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Topic: High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire (Read 5750 times) previous topic - next topic

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

locate your bank of relays behind your system sentry or behind your ash tray / radio area on driver side.

locate the relay that has the below wire colors on it.

figure out how the relay releases from the finger mounting device and extract it.

Just add the jumper wire as shown and you should have low beam elements on while HI beam is selected for increased lighting.

THis is applicable only to cars with the existing auto lamp wiring infrustructure only.

Cars without auto lamp need to hold tight, i need a volunteer to do a couple tests first.

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #1 –
How much additional current load does this add?

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #2 –
Will the bulbs overheat?

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #3 –
Never been a fan of this mod in these cars. The 9006 (or 9004, I forget which) bulbs are not designed to have both elements lit up simultaneously. Overheating the glass envelope of the bulb (and melting your headlight housing) is one major concern, but there are electrical issues as well: In particular, both elements share a single ground terminal, and these terminals can barely manage the current of one element at a time. Start pulling double the current through that terminal and you're almost certainly asking for disaster...
2015 Mustang GT Premium - 5.0, 6-speed, Guard Green - too much awesome for one car

1988 5.0 Thunderbird :birdsmily: SOLD SEPT 11 2010: TC front clip/hood ♣ Body & paint completed Oct 2007 ♣ 3.55 TC rear end and front brakes ♣ TC interior ♣ CHE rear control arms (adjustable lowers) ♣ 2001 Bullitt springs ♣ Energy suspension poly busings ♣ Kenne Brown subframe connectors ♣ CWE engine mounts ♣ Thundercat sequential turn signals ♣ Explorer overhead console (temp/compass display) ♣ 2.25" off-road dual exhaust ♣ T-5 transmission swap completed Jan 2009 ♣

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #4 –
4A per headlamp bulb high beam element at 12.9vdc.
guesstimation on low beam can be 2A,,, i think i am really close on this number,, did not amp clamp it.

12A burnden with high/low together.

additional heat may or may not require interior metal heat deflector upgrade.  I removed mine, cleaned them, added a metal tape adder to the top but thats really just moot.

all good questions and greatly appreciated , thinking stuff through is important to us all.

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Thunder Chicken;408059
Never been a fan of this mod in these cars. The 9006 (or 9004, I forget which) bulbs are not designed to have both elements lit up simultaneously. Overheating the glass envelope of the bulb (and melting your headlight housing) is one major concern, but there are electrical issues as well: In particular, both elements share a single ground terminal, and these terminals can barely manage the current of one element at a time. Start pulling double the current through that terminal and you're almost certainly asking for disaster...


thats  good point on the ground... may have to parallel another in, total of 12A best case is what is see but i do agree.

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #6 –
I don't see problem with ground wire. It's short and relatively thick. The major problem would be overheating of the bulb and the whole lamp. It isn't designed to spread so much heat.

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #7 –
The ground wire isn't the issue. It's the ground terminal on the bulb itself. I've seen many of these terminals overheat and burn up the connector with stock amperages, especially with those cheap-ass blue bulbs (but also on brand name bulbs). Doubling up the current will make things worse. At the very least you should take apart the headlight connector and make sure that female ground terminal is 100% clean, and that it has plenty of clamping load on the male terminal on the bulb. A loose connection here will almost certainly result in turning your headlight connector into a gob of molten plastic snot...
2015 Mustang GT Premium - 5.0, 6-speed, Guard Green - too much awesome for one car

1988 5.0 Thunderbird :birdsmily: SOLD SEPT 11 2010: TC front clip/hood ♣ Body & paint completed Oct 2007 ♣ 3.55 TC rear end and front brakes ♣ TC interior ♣ CHE rear control arms (adjustable lowers) ♣ 2001 Bullitt springs ♣ Energy suspension poly busings ♣ Kenne Brown subframe connectors ♣ CWE engine mounts ♣ Thundercat sequential turn signals ♣ Explorer overhead console (temp/compass display) ♣ 2.25" off-road dual exhaust ♣ T-5 transmission swap completed Jan 2009 ♣

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #8 –
This is one of mine, I'm pretty sure.  I did it, because I have halogen Hella E55 (salvaged from a 2010 Taurus) projectors and only use one light source (9005xbs1).  My hi beams are achieved by using a solenoid to actuate a shutter out of the way.  I would be careful with the heat from running a 9004 at combined output.  Having said that, be aware that I've never run this mod with conventional lights, so I'm going from dead reckoning here and am possibly typing out of my ass. 

This mod is at your own risk, and IF you want/need better lighting, hit up TBirdX3 for a pair of his vacuformed clear lens' and set yourself up with some retrofit.

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #9 –
Will do

I've never had that connector opened up before

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #10 –
readings were better now with a steady battery, good point to question this as my original tests were suited to a battery that was getting constantly discharged.
i was off by one full amp per illumination option which means a lot at this low of a voltage.

just now
hi/low beam amperage for one lamp assy = 8.1A
Batt voltage= 14.0v
*********************i was amp clamped around both high / low beam conductors

low beam amperage for one lamp assy = 3.1A
batt voltage= 14.1v
********************* i was amp clamped around both high / low beam conductors

Front of headlamp lense temp was  consistent as prior tests, temp reached 94degF.

one test i have not done is to extract the headlamp housing and measure the TOP of the housing itself.

Another topic,~ i dont think temp testing is even viable during the winter season and i think someone else having currently 95deg temps "in the sun" , "sitting still" "at idle" would gather the best worse case temp reading of this mod.
At any rate, this mod currently has a total of 11 night time hours of running , i have monitored what i can for operation during the past time and felt comfortable posting the mod.
as with anythng, its only as good as the users ability for bonding or connecting things.

im not really sure i can get good temp simulations without first heating up the housing with a heat gun then measure the temp of the housing, then turn on the headlamps and see if the temp goes down or holds steady or goes up. 

either way what we do know is that the lights will typically be on during the night.
we know that the ambient air temp to headlamp temp delta increases while both values are decreasng as night time arrives, which is good.
we know that most of the time a car will be moving forward during the time the headlamps are on.
what we want to know is where will the additional heat have its greatest effect and dospoogeent the ground female termination for stress.
What we also want to confirm is that the existing heat sync inside the headlamp is sufficient to disipate the heat and reflect it forward.

I think we can all agree that the amperage demands are not too awfully more than we can accept across the ground lead and we can probably agree that the load is now 16A from the stock alternator.  To me this is a lot of additional load burden but total car loads add up and still fall inside 23A total with the heat on.
this leaves headroom for actuators and inrush as well as other devices so i dont really have a problem with the load.

maybe ill eat my words in a few weeks, in the meantime I would like someone to get temp readings of the housing with better enviromental control so the ambient outside temp is around 90degF.

sound ok to everyone?  thanks again for proding and poking this for the sake of due dillignece.

anyone down south wanna play?

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #11 –
i got the headlamp temp readings just now since it was sorta warm outside.
I am more interested in getting everyones technical take on the delta below and if there is an improvement that can be done to wick the heat if the heat is considered an issue.

***Please note and consider the below readings represent the absolute hottest spot i could detect and in each hot spot, the represnted heat value below only occupied approx 1/2 sq inch of surface area.  There is an instant drop in temps outside the hot spot and these decreases were so substantial that i think the housing is wicking the heat well.


Here are the important heat points measured.............. and good info to save for later.
I would assume you could fill in the missing gap by plotting the below numbers and plot what "hi beam only" would look like.
ambient surrounding temperature was 40degf
Car ran with hi & low beams on (the hi/low on at once mod) for 20min then i changed to low beams and waited about 10min before gathering my initial readings.  I wanted to simulate full heating cycle as installed.

temp's below are in degF

with low beam only:
front of lens= 87
top of housing= 103
rear of housing above rear bulb connector = 166

with hi/low beam on together (hi/low beam modification):
front of lens= 130
top of housing= 145
rear of housing above rear bulb connector = 213

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #12 –
hello,, anyone?

High beam with low beam mod with an easy jumper wire

Reply #14 –
remind me to post a link to peptobismal next time,, this seems pretty hard to digest  lol