Club 80-90 Forums

Has anyone done a headlight upgrade on a van with day time running lights?
I want to upgrade the headlights on my van and I am thinking of fitting relays and night breaker bulbs, however my van is a 1991 Swedish import and fitted with daytime running lights, dipped beam comes on when you switch on the ignition but at a reduced voltage, on looking in Bentley there appears to be a resister and a load reduction relay built into the system on Canadian vans so I presume it is the same on the Swedish version.
I would like to keep the daytime running lights on the reduced voltage and fit relay to the dipped. Will this be possible and has anyone any ideas how I can do it?
Thanks

It would appear you already have your dipped headlights controlled by a relay, so you won't need another. Just one for main beam.

If you fit a relay each on dipped and high beam lines, between dipper switch & relay plate (the 'tidy' way, me and many others use), everything after (fuses, dim-dip) will carry on working as before. Just check your earths, & the terminals onto the lamps are in good order and renew as needed, and away you go.

PS. I've just scanned and uploaded the 'Daylight driving lights' wiring diagram for 1990 model year to my website, look under Info:Wiring.

(The extra relay is there purely to feed a reduced current into the dipped beam filaments, when the sidelights are on. I haven't figured out why VW used a different circuit for this to the GB 'dim-dip' as it seems to serve the same purpose. Contrary to what I'd assumed, the Scandi daytime lights still seem to be driver-controlled on the main lighting switch, not active all the time the ignition is on, on the 1990 T3 at least.)

Thanks for the info, I can see me having hours of fun tracing wires and also I need to tidy up that area, with it being LHD their is not a lot of room due to steering etc. plus someone has fitted relays and wiring for extra spot and fog lights plus an alarm so it is a mess and maze of wires.
Your right re driver control if you switch on the side lights with the main light switch it cancels the day time running lights and gives you just side lights
Thanks again
Adam

Ah right, thanks for clarifying how the Scandi lights work. I must re-check the diagram.. Give me a RHD T3 every time for access to the relay plate, 'tis pretty good IMO. I've more wiring diagrams, if you need 'em just send me a PM.

syncroandy wrote:If you fit a relay each on dipped and high beam lines, between dipper switch & relay plate (the 'tidy' way, me and many others use), everything after (fuses, dim-dip) will carry on working as before. Just check your earths, & the terminals onto the lamps are in good order and renew as needed, and away you go.

I did this exact upgrade today Andy following a previous post of yours. Have done it a few other ways before but this time went for oe relays and holders and boat anchor chain size wires on earth and one from P terminal.

KIN HELL!!!!!!,

Don't remember my other ones being this good. Cheers for sharing your wiring info chap. Made my drive home tonight most enjoyable, and safe

Good stuff. I really don't understand why some folk go so overboard on headlight relays, I say K.I.S.S. So long as the terminals and grounds are OK, 1.5mm wire to each bulb filament is fine. I've seen pics posted up on here of supposed 'upgrades' that are

I've got a bag of VW 53 relays here and a number of spare VW double relay holders, I must make up some kits and get 'em on 'for sale'.

ELVIS wrote:and boat anchor chain size wires on earth and one from P terminal.

Just for clarity could you tell "us" what / where the P terminal is ?

I hope Elvis won't mind if I reply, the single best webpage I know on T3 electrics:

http://www.t3-infos.de/t3-infos_a.html#zentralelektrik

(E D I T. Soz probably too much info, the P terminals are a group of male blades on the back of the relay plate, at the left, which have a common 6mm connection to battery positive. There are normally several spares for adding additional equipment.)

Tis good, the full answer and the quick reply, all in one

syncroandy wrote:The P terminals are a group of male blades on the back of the relay plate, at the left, which have a common 6mm connection to battery positive. There are normally several spares for adding additional equipment.)

I just realised how useful that is. 11 years of ownership, doing most jobs myself and I never knew that Over the years I have spliced spare +ve feeds from all kinds of random wires behind the dash You never stop learning stuff

I'm so happy you found this info useful.

VW 'Central Electrics' is a great system IMO, it's really quite a flexible and powerful way of integrating vehicle electrical subsystems. Once mastered, it provides those seeking to upgrade or extend their vehicles electrics with the means to do it in a very robust manner. I think if it was better understood there'd be much less of a tendency to 'improvise' solutions, sometimes in a less than ideal way. It was used (in two versions) from 1985 until 2002, so clearly was very successful for VW.

Hi All,
Sorry to hijack this thread slightly.
I have a 1982 van with the early fuse box with the ceramic bullet fuses and I want to do the head light relay upgrade, I have a number of VW No.18 relays that I was going to use but I wanted to put them on a proper base to make it as professional as possible.
Were can I get the bases that fit the 18 relay?? Is there one that will clip to the side/top of the existing fuse box??
Thanks for the help
Pete

The number 18 relay has jumbo size (9mm?) 30 & 87 terminals so you need the correct base for that, which is available in a smaller number of forms than the '53' type relay with its 1/4" terminals. The rating is 40A for both so I'm not sure why the 18 has the bigger terminals.

If you'd been using a 53 type relay, I'd have suggested the 135937501A base, with this one the relay would sit at the same height as the others when clipped to the end of the 'early' relay plate.

I *think* with the 18 type relay you'd need to use a 867937501 base, which I think would still clip on OK, but its more bulky so the 18 relay would be higher up than the others.

You could either order new ones from VW, or if you have a scrapyard nearby, many VW cars up till ~97 will have had these fitted. I think the last 867937501 I got came from a petrol Mk3 Golf.

Hope this make sense..