Every so often, the question arises – should I add relays to my headlight wiring. The answer is yes! Power is conveyed from the power source (battery/alternator) to the lamps via the wires, connectors and switches. To ensure maximum power delivery, there should not be any power loss in the circuit.

All relays, including your headlight closure relay, are used to keep high amperage and voltage systems away from the driver as a safety measure. Used in “flip-up” lights, which fold out of the body of the vehicle, headlight closure relays are essential for headlight operation.

Part 1 of 1: Replacing the headlight closure relay

1. Materials Needed.
2. Step 1: Locate the headlight closure relay.
3. Step 2: Remove the fuse box cover or lid.
4. Step 3: Remove the old relay.
5. Step 4: Insert the new relay.
6. Step 5: Test the headlights.
7. Step 6: Reattach the fuse box cover.

Most headlight systems are also designed with a relay that switches the power between low beam and high beam headlights. If this relay goes bad, it could allow power to the high beams, but not the low beams.

To have your high and low beams come on together all you have to do is connect the low and high beam wires at the column harness. These are the inputs that activate the circuits and by connnecting them you are simply activating them simultaneously. This will activate both circuits with both high and low beams.

Your average high beam (for a normal headlight) is 55 or 65 watts. In a 12 V circuit, that’s less than 6 amps nominally. If you put in a 10 amp fuse, you should be ok. I have looked at some amperage vs wire diameter charts and 20 amps seems a bit too close to the 24 amp maximum for my comfort levels.

Yes, The “main” power to the relay fuse, then to the compressor when you switch to “on” will protect the rely and the compressor “if” fused at the power source or at least before the relay. The reason to protect as close as possible to the power source with a fuse/breaker is just in case you have a short in the wire.

To put it in perspective, each headlight bulb draws about 6 or 7 Amps each.

You’ll find out why LED lights draw less from your battery while providing the same amount – or even more — light than the old incandescent ones. When Dave connects incandescent bulbs to an amp meter, they draw up to 1.6 amps, but when LED lights are used, they only pull about . 26 amps.

Ignition System (primary circuit) – 6 to 20 amps. The role of the ignition coil is to multiply battery voltage into high voltage. Following Ohm’s law for the conversion of volts to amperes, oil-filled coils generally require 3 to 5 amperes of primary current to produce 20,000-30,000 volts of secondary current.

“There are wattage standards for each type of headlamp system, but typically, high beam headlamps should use no more than 70 watts and low beam no more than 60 watts of power.”

Headlight bulbs do come in different wattages. The higher the wattage the more lumens a bulb will put out. Also, the more you increase the wattage of your bulb, the more strain you are putting on your vehicle’s electrical system, which may cause bulbs to sometimes dim or wires to overheat when used for long periods.

It is important to know that an HID bulb color is commonly expressed as a bulb temperature (example: Alpine White = 5000K), which is measured in Kelvins (“K”). Kelvin is an absolute color temperature scale that can also be approximated in lumens, which is a common measure of light output/brightness.

A bulb running 55W will usually last about half as long as a bulb running 35W. Brightness: 35W bulbs driven by a true 35W ballast will provide at least 3200 lumens. This is over double the brightness of a factory halogen bulb, and plenty of light for night-time driving.

You can use 55w ballasts with standard 35w bulbs, but the life of the bulb will be shortened a bit, and their color will Wash Out a bit. No, HID bulbs and ballasts do not need to be bi-xenon specific when used in a projector based system to be capable of producing light for low and high beam modes.