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HELP!!!! Hella lights won't stay on

4K views 38 replies 12 participants last post by  07JKRUBI 
#1 · (Edited)
HELP!!!! Hella headlights won't stay on

I purchased the Hella headlight upgrade from Rally lights. I hooked them up no problem. On my way to work next morning they cut out on me. I called Susquahanna motor sports and they sent me a new harness. Ray, the guy who builds them told me it probably was not the harness but would send me another one any way. Great customer service.

Well I got the new harness today and installed it. Before I buttoned everything back up I cranked the Jeep and turned the lights on. Well, what do you know, the damn things cut off on me again.

Does any one know what could be causing this. The harness is connected to the battery and the trigger is the passanger side head light. I know it is hooked up correctly..any ideas would be greatly appreciated.....
 
#3 ·
This is the kit with the relays....That's what has me so frustrated..I can plug my old lights in and they work fine but for some reason when I plug in the harness I can't keep power to the relays....
 
#5 ·
And I know you stated that its installed correctly and maybe this is a dumb question that you've already checked, but could it be an improper ground?

I recently installed a set of KC HiLites and struggled to get a good ground. Even once I had it set up at one point, it would cut out occasionally until I found a better bolt to ground it to. And is the switch grounded correctly also? Just figured it might be worth checking. If its not that it may still be the whole canbus thing that I know nothing about.
 
#7 ·
Trigger your relay with the marker light 12v+ lead and see what happens. The marker light lead is not a pulsed circuit like the headlight.
I had to trigger my HID's off the markers because they would flicker and shut off when using the pulsed circuit.
Might work for your application also.:)
 
#8 ·
I would say it's the pulse the canbus system puts out that is shutting off your relay.
 
#10 ·
I do have it grounded to the battery so I don't think that is the problem. My question is, what could be causing the power from the head light switch to cut power to the relays. It's as if the canbus sees the upgraded light bulbs.

I thought that maybe the harness had faulty resistors but when the second harness offered the same results it kind of rules that out. There has to be something telling the canbus to kill the power to the harness, but what.

If I plugged my old bulbs in and they wouldn't work then I would know I had an electrical issue with the Jeeps wiring, but like I said, they work fine. I can only keep the Rallylight harness operating for about 2 minutes before it cuts out, doesn't make any sence...
 
#13 ·
I can only keep the Rallylight harness operating for about 2 minutes before it cuts out, doesn't make any sence...
I would put an ammeter on the trigger signal and see how much current you're drawing... for some reason the CanBus thinks the current is too high and is turning off the circuit.

Might also try routing the trigger wire to the driver's side and see if that works any better...
 
#11 ·
Could it be due to a power drop? I know they can pull alot more watts than the current light bulbs. Maybe the jeep is shutting off lights/accessories due to the voltage of the battery getting to low? I am not sure if the jeep has this feature or not but some vehicles do.
 
#14 ·
I don't have anything to offer in regards to your problem, but I have that exact setup on my 2007 and it works great. I don't think there is a problem with the CanBus system and the Rallylights setup. Mine was plug and play.

Sorry I can't be of more help, and good luck.
 
#15 ·
I have some experience with control circuits and supervisory circuits. So I think that the canbuss is the problem. You will have to find a way to trick it ( I thought that someone sells a device to do this). You mentioned that you are only using one wire out of the headlight circuit. Some supervisory circuits must see a return. We alread know that the control circuit is looking at the load. Most people discover this when they increase the load. Maybe to small of a load will cause a fault. Also an unballanced load could cause a fault. If you could read the fault. You would then have a better chance ofresolving the issue.
 
#16 · (Edited)
OK, I have on the phone with Ray on and off all day, we have tried several things and nothing is working.

I checked all my grounds and they all check out. I took voltage readings with my stock lights and with my harness and all readings are 11.2v withe factory lights and 13.6v with the harness side. After the lights have been on a while the voltage drops to 2.1 and pretty much stays there. For the stock lights no problem, but for the harness this is the voltage that causes it to go out.

The relays engage at 8.5v and disengage at a voltage less than 2. I know 2.1 is close but it is still greater than 2. At this point, after having the Jeep apart the last 2 days, I am left with putting my crappy stockers back in :bawling:
 
#18 ·
I might have to, but as a last resort. I just hate that I spent all this money on a plug and play harness that no one else has problems with and I can't get it work with my Jeep. I am just trying to figure out what is different in my Jeep then everyone elses.
 
#19 ·
If it makes you feel any better, my Jeep randomly does a lot of stupid shit. For example, my switched dimmer wire for my stereo has turned itself into a constant 12v after 3 years of having the same stereo installed.
My lights have refused to turn on in the past, and sometimes I get a delay before they turn on.
And the best one of all... my Jeep has recently decided to not run anymore.
 
#21 ·
I hope he can come up with something. I hate not being able to get them to work. No, I have not tried the cheap bulbs yet, the weather here the last few days has not been too good. I may try and get out there today and try the cheap bulbs and report back....
 
#23 · (Edited)
Not sure why the bulbs would make a difference since they're on the other side of the relay...

I don't know if the left and right circuits are driven separately or not, but

1) If they're driven together, maybe the old driver's side connector is not just dangling but partially touching ground pulling more current than the CanBus wants to see.

2) If they're driven separately, have you tried triggering off the driver's side like I wrote above? There should be enough wire to route the trigger wire along the firewall and to the left headlamp.

3) Have you tried the high beams vs the low beams? I wonder if the high beams stay on correctly... which might point you to a bad relay, bad ground, partial short etc... upon which you could swap low-beam and high-beam relays and see what happens.
 
#25 ·
You did try swapping the trigger to the driver's side you said and also tried with the trigger on the passenger side and an H13 in the OE socket on the driver's side?
Check and check.

Did you swap the relays to see if the problem followed the relay? A bad relay was always my guess but I can't really conceive of getting two in a row and having them both be the high beam...

It really should work ----- I mean, it works for everyone else. It's a royal bummer; sorry, dude.
 
#30 ·
The video was before i built the new harness, now the high beams wont trigger at all. Changed relay CAP and diode no luck. The I have the same issue with HID's, DELTAS, Anzo, and now LEDS. Its def something going on with me retard jeep just not sure why its doing this
 
#32 ·
Right now its hooked up like the diagram and high beams work fine, park lights work fine, just no low beams. Swaped relays still no low beams. To make things more interesting the low beams work fine while the Jeep is off but as soon as you start the jeep the fun begins. The high beams worked fine off the factory wiring as well.
 
#33 ·
I'm runing HID lows and no high beams. After messing around with all this computer blinky shit, I just triggered the HID's relay off the marker light.
I then ran a seperate toggle inline with the switch wire. If the toggle is on, the headlights will just come on when I turn the markers on with the factory stick doohickey.
BUT... if I wanted to run high's and lows, I would just run 2 toggle switches on completely independent (from the CANBUS) circuits and be done with it. OR, lows off the turn signal wire and highs off a toggle, etc...:)
 
#39 ·
What I finally did to mine to work is by pass the canbus all together. I had a harness made without the diodes and capacitors and used the marker lights as a trigger and used an on/on toggle to activate the high beam. Works great and don't evere have to worry about the damn canbus interfering with my head lights.

When I turn my lights on with the stalk the low beams come and and to get high beams I just flip the toggle. That way when I turn the Jeep off and forget to turn the lights off I still get the idiot ding and if I don't turn them off the computer still turns them off in a few minutes.

I have a two door so I mounted my toggle under my window switches on the dash. Works great.
 
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