LED Headlights: Turning on the fogs turns on the high beams, too!, New behavior, fogs worked normally until LED headlights installed. Options

[orthobiz]

I love my brand new GE Nighthawks. There is no way I could go back to regular headlights. I had a set of sealed beam Hellas.

Last night I turned on the fog lights for the first time and the high beams came on. When I looked at the front of the car, all three were on: the regular lights, high beams AND the fog lights.

Any fix for this? I would like to have the fog lights and the low beams on at the same time without the high beams.

Edit: up until I installed the LED headlights, turning on the fog lights did NOT turn on the high beams. And turning on the high beams turned OFF the fog lights. In other words, normal behavior.

Thanks,

Paul

[904svo]

Try this. On fuse#1 there is 2 white/blue wires (one goes to High beam light the other to the fog light relay) cut these two wires apart find out which one goes to
the High beam light ( apply battery) reconnect this to fuse#1 with a new spare wire.
Connect this wire to terminal #85 on a new relay. The Blue/white wire left over attach to a new relay terminal #30 . Connect terminals #86 and #87a together and run to ground. This fix will supply ground to the fog light relay on when the low beams headlight are on and remove it when the high beams are turn on.

[orthobiz]

Try this. On fuse#1 there is 2 white/blue wires (one goes to High beam light the other to the fog light relay) cut these two wires apart find out which one goes to
the High beam light ( apply battery) reconnect this to fuse#1 with a new spare wire.
Connect this wire to terminal #85 on a new relay. The Blue/white wire left over attach to a new relay terminal #30 . Connect terminals #86 and #87a together and run to ground. This fix will supply ground to the fog light relay on when the low beams headlight are on and remove it when the high beams are turn on.

Sounds doable! I think what I really want to do is have the fog lights work whenever I pull out the fog light switch. I will never run them with the brights, I just don't want to worry about the fog lights being triggered by anything other than me pulling out the dash switch!

Paul

[904svo]

Try this. On fuse#1 there is 2 white/blue wires (one goes to High beam light the other to the fog light relay) cut these two wires apart find out which one goes to
the High beam light ( apply battery) reconnect this to fuse#1 with a new spare wire.
Connect this wire to terminal #85 on a new relay. The Blue/white wire left over attach to a new relay terminal #30 . Connect terminals #86 and #87a together and run to ground. This fix will supply ground to the fog light relay on when the low beams headlight are on and remove it when the high beams are turn on.

Sounds doable! I think what I really want to do is have the fog lights work whenever I pull out the fog light switch. I will never run them with the brights, I just don't want to worry about the fog lights being triggered by anything other than me pulling out the dash switch!

Paul

If you want that option, take the Blue/white wire and put it to ground instead of wiring it to #30 , forget about the rest of the wiring and relay.

[raynekat]

If you want that option, take the Blue/white wire and put it to ground instead of wiring it to #30 , forget about the rest of the wiring and relay.

Started to have the same wonky high beam/fog light issue a year after installing my 914 Rubber LED bulbs.
At first, everything worked correctly.
Just recently, no fogs when I pull the fog light switch and instead the high beams come on.

So I just took the white/blue wire from the fog light relay and removed it from the other relay and went directly to ground with it.
Everything works the way I want it now.

This change makes the fogs independent of the headlight/high beam switches.
Can run the fogs on their own or with any combination of low/high beams.
Simple.

One thing I noticed was I had a couple of bad relays.
I think somehow the LED headlights are back feeding power into this fog light relay and frying them.
Had two bad ones I was trying to get working.
Bench tested them and both were inoperative.
Made the wiring changes above, and inserted new relay and was back in business.

[JeffBowlsby]

If you want that option, take the Blue/white wire and put it to ground instead of wiring it to #30 , forget about the rest of the wiring and relay.

Started to have the same wonky high beam/fog light issue a year after installing my 914 Rubber LED bulbs.
At first, everything worked correctly.
Just recently, no fogs when I pull the fog light switch and instead the high beams come on.

So I just took the white/blue wire from the fog light relay and removed it from the other relay and went directly to ground with it.
Everything works the way I want it now.

This change makes the fogs independent of the headlight/high beam switches.
Can run the fogs on their own or with any combination of low/high beams.
Simple.

One thing I noticed was I had a couple of bad relays.
I think somehow the LED headlights are back feeding power into this fog light relay and frying them.
Had two bad ones I was trying to get working.
Bench tested them and both were inoperative.
Made the wiring changes above, and inserted new relay and was back in business.

Was cutting of any wire needed for this mod? The way it is described you just relocated an existing push-on connector.

And what is the 'other' relay mentioned?

@raynekat

[raynekat]

Bruce, when I mentioned other relays, I meant the following.
The 1st couple of relays I had in my spare parts box to replace the fog light relay were all bad. Finally on the 3rd try, that relay worked. When I tested the previously tried relays, they all tested bad.

So not really other relay locations if that's what you're thinking. All the same fog light relay socket.

On my 71 wiring harness, the white with blue stripe wire at terminal 85 on the fog light relay goes over and joins up with another white wire. At that point both wires are terminated jointly in a male spade that goes to terminal 56 on the "combination" relay. It is here, where I cut the white with blue wire separate from the white wire. At this point, I could just take the white with blue stripe directly to ground.

Hope that's clear.
The white with blue stripe wire that goes to the combination relay relies on you turning on the high beams. At that point, terminal 56 on the "combination" relay affectively gets grounded. With LED headlights, for some reason this does not work anymore and strange things happen.

Was cutting of any wire needed for this mod? The way it is described you just relocated an existing push-on connector.

And what is the 'other' relay mentioned?

@raynekat

[Spoke]

Bruce, when I mentioned other relays, I meant the following.
The 1st couple of relays I had in my spare parts box to replace the fog light relay were all bad. Finally on the 3rd try, that relay worked. When I tested the previously tried relays, they all tested bad.

@raynekat

The fogs on my 914 were not coming on. Turns out the relay had oxidized and was not making contact. I could hear the click of the relay pulling in but no contact. I cut the case open with my Dremel, cleaned the contacts and it works fine now.

Do your bad relays click when powered? Likely the contacts need cleaned and filed or sandpapered to bring them back to life.

[raynekat]

Bruce, when I mentioned other relays, I meant the following.
The 1st couple of relays I had in my spare parts box to replace the fog light relay were all bad. Finally on the 3rd try, that relay worked. When I tested the previously tried relays, they all tested bad.

@raynekat

The fogs on my 914 were not coming on. Turns out the relay had oxidized and was not making contact. I could hear the click of the relay pulling in but no contact. I cut the case open with my Dremel, cleaned the contacts and it works fine now.

Do your bad relays click when powered? Likely the contacts need cleaned and filed or sandpapered to bring them back to life.

Likely could have been that. Had plenty of spare relays to plug in, so just found one that worked. I've had much better luck with the old school aluminum case relays than the newer black plastic ones, but they are more difficult to find.