led light bar wired to work with only high beams? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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led light bar wired to work with only high beams?

seth matthews

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OH
Year, Model & Trim Level
2013 Explorer XLT
First of all, I'd like to start by saying I dont live in town, I work nights and hardley ever see anyone on my way into work untill I get to the interstate (where I'd only be using my low beams anyway) My intention is not to use the light bar irresponsibly. That being said. I'd like to wire my Light bar to only come on when the High beams are on. I understand these explorers only have one filament, and a shutter to change the beam pattern. has anyone ever been able to wire this up? My thoughts are if I can wire a relay to the shutter wire, would that work to trigger the led bar on and off? I know the plug to the headlight housing is a 4 wire plug. I'm assuming its bulb pos. Neg. and shutter Pos. Neg?

headlight_wiring_b8f88c1ddac2a05aa87efa8eb9c90e5d54b2f4f2.png
 



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Wish I could offer some advice but your idea sounds great. I will follow this post and hope you get responses.
 






It's pretty easy, I did it with my bar. You're on the right track, all you need is a relay.

The Highbeam wire is one of the wires going into the headlight housing (obviously) and you can easily find it with a multimeter (if memory is correct, I think it's blue, but don't take my word for it, I'd have to check when I get home). I tapped it outside of the plug itself, as that's easier than messing with pins in a plug. The wire was doesn't have much give, so it's a bit of hand-scratcher to get the tap on. The wire tap will serve as your trigger, as - as long as it's hot, the relay will stay on, and thus the lights.

I used a posi-tap to tap the wire, but you can use any sort of tap. I find posi-taps so much easier and less "invasive" than other taps.

For those that don't know it already, a standard car relay is wired as follows:

main-qimg-1cc3b40298bcbc80defc1434db8a8fe1.webp

Things you'll need:
1. Some extra wire (ideally a black one for the ground and some other not-red color for the trigger, I tend to use yellow for triggers so I can differentiate them) ($1)
Edit: Make sure the gauge is thick enough for the amps you need for the bar (probably no more than 10 amps)
2. A standard car relay ($5)
3. Crimping tool + connectors (a cheap tool, $5, connectors, $3)

So, to translate the wiring you need into that relay diagram:

Wiring:
1. The High beam tapped wire goes into pin 86.
2. A wire to either an existing tapped ground cable, or the negative terminal on the battery goes into pin 85.
3. Pin 87 connects to the positive (+) wire on your LED bar (the negative on the LED bar goes either to battery negative (ground) or some other ground). You can put a fuse in between them if you want to play things safe.
4. Pin 30 goes to the positive (+) pole on your battery (or some other battery source)

That will turn it on when the high beams go on.

I have mine additionally wired through some switches that let me control how and when it goes on, but that's probably overkill for what you're asking.

Edit: Found this picture later which is much better

Driving_light_relay_wiring_diagram.png
 






Thank you for your input, it puts me at ease trying this, not knowing how many amps or if the circuit might be infringed doing this. so heres what I found with a multi meter. the purple-ish orange-ish wire is your shutter wire. (for future readers be sure to test before splicing.) if you wanted to do a conversion for fog lights to stay on even with high beams, I figure you can probably cut the power wires to the fog lights, and run them the same way as this diagram, but instead of using the shutter wire, splice into the headlight pos. wire. but be sure to cut the fog light pos. completely since you wont be using the original power source. and always cover your ends of your wires to protect from corrosion and shorting.

shutter_headlight_d6290b1818174a494377c160c65a7b695897ca1d.png
 






Fog lights can be set to be on with high beams using FORScan (bambi mode).

Peter
 


















Seems pretty intimidating once you get into computer coding. I don't know...
 






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