High beam control.

[triptych]

Ok here's one for all you electrics genius's!

I am a lazy driver...Here in Scotland most of my driving is on back country roads that are not lit. As the XJ has pretty bad lighting I drive with my high beams on most of the time. What I am trying to do is wire up a switch that i have mounted on my arm rest just beside the hand brake that allows me to kill the high beams when an on coming car approaches. Yeah....I don't want to move my arm the few inches it takes to kill them via the beam selector on the steering column....lazy I know;)

Here is the problem. you would think all I needed to do was tap into the wire that controls the high beam and run wire to my switch. I've done that and when I hit the kill switch it kills the high and low beam plunging me into complete darkness. As fun as that is, I'd like my low beams to stay on.

Can anyone think of a solution?

[4.3LXJ]

Yes, it can be done with a general purpose relay. There are some numbers on them. Take power from the headlight switch directly to #30. 87A will go to the low beams and is the default. 87 will go to the brights. The remaining terminals operate the switch. Pick one for power from the switch and the other will go to ground

[Mudderoy]

Ok here's one for all you electrics genius's!

I am a lazy driver...Here in Scotland most of my driving is on back country roads that are not lit. As the XJ has pretty bad lighting I drive with my high beams on most of the time. What I am trying to do is wire up a switch that i have mounted on my arm rest just beside the hand brake that allows me to kill the high beams when an on coming car approaches. Yeah....I don't want to move my arm the few inches it takes to kill them via the beam selector on the steering column....lazy I know;)

Here is the problem. you would think all I needed to do was tap into the wire that controls the high beam and run wire to my switch. I've done that and when I hit the kill switch it kills the high and low beam plunging me into complete darkness. As fun as that is, I'd like my low beams to stay on.

Can anyone think of a solution?

The first thing I would do is address the poor lighting from the XJ. Upgrade the harness and the lights to the SilverStar lights. Now with the LMC Truck wiring harness you just installed it should be a very easy solution to wire in your arm rest switch to kill only the high beams. You may find that with the increased lighting that you won't need the high beams as often though.

[Carves]

X 2 with addressing the stock lighting first up.

Being an export model XJ ... you should already have the, very good, Cibie lenses, to begin with ... which are very different to the standard U.S. lenses.

Replace the inadequate factory wiring with an upgraded wiring harness ... which is no different to wiring 2 pair of driving lights ...

Then fit some 80w/100w bulbs ... and you might even be impressed - considering they are only little, square headlights.

A pair of proper, aux driving lights, are the go tho .. for rural driving scenarios.


As for your console switch ...

Instead of tapping into the, power in, side of the switch ... you would be better off using the hi and lo beam wiring coming from the switch, after the kick panel fusebox, through a heavy duty "on/on" switch.

... but that still leaves you with the under-rated wiring used by the factory to power the lights.

Personally I would rewire it as a stand alone system using better cable and relays ... so you dont mess with factory stuff.

[triptych]

I'm going to give that relay a try 4.3LXJ. When you say to run the power from the switch, I am assuming the push pull switch as opposed to the beam selector on the column?

Yeah Mudderoy, I fully intend to upgrade the wiring. Been reading that you can get some good results.

Cheers Carves, Driving lights is actually what I'm trying to do. I want to wire it up so I have this set up..

Low beams on, or
High beams on, or
High beams on with driving lights
Kill switch shuts off high beam and driving lights.

Just thought Id leave out the driving lights until I could control the factory headlights the way I wanted to.

Gonna give 4.3's suggestion ago.

[4.3LXJ]

Yes, bypass the high beam selector