square hollegen head lights

[visotzky]

Everybody, John is correct, switched the wires, everything now works as it should.

[john n]

Sometimes you just have to rest on your laurels, because your only as good as your next screw up. My next one is just lurking around the corner, waiting for me.
I read the thread leading up to getting my Delica (last thursday) and had apprehensions, however once I changed the bulbs I realized that they had to be the problem, nothing else was changed. Also I remember when I worked for toyota that they had odd symptoms when a bulb burned out and if you follow the possible variations of back feeds to find a ground it all became obvious - sort of. It is all very obscure, wiring is fun.
John

[rdub]

Yes he is ,i did mine today its all good thanks John

[Terence Yuen]

Yay!

I asked Val what markings were on his headlamps, and he replied:

• 2A1 12V H4656

John and rdub, do your headlamps have the same markings?

The original headlamps of the semi-sealed type with H4 (T5) bulbs were replaced by the sealed type, which I sense were fitted to the US models.

[rdub]

Yes my inside headlights are 1A1 with the 2 prong and the outside lights 2A1 have the 3 prong (highbeam) ill get back to ya on the part #'s i cant recall at this time.

[john n]

Hi
I haven't really checked out what #s etc are on the bulbs, just got what was available at Canuck tire and sorted it out.
Using a multi meter is somewhat difficult with headlights (if that is how you are trying to sort out the bulb internal wiring) because the resistance across bulbs is very low. The easiest way to figure it out is to use light gauge jumper wires and power the light with that, there will be one common ground, a high beam and a low, if you jumper across the high and low beam feeds the light will be dull and is easy to sort out from there.
Again the easy fix is to just switch the two wire connectors as noted earlier.
Cheers
John

[zissou]

Hi. I have the four lamp system on my Deli.

When I first got the truck I first noticed that the low beam was very dim. The high beam indicator on the dash would glow dimly even though the high beams weren't on. Only the outside lights lit up - dimly. When I put the high beams on the outside lights brightened considerably. Nothing from the inside lights. The highbeam indicator on the dash now glowed brightly.

After reading these posts I did the wire swap mentioned by John. Now the outside lights were bright on both high beam and low beam. The highbeam indicator on the dash no longer glowed on low beam. When on high beam the inside lights still did not light up. The multimeter showed 12 volts going to them. I checked the bulbs themselves and they were dead.

Problem solved I thought. I bought two new highbeam lights and replaced the inside bulbs. Bingo - I now had bright lights on both high beam and low beam. The inside lights came on when they were supposed to.

The problem now is that when I am on low beam only the outside lights come on but they are shining into the trees. When I am on highbeam the inside lights kick in but now the outside lights are shining lower to where they should shine if they were on low beam. It's like the outside lights are reversed? I am happy that I now have bright lights on both high and low beam but I don't want to be blinding other drivers.

Did I do something wrong on the wire swap? I swapped the two outer wires leaving the centre wire alone. If I swap the wires back I will get the dim lights again.... Any suggestions?

I don't know if there is a DRL module installed (the deli has passed the inspection). When I have the lights off and the ignition is on there is no light coming from any of the headlights. However the small clear 'driving' light in the bumper is always on when there is a key in the ignition.

Did I do something wrong on the wire swap? I swapped the two outer wires leaving the centre wire alone. If I swap the wires back I will get the dim lights again.... Any suggestions?

Thanks
Steve

[visotzky]

sounds like you just need to adjust the aim. There are a couple of articles on the web. Just do a search for "aiming headlights".

[zissou]

Thanks for the reply.

I could try to adjust them but this would then have the outside lights pointing at the ground when the high beams are on. Is this normal, for the outside lights to point lower on high beam than on low beam? And yes I installed the lights the correct way up. I just checked. http://www.delica.ca/forum/posting.php? ... &f=6&t=984#

[Erebus]

Do you have the 4 square sealed-beam type headlights, or the projector style (like mine).

In the projector headlights, both the low and high beam lights have only single-filament bulbs, so the low beam lights should have the exact same light pattern whether you are on low- or high-beam.

If you have the older lights, then I would suspect the wiring at the bulb is reversed. Sorry, I don't remember the wiring pattern for those.

[zissou]

Thanks for your reply.

I do have the four individual square halogen lights. In effect I did reverse the wiring - as per John's fix. This cleared up the dim lights but now the outside lights appear to be too high on low beam. Did anyone else who performed this wire swap encounter this problem?

What is the normal pattern for the outside lights? Do they normally aim lower on highbeam than on lowbeam? If so then maybe it is just a matter of adjusting the lights?

Thanks everyone for your help. I love this community!

Steve

[Erebus]

Usually the 4-squares have 2 adjusting screws on each light -- one above or below for the up/down adjust, and one beside for the left/right adjust.

I might also suggest finding the H4 replacement lowbeam headlights -- they replace the sealed beams with H4 replaceable-bulb lamps. Much brighter and better aimed light. You can also get H1 highbeam replacements, some kinda thing. Probably about $100 for each pair.

[john n]

HI
If everything is wired properly the only thing left is adjustment, or if you are really persistent you may have managed to install the lights upside down.
I was persistent when I first messed with it and cursed it royally until I figured out that I was the problem and there is a reason for those little nobs on the lights.
John

[zissou]

Thanks John.

Yeah, that was one of the first things I checked...to make sure they were the right way up. I didn't notice any knobs but I made sure the writing wasn't upside down.

I guess I'm still trying to figure out if my wiring is correct. Thanks to your suggestion in this post I no longer have dim head lights but as mentioned previously they seem to be pointing too high. I suppose I can simply adjust them but does it make sense that the outer lights would point lower on high beam than they do on low beam? Because of that I'm not convinced that my wiring is right yet.

Can someone with a 4 lamp deli confirm what the outside lights do between high beam and low beam? Do they point lower when switched to high beam? Perhaps cover the inner lights to test this?

Still in the dark.... well sort of.

Steve

[zissou]

Update... It seems that my wiring was still wrong. I went out tonight and set up some test wires to one of the outside bulbs. I tried different combinations until I hit on the right one. In the end I did what John suggested, swapping the two outside wires and leaving the centre one alone. That left me with brighter lights but then the lowbeams (outside lights only) were aiming too high. I then swapped one of inner most wires with centre one and that seems to have done the trick.

Now only my outside lights come on when on lowbeam. They now point lower and are of reasonable brightness. On highbeam all four lights come on and point higher as one would expect. There may be some slight adjustments to be done but it seems to be fixed now.

Onto the next thing. I still don't have DRL's. I don't know if there was ever a module installed on my van. Where would one look for one? Where are they most commonly mounted?

Thanks for your help everyone.

Steve