Aux. lights short

[Joopin]

MT/R tire pressure

This question is for my brothers jeep actually, he's got a 93 sahara YJ which came with the aux lights on the front bumper. When he bought it the lights were all broken and junk so I bought him a pair of 130w KC slim lights to replace them.
We figured it would be alot faster and easier just to use the existing stock wiring for the new lights, so thats what we did. The stock switch was all crappy so we replaced that with the KC switch too.

We got everything hooked up and went to test them.
We soon found out that the headlights have to be on to have the aux lights on which is fine, just didn't know about that.

So the headlights and the Aux lights are on at the same time, THEN, they turn off, then on again... the main lights AND KC aux lights.
This only happens when he has the aux. lights on, and they turn on and off whenever they want to.

I assume there is a short somewhere, but I just wanted to see if anyone has any ideas they can throw our way.

I know the best way to solve it is just to run all new wiring that came with the KCs, but we want the easy way out!
Thanks

Joop

 

[XJNick]

Hi,

What you describe is NOT likely a short, but instead an auto-resetting circuit breaker cycling between normal operation and tripping due to a circuit overload. If it was a dead short, the lights would likely remain off as the breaker would be triping instantly.

Cherokees use a 25 amp circuit breaker for the headlamps, and normally this powers Only the headlamps, as the fog lamps are routed through a relay which gets its power straight from the battery (it connects to the starter relay through a fuseable link).

So, depending on if the wranglers are similarily configured, this is probably occuring either because 1) your fog lights are trying to take power through the headlamp circuit instead of straight from the battery (if the system is designed where they are on their own circuit), or 2) You replaced the stock foglamps (usually 55w) with brighter lamps and are tripping the headlamp breaker because of it (this only applies if the fog lamp circuit was designed to pull power through the headlamp circuit). :mrgreen:

-Nick :!:

 

[Joopin]

XJNick, I think you may be onto something here. if that circut was only meant for 55w, and I have 130w... then there is a good chance that's our problem.

So the only way to get around that is to run all new wires on a seperate circut from the headlights? I ran my Aux lights direct to my battery actually, perhaps we should do that again.
Thanks for the info!
Joop

 

[jps4jeep]

Add an auxilliary relay inbetween the kc lights and the factory wiring. Thats what I had to do when I put all my lights on the factory wiring. should solve the problem!

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Add an auxilliary relay inbetween the kc lights and the factory wiring. Thats what I had to do when I put all my lights on the factory wiring. should solve the problem!

I was thinking something similar, but since I'm no whiz at electrical problems (I once traded off a truck because it kept blowing tail-light fuses), I wasn't sure where to suggest the extra relay. I was somehow thinking that even with it between the factory wiring and the lights, all that juice would still follow the same route, and still trip the headlight's 55w relay. Or am I way wrong there? I tell ya, I hates electrical problems!

 

[Joopin]

Add an auxilliary relay inbetween the kc lights and the factory wiring. Thats what I had to do when I put all my lights on the factory wiring. should solve the problem!

I was thinking something similar, but since I'm no whiz at electrical problems (I once traded off a truck because it kept blowing tail-light fuses), I wasn't sure where to suggest the extra relay. I was somehow thinking that even with it between the factory wiring and the lights, all that juice would still follow the same route, and still trip the headlight's 55w relay. Or am I way wrong there? I tell ya, I hates electrical problems!

With a name like "Sparky-Watts" I would think you would be a wiz at electrical problems!

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Add an auxilliary relay inbetween the kc lights and the factory wiring. Thats what I had to do when I put all my lights on the factory wiring. should solve the problem!

I was thinking something similar, but since I'm no whiz at electrical problems (I once traded off a truck because it kept blowing tail-light fuses), I wasn't sure where to suggest the extra relay. I was somehow thinking that even with it between the factory wiring and the lights, all that juice would still follow the same route, and still trip the headlight's 55w relay. Or am I way wrong there? I tell ya, I hates electrical problems!

With a name like "Sparky-Watts" I would think you would be a wiz at electrical problems!

Oh, heavens no!! Quite the contrary....my disdain for electricity is more the reason. Read this story on how I got my nickname and you'll understand..... :wink: