Key on, Headlights/spotlights on.

[Azzaw1980]

Hey there. Ive had a look around the forum and dont seem to be able to find any information about this. I have a 1998 Legnum VR4, and have a turbo timer fitted to it. I want to wire both my headlights and my spotlights up so when i turn the igntion on, the headlights/spotlights come on, and stay on until the turbo timer kills the engine. Has anyone done this before? Any hints and tips? a link to a electrical wiring diagram perhaps? Will i need one or two 30amp relays? Any help would be much appreciated. Im doing this for 2 reasons, firstly i drive most of the time with my headlights/spotlights on, and on occassion i forget to turn my headlights off, and secondly, its becoming law soon enough in NZ to have to drive with your headlights on, and i also forget to do this occassionally. Cheers guys.

[foxdie]

When you say headlights do you mean sidelights? ie. how Volvos are, the first position on the light stalk, the dim lights.

This can indeed be triggered by your ignition, I would look more into setting up your sidelights to only come on with the ignition itself rather than the turbo timer.

You may be able to get away with a simple diode from the ignition wire to the sidelight wire, but I'll let someone else elaborate as I haven't had coffee this morning yet :)

[Subaru ETA]

Hey there. Ive had a look around the forum and dont seem to be able to find any information about this. I have a 1998 Legnum VR4, and have a turbo timer fitted to it. I want to wire both my headlights and my spotlights up so when i turn the igntion on, the headlights/spotlights come on, and stay on until the turbo timer kills the engine. Has anyone done this before? Any hints and tips? a link to a electrical wiring diagram perhaps? Will i need one or two 30amp relays? Any help would be much appreciated. Im doing this for 2 reasons, firstly i drive most of the time with my headlights/spotlights on, and on occassion i forget to turn my headlights off, and secondly, its becoming law soon enough in NZ to have to drive with your headlights on, and i also forget to do this occassionally. Cheers guys.

errr did i miss something in regards to it being law to drive with your headlights on?

[miller]

This will soon be law across the world. A lot or European countries it is the law already. Swedes have proven it to reduce accidents.

[Confused]

... and then once EVERYONE drives with their headlights on, people will be used to it, and will start to not notice cars/bikes with headlights.


Look at centre brake lights - a quote from Wiki:


Early studies involving taxicabs and other fleet vehicles found that a third stop lamp reduced rear-end collisions by about 50%. The lamp's novelty probably played a role, since today the lamp is credited with reducing collisions by about 5%.

[VR4WGN]

um i have Auto Sensing lights and they are on and off operated by the T.timer/ignition,but youll haveto leave your controll on the whole time,um look for a sensor and install one its way better,you never haveto play with the lights again,however i am going to hookup the spotlights upto the ignition so they are on when the car is running only,hate flikking the switch the whole time

[Turbo_Steve]

3rd brake light works because you can see it through the window of the car in front of the car in front, thus effectively decreasing your reaction time.

[Azzaw1980]

um i have Auto Sensing lights and they are on and off operated by the T.timer/ignition,but youll haveto leave your controll on the whole time,um look for a sensor and install one its way better,you never haveto play with the lights again,however i am going to hookup the spotlights upto the ignition so they are on when the car is running only,hate flikking the switch the whole time

What exactly would i be looking for when looking for one of these sensors? I have no problem with leaving the control on all the time as that was what i was planning on doing the whole time.

[Azzaw1980]

errr did i miss something in regards to it being law to drive with your headlights on?

Yeah its been on the radio here in NZ for quite a while, i think its nearly in the last stages of passing through.

[Azzaw1980]

When you say headlights do you mean sidelights? ie. how Volvos are, the first position on the light stalk, the dim lights.

This can indeed be triggered by your ignition, I would look more into setting up your sidelights to only come on with the ignition itself rather than the turbo timer.

You may be able to get away with a simple diode from the ignition wire to the sidelight wire, but I'll let someone else elaborate as I haven't had coffee this morning yet :)

I mean main beam, not park beam. The turbo timer just keeps the ignition on after ive turned the key off, so id be wiring thru the ignition somehow. Just need to know how to get them both going with the ignition while not affecting the park lights being used independently (for WOF reasons)

[VR4WGN]

you dont need to turn on your controlls with the sensor unit its auto um just wire the lights to the ign then and before the turbo timer and then itll all cut out then

[Barney]

When you say headlights do you mean sidelights?

Of course technically in law there is no such thing as sidelights. What everybody calls sidelights are considered parking [only] lights. It is illegal to drive on parking lights as they signify the status of the vehicle. (should be illegal if the authorities want to bother their a*ses).

I had the misfortune to be stopped by a man in blue when I was running in daylight with auxilliary (fog) lights on (XR2i). He was only 90 mins from the end of his shift and I was subjected to a full 75 minutes of a law lecture from the dear man! /whip

p.s. Some [most] Volvo owners seem unaware that they can turn off their dim-dipped lights by turning a small grub screw on the face of their main light switch. (C70 series at least)

[Azzaw1980]

Anyways ive decided im just gonna chuck a couple of relays under the dash and just use them to energise the existing relays for the headlights and spotlights. I pulled the steering column and the under dash apart and took apart the headlight/indicator switch. Have 2 plugs there, one bigger one with 4 wires and one smaller one with approx 6 wires. I know which wire energises the headlight relay, but when i put voltage on the line, the relay just keeps buzzing, but the lights stay on. Im half way there i think, but what i do really need is to know why the relay keeps buzzing (clicking), and also if anyone knows where i can get hold of an electrcal wiring diagram. Cheers