them, run at very high temperatures and pressures. Those of us that work with theatre or projection lamps have seen what happens when good grade lamps are over pressured. The lamp envelope can swell, quite allot actually, or the lamp can simply explode.

Many halogen headlamps use a cheap glass for the halogen capsule that is prone to the latter happening with fairly small provocation. (Projection and theatre lighting almost never uses that glass for just this reason.)

quote Originally posted by fierohoho: I don't think this is a legal issue...

It's illegal in Texas:

20.16 Head Lamps

6. All head lamps will be inspected for and rejected if:

a. Lamp or lamp assembly is not securely fastened to the vehicle.

b. Lamp is improperly connected and does not light the proper filament for different switch positions.

c. Dual head lamp system: Those vehicles using the dual or four head lamp system must be equipped with a combination of a #1 and a #2 type head lamp on each side of the vehicle. The use of any other type of lamp in those sockets is illegal and does not meet the inspection requirements for head lamps. The four head lamp system must be wired to burn as originally designed.

Blah, blah, blah. You get the idea

quote Originally posted by Whuffo: But if not and you need to run multiple filaments at the same time, use switches or relays to control the power, not diodes or transistors. And be prepared to change bulbs much more often...

If I were going to do it I would rewire both the brights and dims and power them off a good 12v source through two relays. The bright relay would be triggered from the brights stock power wire and I would probably trigger the dims from the running lights power wire. This would work fine for me since I never run the running lights with out the headlights. But I don't think I would ever wire the bright and dims to be on all the time since as it been said before it will shorten their life.

I would just go with a good set of fog light. They will probably offer more light then the hi\dim combo and they will give you more light with your dims.

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