Hella's blew relay, replaced now lights aren't as bright

My Hella's blew the Hella relay and I replaced it with a Pilot relay I picked up at Advance Auto. The Pilot Relay says it can handle 4 off road lights, then why are my Hella's dimmer? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Bill Kemp]

Probably poor connections somewhere. Not getting enough juice.
If you have elect. tester unplug a light & see how many volts are getting to the lights. It could be the new relay is bad. Pull the wires off the relay and touch them together and see if the lights are brighter.
No matter what its a PIA.

 

[edlmann]

My Hella's blew the Hella relay and I replaced it with a Pilot relay I picked up at Advance Auto. The Pilot Relay says it can handle 4 off road lights, then why are my Hella's dimmer? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Just a thought. IIRC, some of the Hella relays have a fuse on the side built into the relay housing. Could that "bad" relay just be a blown fuse? May be something else going on here.

 

[Robman7835]

The relay in itself doesnt power your lights. The relay just "switches" the power on comming from an existing location( most likely the battery). Sounds like a grounding problem....i had the same thing happen to my normal headlights, i just fixed the ground and they worked fine......just giving some suggestions...i could be wrong

 

[bamacraig]

I am going to check all the wires on Saturday, I am leaning towards the ground, although it has been hooked up this way for over a year.