Hi beams and low beams on at same time

[bbob203]

When I used to drive saturns and hangout on the saturn forums guys would wire up their headlights so low beams would come on with the high beams for more light. Im going to be adding relays to my headlights here soon and wondered what I would have to do to make the lows stay on when the high beams are on. The car is a B3 but that is somewhat irrelevant. Cheers!

 

[starrd]

Look here for B3

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?965205

You need the yellow jumper wire

 

[bbob203]

Thanks that's simple! You think it would be ok to do that mod now w/o the headlight relays?

 

[starrd]

Not sure. You would have to look at the wiring diagram to see if the power supply wire through the headlight switch is large enough to supply the current. I just installed the relays and was done with it.

 

[Big Daddy Roth]

Not sure. You would have to look at the wiring diagram to see if the power supply wire through the headlight switch is large enough to supply the current. I just installed the relays and was done with it.

You need relays for this mod. You will fry your headlight switch. This mod is suggested to be only used for DE's that have separate bulbs for high/low.

 

[_Christ]

I never got the reasoning behind this, personally... you get more light, but to what end? The low beams aren't going to help you see further, even in conjunction with the high beams, so you're just adding unnecessary wear and excess load on the electrical system. (I've had both setups.)

 

[FordGuy100]

On most cars, you can get it to momentarily have both the high and low beams on (my MKIV Jetta for instance). Its night and day different. You get the low beams light output which is great towards the car, and the high beams distance.

 

[GoFaster]

If the vehicle uses dual-filament bulbs (high and low beam in the same bulb), having both on at the same time will burn out the bulbs very quickly. I don't recall if the B3 is like that.

 

[bbob203]

It is dual filament single bulb. I will probably hold off until I get hella de headlights.

 

[burpod]

you do *not* want to run both hi and low beam at the same time in a dual-filament bulb!

 

[_Christ]

Seeing closer to your car isn't necessary at high speed, hence the reason your high beams are aimed and focused further away... if you can't see it with your high beams on, you don't have time to stop anyway lol

 

[bbob203]

I have pretty good peripheral vision having both on definitely enhances it.

 

[thechoochlyman]

I noticed the link at Vortex no longer had photos, so are a few more.

Short jumper wire. I ground the edges so they would fit in the small slots.



Insert into the small vertically-spaced holes in the #10.



Voila.

 

[Steve Addy]

There's actually a factory jumper for just that purpose. I have one somewhere but because both my B3 and my Mk3 are dual filament bulbs I've never used it.

If I run across it I'll post up a picture of it!

EDIT: found a picture of the jumper but haven't been able to locate a part number for it yet.

Steve