Okay I am trying to install some Hella Black Magic lights on my car. I had it for a while, and originally it was connected the way the company suggested it. I don't have the installation guide anymore, but here's a picture of how it "should" be connected.

The problem is that when I connect the Hella wire with the vampire clamps to my normal low beams, it doesn't work. ( It worked before, back then... Now I don't know why it stopped working. ) I've checked the bulbs, wires, relay, and fuse to the Hella lights. ( Haven't checked out my stock headlights, they work fine that's why. )

I've tried taking the wire that's supposed to clamp into the stock headlights, put an inline fuse (15A) then wire that directly into the battery, didn't work, just blow the fuse to the Hella light, but not to the inline fuse.

Do anyone know how to install these? I'm stumped...

Need your year and if you have DRL's. Otherwise I can't play.

Oh sorry, I have a 1996 SR5 4WD, no DRL, no fog. Its a base model.

So you say if you apply fused 12V to the wire you originally connected to your low beams it blows the fuse in the 12V circuit to the relay? If that is the case, the problem is NOT with the low beam circuit. Does your relay look like this?

http://www.servocity.com/html/relays.html#.VAkcWfmwLYg

If it does, you'll need to confirm how you are connected AT THE RELAY to find the problem. Sounds like you have the ground and output(Hella lamps) connections on the wrong legs of the relay.

dont wire it like they tell you... just go power to relay(big power), power to switch (small power), switch to relay, ground to relay, relay to lights(load), ground to lights. -if you have an illuminated switch you will need ground to the switch too
put a fuse in before the relay on the main power going to the relay

Oh, my bad, I just saw your drawing had FIVE wires. Does the switch connect to power or ground? Can you post a picture of the relay, I am fairly certain the problem is there, but without knowing how it is intended to be wired, it's a little tough. Also, you CAN eliminate the headlight circuit if you want to, but let's make them work first, then you can wire them to work however YOU want them to.

@the kid You are making the same mistake I made, assuming it's a bosch style relay. His diagram seems to be a little different. Of course we don't know how the switch is wired, or why you need a headlight trigger AND a switch, it would only make sense if the switch supplied ground, but if so why have another ground to the relay?

the hella relay and wiring is set up so that it will only work when the high beams are on... when you go to just low beams the aux lights shut off... hella and KC and others think this is necessary and like to do this sorta chit. i think its stupid, i like to have my lights come on when i tell them to, not when some engineer behind a desk thinks i want them to or when he thinks i should have them on... nope!

thats one reason i like PIAA so much they have a simple wire harness, its literally plug and play, hook it to power, and give it a ground and you are good to go!

dump the wiring that came with the lights and make your own harness how we told you to run it, lose that stupid high beam switch/cutout


-try the lights with the high beams on first, and see if they magically work?

Well I agree that you should wire it up the way you like, I don't agree PIAA is any better. I've had several PIAA set ups, and they make high quality lamps, but I've basically taken their relay set up and tossed them. I prefer to switch ground, and the lengths are always too short or too long.

Now as for the high beam theory, his diagram(and that's what I'm referencing because it's all I have) doesn't show a tie in to the high beams. Assuming the low beam cuts out the activation, the wiring as pictured would allow them to come on at anytime EXCEPT when the head lights are on. Of course this is all conjecture without the missing info.

PS I have a 20 year old brand new set of PIAA 55W fog/driving lamps in my closet. With the advent of LED technology, they have been rendered pretty much obsolete.

Here's the picture:



Color of the wires which connects to the switch are: black, yellow, and purple.



I got these lights way back, a friend suggested them. Totally regretting them now... Stupid a$$ bulbs blew and its a special Hella bulb... Not cheap... Yeah I originally wired it like how they told me because I didn't know better, now I want it to be independent.

Easy enough. 12V power to terminal 30, wire to the lights to terminal 87

Terminal 86 to ground

Terminal 85 to the load terminal on the switch.

How did you power the switch? It should be fused ignition power so you can't leave the lights on accidentally, but that is up to you. the ground on the switch is so the light will come on when you turn it on.

If they don't work this way, we can start troubleshooting the existing wires.

Just for the record, I had a Hella fog relay plug that was miswired from the factory. The colors did not go to the pins they said they did. That one took a long time to figure out because it gave me a coil that was energized 24/7 and draining the battery while the switch sent battery power straight to the lights. So it gave the appearance it was working.

I would recommend wiring as @IBallEngineer suggested, and trace your connections all the way to the relay pins. Don't trust the colors.

This (bolded part) is way wrong. The headlights on a non-DRL 4Runner are switched grounds not switched hots. (This is why I had to ask.) So you certainly don't want to connect that wire to the battery, unless it was wired wrong in the first place. (I can't tell, because you didn't number the relay pins in your drawing.) You should have just moved it to battery negative or a good chassis ground if you wanted to take the headlight circuit out of the equation.

That said, it shouldn't have blown the Hella fuse. It should have just given you 12V+ on both sides of the relay coil if it were wired correctly otherwise. No workee, but no blown fuse. So I suspect your contact side of the relay connections don't go where you think they go.

So again, start from scratch per above.

+ Battery wire - 30
- Battery wire - 85
Hella lamps - 87 and 85
Switch - 86, 85, and a purple wire
Vampire clamp wire - purple wire (isn't connected to relay)

That works...if the switch is wired as follows:

Load to Relay Terminal 86
Earth to Relay Terminal 85
Supply (is that where the purple wire goes?) to your preferred 12V+ source.

The coil 85 and 86 are reversed from what IBallEngineer suggested, but that makes no difference, either way works.

This set up could never be connected to the high or low beam wires on a non-DRL 4Runner and work. You would have ground (-) on both ends of the relay coil (85 and 86) and it would never energize.

I still can't figure out how you blew the Hella fuse if this was the setup. As described, nothing you did on the coil side (where the vampire tap should be) could cause that to happen. I assume Hella fuse is between Terminal 30 and Battery + as shown in the drawing, right?

In order to be sure you have things set up correctly, before you wire in the switch, connect a jumper wire to relay Terminal 86 and touch it to Terminal 30. The lights should come on. That means all is good up to that point. Then disconnect power and wire up the switch. If there is a problem after that, then you know it is related to the switch and not anything else.