square hollegen head lights

[rdub]

Hey there Eric I might take you up on that offer to come out to see you ,im on holidays starting 22 of Dec till the 2nd of Jan so ill pm you if i am able if thats ok with ya,like i said i know nothing about wiring i have a numbers fobia, and my brain dosnt work well with messes like this one so thanks for the offer.

[visotzky]

I took the headlights out and checked things with a meter. on the dual beam there is 12v going to one terminal and 6v going to the other, but only the dim light comes on. when i turn the highbeams on then 12v goes to the high beam and zero to the other post and the highbeam comes on. The single bulb highbeams get power whenever the light are on high beam setting or not. nothing seems strange with wiring.

[visotzky]

Some more poking around
Remove fuse #6 dim low beams no HB's flick on hibh beam and works as it should,outer low beams come off and inner hb' come on, but no dual filament HB. no HB indicator either.
remove fuse #5 and no inner hb, 12v to low beam 6v to high on other light. 12v to both when i turn on hb.
After all this i decided to try and hook up the inner highbeams directly to the highbeam feed and ground from the Outer light. result is a low beam with a dimmed Hb inner, and both high beams come on full power when i turn them on. I just hooked it up to test so far but it looks promising. Does this sound like a reasonable thing to do?

[EricN]

Some more poking around
Remove fuse #6 dim low beams no HB's flick on hibh beam and works as it should,

That seems wrong right from there assuming the wiring is the same as the newer models (mine is a late 90). #6 fuse on mine is highbeams, with it out, there is no highbeam at all, ever.
Try this, put everything back to normal, without a DRL (pre 90 shouldn't need DRL anyways). Use your voltmeter, with the headlights connected but hanging out, turn on the low beams, connect the voltmeter + to the battery + and connect the volt meter - lead to the + (yes POSITIVE) wire for the lowbeam. DO the same for the highbeams and note the readings on each. If you have a reading that is more than .5volts or so, that sounds like a problem.
If that checks out, then connect the voltmeter - to battery negative (NOT BODY GROUND, GO RIGHT TO THE BATTERY) turn the headlights on lowbeam, connect the voltmeter + terminal to the headlight ground wire (remember the lights need to be on) and look for a reading similar to above, less than .5v. Post up the readings and I will continue from there.
This is called a voltage drop test. When the circuit is loaded up, you use it to track down where in the circuit energy is getting used. Start here and we will narrow it down.

[visotzky]

Did as you told me and everything checks out so far.small readings, except for high beam post on the low beam with it on low beam (12v).The needle did not move testing the grounds. I's kind of like the low beams power the high beams through a splice somewhere?It seems that both 5 and 6 fuses are for HBeam at least it's what it says on the fuse cover (japanese girlfriend).

[Terence Yuen]

As far as I know, the wires should be as follows:

Current flow to the outer lamps:

• COMBINATION SWITCH, RY, FUSE No. 7, RW, HEADLAMP LO, B, Ground.
  COMBINATION SWITCH, RG, FUSE No. 6, R, HEADLAMP HI (& instrument cluster), B, Ground.

Current flow for the inner lamps (4-lamp models):

• COMBINATION SWITCH, RG, HEADLAMP RELAY (coil side), B, Ground.
  FUSIBLE LINK, WR, RB, FUSE No. 5, RL, HEADLAMP RELAY (switched side), RB, HIGH BEAM LAMP, B, Ground.

Val, is this consistent with your observations?

[visotzky]

The wires to the both inner and outer highbeams are RB, otherwise i think that's right.

[EricN]

Did as you told me and everything checks out so far.small readings, except for high beam post on the low beam with it on low beam (12v).The needle did not move testing the grounds. I's kind of like the low beams power the high beams through a splice somewhere?It seems that both 5 and 6 fuses are for HBeam at least it's what it says on the fuse cover (japanese girlfriend).

Sorry it has taken me a while to reply, it has been a busy week.
This part "except for high beam post on the low beam with it on low beam (12v)" has confused the hell out of me. I think you are saying when you have the meter positive on battery positive and you connect the meter negative to the highbeam positive and turn on lowbeams, you have 12v. Is this what you mean? If so, that is how it is supposed to be on both sides. If you leave everything connected like this and turn on the highbeams, you would have almost nothing again.

Ok, so looking at the extremely poor schematics in the wiki. I want to confirm too, the outer headlights have 3 terminals right? One for low beam power and one for ground and one for highbeam power? And the inner headlights are only 2, 1 ground and 1 powered by highbeam wire right? Any chance you could pop both lights out on both sides and let them hang on the wires and take a picture for me? Then I can use it to photoshop you what to test next.

[visotzky]

That's right. Sorry about the bad grammar. I will get a pic in a while, but tis the busy season so it might be a few days. However nothing really looks outa place. What effect would haviing the wires cossed( ground to + and power to ground) on the inner beam have? The headlights are as you describe, 3 posts and 2 posts.
Also in the earlier post about fuse #6 it seems to only affect the HB on the Dual filament bulb and not the inner HB which is controlled by fuse #5.
Cheers

[EricN]

What effect would haviing the wires cossed( ground to + and power to ground) on the inner beam have?

None.
Ok, going through the schematic, I want you to try and find the relay for the inner high beams. If I am right, you should be able to remove it, then your outside high and low beams will work as normal with absolutely no inner high beam illumination, and I am guessing because I cant print the diagram out nicely, that your highbeam indicator will work properly too.
Let me know.

[BCDelica]

Headlight relays (4) can be found above the fuse block and towards the drivers door front edge.

Thanks for keeping us updated on the trouble shooting!

[Terence Yuen]

EricN, do you have the composite dual beam headlamps? I am guessing that you do not have the extra wiring the models with the dual rectangular headlights have.

visotzky, you have a PM.

[john n]

Howdy
The problem is in the headlights themselves, the standard Japanese headlights are internally wired differently than what we have available here. When you change to Canadian lights the common ground is opposite to the standard Japanese lights, this will cause a backfeed through the entire headlight system, causing dull lights and all sorts of odd symptoms.
The fix is to swap the left and right wires in the 3 connector plug in the lowbeam light plugs. Just push a very small drill bit into the slot of the connector and pull out the copper connector and swap it with the opposite one.
Leave the center wire where it is.
I just had to install lights in mine to meet compliance and found the issue, time as a Toyota mechanic wasn't wasted, they have the same problem.
John

[EricN]

Terence, Yes I have the newer style lights. I was just trying to use an extremely poor and borderline unreadable schematic that I am not sure even applies along with some semi-educated guesses to find a fault without seeing a vehicle.

John - That pretty much explains everything.

[visotzky]

John i sure hope you are right. will give it a try as soon as i can.