I frequently see wiring diagrams for Driving Lights that just don’t work in many cars.
Toyota nearly always and Nissan often use a what is known as “switched earth” wiring for their headlights. They do this so that each headlight can have it’s own 12v supply and fuse, meaning in the event of a problem, you only lose one light.
In a switched earth headlight, assuming you are using a H4 bulb with 3 pins (very common) the power is switched twice. +12V is fed through a relay or switch to the common pin, and then either one of the other pins (one for High, one for Low) is alternately connected to ground through another relay or switch. If you go looking for +12V to power your driving lights or their relay in this system, you wont find it easily.
A far easier method is to always wire the trigger for your relay ACROSS the high beam bulb circuit, instead of from +12v to ground. This means that regardless of the vehicle wiring, positive or negative switched, the driving light wiring is the same.
There are several other benefits to wiring in this manner.
a) It works with either positive of negative switched headlights
b) It avoids problems with the relay not dropping out. The high beam indicator inside the car can trickle enough power through to not let the driving lights drop out. It takes about 8-9V to trigger a 12V relay, but only about 4V to hold it in.
c) It avoids problems with the relay not dropping out due to a poor contact on the headlight connection. This common fault can setup a circuit through the other filaments and cause enough voltage to be present on the high beam filament to hold the relay open. This voltage is far less across the filament than in relation to ground.
So how do you wire it?
It’s easy really. I have gone with text, as many people have trouble with electrical diagrams.
Power CCT (Heavy wire)
Battery – Fuse – Relay (Pin 87) – Relay (Pin 30) – Driving Lights – Chassis (Ground)
Switch CCT (Light wire)
Headlight Common Pin – Switch – Relay (Pin 85) – Relay (Pin 86) – Headlight High Beam Pin
Simply tap into the headlight wires / pins with vampire taps.
Presto – I guarantee it will work.
If you don’t have H4 bulbs, even easier, simply go straight across your high beam bulb wires for the trigger.
Hi is this the same for HID spotlights cheers
Works Like A Charm Thankyou
used your wiring diagram to wire my 100 series landcruiser driving lights perfect result .thanks .arthur
Thank you so much. I don’t know where you are…..but here in Australia General Motors make a Holden Commodore.
I have a 2007 model and I have tried four different wiring set-ups to try and get driving lights to work.
This is the most straight-forward method and the only method that worked.
Thank you so very much.
Greg
P.S. I would believe that the question for the HID lights would be answered as YES. The cicuit would be the same….just with the HID components in their required order and place.
Will this work on H7 head lights and then to H1 high Beam ?
The Headlight Common Pin (+12V) that according to the text, connects to Relay Pin 85. Won’t it fry a relay with a diode (but ok without diode)? Should it be connected to Relay Pin 86 to be consistent with the “common rule”?
Hi Paul
Six years after your initial posting and this info is still helping. Driving lights working as they should on 2009 Hilux – great!. Be wary, however, of some OEM driving light switches which run the led’s in the switch: one for night illumination and another for driving lights ‘ON’. With this simple wiring you may have to disable the driving lights ‘ON’ led within the switch to stop the night light led displaying even with ignition off due to the 12v that is always present at the headlight globe. I just opened up the switch and cut out the appropriate resistor off the little cct board.
thanks again
Lance
power to pin 87 ground to pin 30 headlight common pin 85 high beam wire from H4 connector to pin 86 turn high beam on blows fuse
Just wanted to drop in and say a massive thank you for this information. I spent several hours yesterday going through the wiring diagram and putting a meter on the connections and being completely dumbfounded by not finding a feed from the lights to trigger my lightbar relay.
A google search brought me here and your method worked a charm so thank you again for putting this out there and helping me get my lights running.
All the best,
Jay.
Hey i have a vz commodore exact same senario but instead of lights i have a led light bar and wiring loom to tackle with i have tried to get power out of factory plugs ect
So your saying eg:
Black wire ground – body of car or extend wire to negative side of h4 light
Positive + red wire from switch or both red wires of light bar loom high beam side of plug
Please confirm
Doesn’t work with led headlights in an 80 series cruiser
Both sides of H4. Nothing to ground. Works.
Mistake maybe? Works in everything else, including my 100 series.
Hi, so I did this method and it worked first time. However I did try to wire an on off on switch so I could use my spotties on their own and something went very wrong. I can’t get my driving lights to work at all now. I’ve since disconnected the second side of the switch but still nothing. The relay was clicking but nothing was happening with the spot lights.
Can someone please help. My head is mashed.
Thats looks great, What wiring diagram would need to be added for lights with built in “Daylight running leds ” . My new lights have 3 wires coming out of them, for a 2017 hilux.
Help would be appreciated.
Thanks this was a massive help
Hello sir, i have a h4 9003 led bulb dual beam and a led can bus anti flicker which are 3 pinned’ i wonder if it is doable to hook it to a h7 connector using only the low beam. Which wires should i connect? I mean where will the common ground wire be connected.? Or which wire will be altered? Are there any short circuit instances incase? Thank you very much.
Hi Paul. I hope you get this by way a big thank you for your post regarding ‘switched earth’ on some older Japanese cars. I have been struggling for many days trying to wire-up a pair of LED drive lights on my 2005 RAV4 and found only confusing info online. Your clear and accurate instructions sorted me out and I can only say you are a star, thank you so much. Kind regards, Pete in Haugesund, Norway.
Thank you , works great :)not used to switched earth