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Posted by: VaccaRabite May 13 2020, 07:28 PM

Over the winter I installed a set of LED headlights from Vintage Car LED.

I just took m first drive with them and there is some strange goings on.

1) I turned on the lights, start driving down the road and they blinked on and off for a second. Couple miles later they did it again. And then again as I got closer to home on a bumpy section of road.

2) none of the dash lamps on my gauge cluster light up any more.

3) my Piloti driving lights will not turn on either.

A glance at my fuse panel did not show any glowing fuses, but I did not pull them out to inspect so that could be an issue. Turn signals and break lights work fine.

My guess is that something is going on with the headlight switch.
Opinions? Other things to check?

Zach

Posted by: Minerva's 914 May 14 2020, 05:39 AM

I also installed the Vintage Car LED lights and also had some weirdness, part of which corrected itself part of which is still ongoing.

LOVE the lights but the instrumentation lights do not come on, same as yours. I also suspected the switch and put it on the get-a-roundtoit list. The second thing that I noticed was when I turned on the fogs the headlights switched to high beams, and if I toggled the high beam switch on the column the headlights switch back to low beam and the fogs turn off, the opposite of the way they are designed to work. Back in the garage I noticed the right side fog was out so I took the bulb out and it tested good. I then started disassembling the light looking for corrosion or something else amiss. Nothing seemed wrong so I cleaned and WD-40'd all the connections put the bulb back in and it worked fine. Put it all back together again with a shoulder shrug, turn the lights back on and damned if it didn't fix itself! Everything worked as it should, low beams with fog lights, switch to high beams and the fogs go out. Spooky.

Posted by: VaccaRabite May 14 2020, 06:33 AM

@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=3031
I seem to remember you saying something about a problem similar to this, but I am having a devil of a time finding the thread.

Zach

Posted by: mepstein May 14 2020, 07:09 AM

This might be it. http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=344457&hl=ground
@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=1435

Posted by: Mikey914 May 14 2020, 08:23 AM

That was the high low with fog from what I recall, this sounds like 1 of 2 things.

I short on the fuse box that is taking out the lights an inst lights or an internal short in the LED system. As long as no damage has been done, you could check with regular bulbs. If all is well the culprit is known.

If not, your under the dash to see if you have nay wires or discoloration indicating damage to the wiring.

Posted by: eric9144 May 14 2020, 08:39 AM

Interesting, I have all LED's on the /6 and when I was driving the other day early in the morning, I noticed it "bouncing" back and forth between low/fog and hi/no-fog, then it seemed to settle down. Think I'll be grounding out the blue/white wire also
Going to make a ground wire with a spade connector so I can just "plug and play" the fix vs cutting anything.

Posted by: Mikey914 May 14 2020, 09:14 AM

They should not bounce off an don unless there is a short. The switch could be an issue also.

Posted by: PanelBilly May 14 2020, 10:50 AM

I have two blue and white wires connected together at the first terminal . Do I connect them both to a new ground?

Posted by: BPic May 14 2020, 11:16 AM

Don't ground both of them. Trace the wires back. One goes into the harness and the other goes to your fog light relay. Ground the fog light relay one. I had a similar issue that the brights would come on and the ground solved it. I also move the blk/blu wire from pin 56 on the switch to pin 15 and now I can have the fogs on with any combination of lighting as long as key in on. But, the wiring is different for different model years. The ground wire is the same for all.

Posted by: Spoke May 14 2020, 06:23 PM

@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=1435

I think it's been established that when going to LED headlights the foglight can cause some weird behavior. The foglight relay is powered through the high beams. With standard bulbs with very low resistance (and high current/power), the foglight relay works fine. The voltage drop across the high beam bulbs is negligible and the high beams do not turn on.

With LED headlights, turning on the foglights cause significant voltage drop in the high beams and messes with the dimmer relay. Until you figure out your issues with the LED headlights and dash lights, do not turn on the foglights.

You should consider doing the foglight relay white/blue wire swap to ground to make the foglights independent of the hi/lo beams.

Posted by: PanelBilly May 15 2020, 09:22 AM

Thanks that fixed it

Posted by: VaccaRabite May 16 2020, 01:22 PM

I’ve now checked the basics.
No blown fuses.
No bad wires.
I’ll need to check the wiring scheme that Spoke mentioned.
No change in dash lights or fogs yet.

Zach

Posted by: eric9144 May 16 2020, 01:52 PM

I replaced the lead to my left headlight, was dimmer than the right. Re-tested and when I turn on the Spoke Fogs it does trigger the LED headlights into HI beam mode. I guess I am going to be grounding out that blue/white wire too.

Posted by: VaccaRabite May 17 2020, 10:40 AM

I’ve now checked the basics.
No blown fuses.
No bad wires.
I’ll need to check the wiring scheme that Spoke mentioned.
No change in dash lights or fogs yet.

Zach

Posted by: VaccaRabite Jun 12 2020, 05:37 PM

Getting back to this...

So I ground the blue and white wire coming off the fog light relay.

This wire from DrPhil's post.

Anyone have any guesses on the dash gauge lights? They are also LED on my car and maybe they are not getting the proper voltage to run with the LED headlights installed?

Zach

Posted by: Mikey914 Jun 12 2020, 07:05 PM

I'd say a short. Seriously could be a headlight switch causing some of this weirdness. the only way the LEDs would have any issue is if there was an internal short. It could happen, but I've only seen it once in all the sets we've sold and only one bulb. There was a comment about one light being brighter a few posts back. If it's with LED's check the voltage. May be a bad ground. These run on a lot less power so it would be a significantly lower voltage to cause that with LEDs.

Posted by: VaccaRabite Jun 12 2020, 09:48 PM

So the blue white wire trick was perfect for the fog lights. Yes I know my head lights are HORRIBLY aimed.


OH HEY! Look at that!

The dash lights were totally unrelated to the headlights. Which I figured out almost instantly looking at the potentiometer at the back of the switch. Oh... I guess there is a dimmer.... And LED lights don't dim.

Yeah, that one ended up being a pretty easy fix. Just turn the knob dummy!

Zach

Posted by: Mikey914 Jun 12 2020, 11:07 PM

Love those fixes