My car! (SubaruNation, 06/7 TMIC Updated)

beatersubi · Post by **beatersubi** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:52 am

So, how 'bout that hood scoop install?

SubaruNation · Post by **SubaruNation** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:18 pm

evolutionmovement wrote:You didn't use a relay? The switch will melt. I got a Hella kit for my GL sedan that had a bad relay with it, being too lazy to replace it I directly wired through the switch. The first one lasted a few weeks, the second one about the same but shorted so that the lights were constantly on, the third was rated for 30A and still went bad (I was stubbornly determined to get them to work at that point). Strangely, it usually didn't blow the fuse any of those times and I believe I used 20A. I got a new relay before the car burned up.

You can get power for the switch from something other than the lights if you want to use them without the headlights (which is generally illegal, but works better in near white-out snow). Onsystem the wagon, I tied them to the parking lights.

so uh.. i am not sure.

what we did was.. put a wire right onto the battery and ran it through the firewall to the switch, and from the switch i made a ground ontop of my security system metal plate deal. then we ran wire from the switch to both fogs and yeah.
the switch has a light that turns on, and we only used 3 wires... i didn't use the other 2 "accessory" business wires.
we wired a fuse 30 something ?watt, i dunno..it's green" directly into the fuse in a circle so i guess that would prevent anything crazy from going on.

i think i'll take a better picture for you guys b/c i dont want to melt stuff

ericem wrote:lol what I mean't by "did you just use a wire" is some people just jump the fuse with a wire and call that a fuse.

yeah i think thats what i'm trying to describe..? i think ??

i dont know if anything i did was illegal..i just wired them so they would turn on when i want to blind people, and off when i dont want to blind people.
ha ha.....

jamal i'm sorry

yeah and bmxkelowa, the lightslook way better i think blacked out,
gives the car more personality!
the 2.5rs's do it all the time and they look MEAN.

GREAT IDEA SON!

beatersubi wrote:So, how 'bout that hood scoop install?

ok

i'm getting to it... i just need to organize my pics of the install for everyone, aka get them off my phone

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 8:44 pm

Your chances of getting a ticket for fog lights not being on with the mains has got to be only slightly better than winning the lottery. I had cops that hated my cars and I never got even a spoken warning about several minor items that were technically illegal.

You didn't use a relay. The relay allows you to use a low power circuit to control a high power circuit. The relay takes power from something small (like parking lights, but you'll only be able to switch the fogs on when the parking lights are powered on.) and runs to the switch and provides power for your low-powered light switch. The high-power circuit of the battery and the fog lights are also wired through the relay. When you turn the fogs on, a small coil in the relay is energized by the low-powered circuit, which, in this case, closes the high powered circuit, transferring power to the fog lights. The high-power circuit is designed to handle the amperage that the switch is not. And of course, you'd still want an inline fuse for the high-power circuit.

A relay is only a couple bucks and can be had at any auto parts place that sells aftermarket lights. The wiring is pretty straight forward and will be marked out so you know which wire goes where.

jamal · Post by **jamal** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 8:47 pm

I'll take some pictures of how my stuff is wired later today.

SubaruNation · Post by **SubaruNation** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:59 am

evolutionmovement wrote:Your chances of getting a ticket for fog lights not being on with the mains has got to be only slightly better than winning the lottery. I had cops that hated my cars and I never got even a spoken warning about several minor items that were technically illegal.

You didn't use a relay. The relay allows you to use a low power circuit to control a high power circuit. The relay takes power from something small (like parking lights, but you'll only be able to switch the fogs on when the parking lights are powered on.) and runs to the switch and provides power for your low-powered light switch. The high-power circuit of the battery and the fog lights are also wired through the relay. When you turn the fogs on, a small coil in the relay is energized by the low-powered circuit, which, in this case, closes the high powered circuit, transferring power to the fog lights. The high-power circuit is designed to handle the amperage that the switch is not. And of course, you'd still want an inline fuse for the high-power circuit.

A relay is only a couple bucks and can be had at any auto parts place that sells aftermarket lights. The wiring is pretty straight forward and will be marked out so you know which wire goes where.

....

jamal wrote:I'll take some pictures of how my stuff is wired later today.

Dear god please do!

jamal · Post by **jamal** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:33 am

Here's my driving light install:

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=21043

I'll re-host all those broken pictures when I get home since they're on that computer.

I'll also finish up my light bar and do a nice write-up for that eventually. Oh and I just bought another set of driving lights.

SubaruNation · Post by **SubaruNation** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 6:54 pm

you are the master of all lights

and i will post the 2.5rs hood scoop install on friday.
i have two finals and i need to get that out of the way 1st.
sorry for the delay

SubaruNation · Post by **SubaruNation** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:26 am

ok so i dont have a picture but what we did to better clarify this is wired a FUSE into the SWITCH, its a 30 amp fuse that is before the switch and attached to the wire, to prevent the power surge.

and yeah..

BAM!
fog switch wiring shots!
the black wire is power from the battery, one is ground and one is power from the switch to the fogs.
and the fuse is there too like i tried to describe...

comments greatly appreciated

smh0101 · Post by **smh0101** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:24 am

Did my wiring diagram work?

And they look great! Keep it up!

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:00 am

Tell me there are connectors under that tape.

asc_up · Post by **asc_up** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:01 am

Lol I think I see blue connectors...

jamal · Post by **jamal** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:19 am

yeah you need to put a relay in there. Sorry I don't have any good pictures. Next weekend I'm hopefully re-doing all my wiring so I'll be posting lots of pictures and diagrams then.

Hocrest · Post by **Hocrest** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:17 pm

jamal wrote:I'll re-host all those broken pictures when I get home since they're on that computer....

Are you still planning on doing this? I'd like to see them...

jamal · Post by **jamal** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:39 pm

Yes I am, sorry they're in a folder somewhere that I haven't sorted through. But here's a relay:

This particular one even has a nifty built-in fuse holder.

On the bottom there are four (or five) terminals labeled 30, 87, 85, and 86:

What you do is connect the battery to the lights through the relay. And then the switch gets connected to the other side of the relay. This way the high current circuit that powers the lights is shorter and doesn't go to the actual switch. The switch itself only sees a very small amount of current (enough to power the relay and the light in the switch if it has one). Running 15A through a switch on your dash is not a very good idea and the switch will probably melt.

So what you do is connect the battery + to terminal 30, and the positive side of the lights to terminal 87. Then on the other side of the relay you can tie into a +12v source in the dash or the low beam or parking lamp wire and run the switch inline with that.

So, for example, if you wanted to have the fog lights come on only with the low beams, you could connect terminal 86 to the switch and then to the low beam wire, and then 85 to the headlight common wire. So then the relay would only close when the switch is on and the low beams are on.

Or, if you wanted to be able to turn the fog lights on at any time, you would connect 86 to the switch and to a +12v wire (like for the dash lights or whatever) and then ground terminal 85.

I think... Vikash?

SubaruNation · Post by **SubaruNation** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:45 pm

smh0101 wrote:Did my wiring diagram work?

And they look great! Keep it up!

THANKS!

i didn't really use anyone's wiring diagrams b/c i couldn't understand them..

evolutionmovement wrote:Tell me there are connectors under that tape.

ha ha i'm not that retarded with wires!

jamal wrote:yeah you need to put a relay in there. Sorry I don't have any good pictures. Next weekend I'm hopefully re-doing all my wiring so I'll be posting lots of pictures and diagrams then.

ha ha seems it's pretty important i need a relay

ok if i can get pictures and a kindergarten discription then that would help alot

thanks guys!

and thanks again 4 the switch hocrest

SubaruNation · Post by **SubaruNation** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:46 pm

we posted at the same time.

and i am lost

and my fuse thats wired to the switch is a 30 amp green one

Saskatoon Subaru · Post by **Saskatoon Subaru** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:26 am

after seeing that picture of the wired switch, i'd just like to say, soldering is always the best option

SubaruNation · Post by **SubaruNation** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:28 am

i don't have one

SubaruNation · Post by **SubaruNation** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:31 am

bump

the fuse on my switch is a 30 amp, am i ok jamal or should i do the relay

jamal · Post by **jamal** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:33 am

Actually I've always heard it's better to crimp wires. Connections that are only soldered will wear out and break eventually due to the vibrations in a car. Just make sure you have a quality crimper and use heat shrink, and you can still solder the crimped connections if you so desire. I'm going all out on my upcoming harness. I should go pick up a real soldering iron instead of the radio shack piece of junk I have.

And yes, you need the relay. The fuse is to prevent the car from burning down; the relay is to prevent the switch from catching on fire.

Saskatoon Subaru · Post by **Saskatoon Subaru** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:36 am

SubaruNation wrote:i don't have one

have on what? Bernzomatic Acid Core Solder $4.49
Micro Jet Torch torch $9.99

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:37 am

I think he meant soldering the bare wire ends together. Crimping is the way to go for connectors. I definitely recommend heat shrink tubing, especially for anything in the engine compartment. And as I mentioned earlier, you almost certainly melt the switch, fuse or no fuse.

I'd bet you can find a decent soldering iron cheap on ebay or something. I recommend lead solder if you can find it anywhere. I have a 5 lbs. roll I grabbed at an old job as they were moving to lead-free. Yeah, it's not nice for the environment, but it's tit to work with.

Saskatoon Subaru · Post by **Saskatoon Subaru** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:44 am

jamal wrote:Actually I've always heard it's better to crimp wires. Connections that are only soldered will wear out and break eventually due to the vibrations in a car. Just make sure you have a quality crimper and use heat shrink, and you can still solder the crimped connections if you so desire. I'm going all out on my upcoming harness. I should go pick up a real soldering iron instead of the radio shack piece of junk I have.

And yes, you need the relay. The fuse is to prevent the car from burning down; the relay is to prevent the switch from catching on fire.

if you solder the bare wires together and then cover it with heat shrink. I guarantee my soldered connections will last way longer than any crimped connections.

i find a torch work's best for soldering. Me and the other 4 mechanic's use micro jet torches.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:57 am

Jamal, you're basically correct. There's much more information on relays online if anyone's inclined to learn more.

I don't like that particular relay, though. Hella likes to package those fused relays with their auxilary lights, but you really ought to have the fuse as close as possible to the power source while placing the relay as close as possible to the powered device.

A good crimp or a good soldered joint will do just fine. The problem is a poor crimped joint or a poorly soldered joint. It's easier to get a proper crimp than a good soldered joint, though, which is why all the OEM connections are crimped.

jamal · Post by **jamal** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:15 pm

Conveniently enough I have one of those in my car already and it is very close to the battery. I'm going to get one of those hella 6-fuse holders and replace the relays though so I can use all the empty space behind the passenger headlight (no abs).

But I've always wondered how far is too far. I didn't plan on any runs from the battery or alternator longer than the stock alternator to fuse box wire.

Anyway, I found those pictures and there's nothing of how to actually wire things so I'm just going to let that thread die and make a new one.

legacycentral bbs

A forum for 89-94 BC-BF(BJ) Legacy Owners and Fans

My car! (SubaruNation, 06/7 TMIC Updated)