High beam circuit

[harland]

Does anybody know how the high beam circuit works on a MN triton GLX. particularly the switching through high beam stalk and what triggers the high beam indicator light.
I have added 2 greatwhite dual 24 LED lights using the same switching wire ( from the high beam red/blue wire located near fuse panel under RHS of steering wheel) for the light force 170 halogens spotlights which have there own 40 amp relay circuit. The 40 amp relay i used for the LEDs has a diode across 85 and 86, that i think i connected the wrong way around maybe? So the spot lights worked fine until i added this LED circuit and now i have no high beam, no blue high beam indicator on dash and no spot lights. I think the extra load might be too much for stalk switch. I have checked fuses they are ok. tried swapping high beam relay in case i blew it up, tried backing out by disconnecting LED circuit completely. The high beam globes are not blown and the spotties and LED circuits work when switched externally. Also the spotties were not switched through a toggle like they should be, does the earth on a 3 position toggle carry some earth load on negative switched circuits?
Any help would be sweet.

[diver albie]

Have you checked the fuse under the bonnet? In my ML when i had a similar issue I checked 0the dash fuses as all good but located a blown one in the engine bay

[NowForThe5th]

Harland, there are three things you need to understand about the lighting circuits on the Triton.

First there is a high current circuit. Power comes from the battery to a relay (LHS of engine bay) and then goes to the lights.

Second, the relay is switched by an ECU inside the cab which activates a low current relay that earths the circuit from the engine bay, activating the high current relay there.

Third, the ECU takes its signal to activate the low current relay from the stalk switch. This is a very low current circuit.

You should NEVER use any wiring inside the cab to power auxiliary lights. None of this is designed to carry the loads that are generated by spotlights or light bars. Some is positively switched, some negatively. Some operates on voltages well below 12v and some of the switching is momentary. Unless you really know what you're doing you risk blowing fuses at best or, at worst, blowing up an ECU. At $2.5K each this can become an expensive mistake.

Hopefully you've just blown a fuse. Check all the fuses in that block under the dash. Many of them are connected to circuits other than what is indicated.

The correct way is to take power to switch a relay from the circuit between the high current relay and the headlights. Blue/yellow wire to the left hand headlight. On some models you have to splice into this circuit behind the headlight, others have a socket that you can plug into. Either way, use this to switch a relay which draws power from the battery, through a fuse.

This is the circuit diagram for the headlights:


This is how you should wire up your auxiliary lights:

lights wiring001.jpg

[Cowboy Dave]

I can only see two red and white wires there and they both look to be low beam?

I'm intrigued about a high beam wire in the cabin despite Chris' sensible warnings above. It's been something I've seen a few people chase but they always gave up and went back to the blue/yellow that everybody uses.

[harland]

SWEET, cheers for the awesome info, ill check tonight. The power used from in the cab is only used to switch the relay. I will hunt down another fuse.

[NowForThe5th]

I'm intrigued about a high beam wire in the cabin

I dunno too. NC relay picking up from low beam relay activation (red/white) with diode across 85/86 getting feed in the wrong way? My brain hurts trying to work out what's happened.

Best to disconnect everything non-standard then concentrate on getting the factory circuits going right, before adding in separate circuits as I detailed above.

[harland]

ok so the trigger wire was blue and red from inside cab. No blown fuses. whoops.
The high beam lights and high beam indicator light on dash work when i power up 30 and 87. so i am chasing a switching problem. time to test ETACS module and light control stalk.

[harland]

I found the problem with my high beam not working, the high beam transistor in ETACS module fried.
Thanks for the help.

[NowForThe5th]

Glad you found the problem. This is the perfect example of why auxiliary lights should not be connected to anything inside the cab. I'll ask Tex to put this thread in the forum Directory so it's easily found.

[kouta666]

Quick question. In the fuse box in the engine bay, there are hi beam fuses. (One left and one right). I used a tap a circuit adapter on the left hi beam to power by LED light bar. Both using 10amp fuses. Problem is every time I turn on the hi beam and then turn on the LED light bar, the hi beam fuse fries.

The LED wiring harnass has a 20A inline fuse already.

I've just put it back to directly connected to the battery and its all working again but I'd like to have it controlled via the hi beam. Was driving around all morning yesterday and had everyone flashing me. I just figured there were lots of cops around. Then I realised later my LED bar was on the whole time. Bugger.

Any ideas what the issue is?

[ag9111]

Try turning the tap a circuit around the other way

[kouta666]

Really? ..... Never seen anything mentioned about the orientation. You're not having a lend of me?

[ag9111]

Not having a lend. Try it.

May I also suggest that you use a relay to switch battery power and only use the tap to get a control supply for the relay.
The wiring inside the fuse box is very small and pulling another 10A for the light bar out of the wiring is not a good idea. I certainly do not recommend it as a sparky.

The risk is overheating or even melting cabling inside the fuse box

[kouta666]

Thanks for the reply mate. So would I be better off just coming directly off the hi beam wire (before it hits the fuse box) as others have done? I'm no sparky, but it didn't seem to be any better.

[ag9111]

The way it should be come is take a very low power control voltage, say 1A, from the existing high beam wire and use that to turn on a relay.
The relay than turns on the high power, say 10A, direct from the battery to the Light bar.
All fused of course.

[NowForThe5th]

Geez I'm glad we have professionals on here. Learn something new every day. Like that 1A is a low voltage.

[ag9111]

Teach me to rewrite then not proof read.

Cant get away with anything here.

[ag9111]

The way it should be done is take a very low power control, say 1A, from the existing high beam wire and use that to turn on a relay.
The relay then turns on the high power, say 10A, direct from the battery to the Light bar.
All fused of course.

Rewritten due to my stupidity.

[Ranga Tang]

No truer words have been said

[ag9111]

Back in your box Christopher

[har05l]

Ive plugged directly into the back of the high beam plug and then fused between that and my spotties. I'm currently running 3 LED spots and a LED lightbar and never had an issue.
I do dodgy very well and the worst that can happen is a fuse blow in this instance.

[Cowboy Dave]

I'm no sparky but won't you end up with all your lights dimmer than they should be as a result of putting too much load on the one circuit?

[kouta666]

Sounds too hard think I'll just leave them all directly connected to the battery

[har05l]

I'm no sparky but won't you end up with all your lights dimmer than they should be as a result of putting too much load on the one circuit?

I've no idea mate but they seam fine

[ag9111]

Ken is pretty dim anyway so "seam fine" is pretty apt.