Outer Limits 4x4 Board

hi all.
i have been trying to work out what is going wrong here. i have a 02 navara 3.0td. i put my hid kit into it and on high and low beam it does not provide light at all. however switching from high and low the hid bulbs do move in and out (high and low).i have tested power to it and all seems good, i figure nissan have gone negative switching in the light socket and hence the no working, but on the navara forum everyone says they are positive switching.. tonight i put the kit loosely into my mates gq wagon to check everything is working and it did on both high and low beam. i even swapped the hid 3 pin plug over from the left hand and right hand navara std 3 pin plug with no difference.

can anyone suggest anything as this really has me stumped.
cheers mark.

swap polarity on the ballast, the battery supply to it, 99% of the time you can just flip the plugs over

jet-6 wrote:swap polarity on the ballast, the battery supply to it, 99% of the time you can just flip the plugs over

ok so i flip the 2 pin plug into the ballast and thats it?

cheers mark.

above did not work.. any other suggestions?

cheers mark.

Have you done any tests to confirm whats actually switching and that all fuses and power is correct?

jet-6 wrote:Have you done any tests to confirm whats actually switching and that all fuses and power is correct?

yes i have done that, it is not switching from the normal 3 pin plug that goes into the headlights... i even dry fitted it to my mates gq and they worked perfect... im not sure what it is but i do know its something to do with the 3 pin headlight/ bulb plug from the navara.. could be negative switching?

cheers mark.

mud4b wrote:

jet-6 wrote:Have you done any tests to confirm whats actually switching and that all fuses and power is correct?

yes i have done that, it is not switching from the normal 3 pin plug that goes into the headlights... i even dry fitted it to my mates gq and they worked perfect... im not sure what it is but i do know its something to do with the 3 pin headlight/ bulb plug from the navara.. could be negative switching?

cheers mark.

So you havent done any tests, you still dont know what the output of your cars headlight plug is,and whats switching, there is your problem!

jet-6 wrote:

mud4b wrote:

jet-6 wrote:Have you done any tests to confirm whats actually switching and that all fuses and power is correct?

yes i have done that, it is not switching from the normal 3 pin plug that goes into the headlights... i even dry fitted it to my mates gq and they worked perfect... im not sure what it is but i do know its something to do with the 3 pin headlight/ bulb plug from the navara.. could be negative switching?

cheers mark.

So you havent done any tests, you still dont know what the output of your cars headlight plug is,and whats switching, there is your problem!

Yes i have, one is earth (top one i think) and the other 2 range from 10.6 to 12v.

cheers mark.

mud4b wrote:

jet-6 wrote:

mud4b wrote:

jet-6 wrote:Have you done any tests to confirm whats actually switching and that all fuses and power is correct?

yes i have done that, it is not switching from the normal 3 pin plug that goes into the headlights... i even dry fitted it to my mates gq and they worked perfect... im not sure what it is but i do know its something to do with the 3 pin headlight/ bulb plug from the navara.. could be negative switching?

cheers mark.

So you havent done any tests, you still dont know what the output of your cars headlight plug is,and whats switching, there is your problem!

Yes i have, one is earth (top one i think) and the other 2 range from 10.6 to 12v.

cheers mark.

If you had negative switching then you would have two earths on the plug and one 12V pin?? Are you taking the measurements with the plug attached or while its not connected.

For a test turn the lights off and check that there is no power (ie 12V+ ) to any of the pins, but your earth connection should be maintained. Turn low beam on and you should get power to one pin and earth to one pin. The remaining pin should not be connected to earth or power.

Now turn high beam on and the previously inactive pin should go to 12V. Generally the low beam pin will deactivate and there will be no power attached to it.

If the test works like this then it should all be okay on the switching side.

The worry that I would have is that low 10.6V that your getting a reading of. That may not be enough to turn on the HID's, hence why they are not working.

stuee wrote:
If you had negative switching then you would have two earths on the plug and one 12V pin?? Are you taking the measurements with the plug attached or while its not connected.

For a test turn the lights off and check that there is no power (ie 12V+ ) to any of the pins, but your earth connection should be maintained. Turn low beam on and you should get power to one pin and earth to one pin. The remaining pin should not be connected to earth or power.

Now turn high beam on and the previously inactive pin should go to 12V. Generally the low beam pin will deactivate and there will be no power attached to it.

If the test works like this then it should all be okay on the switching side.

The worry that I would have is that low 10.6V that your getting a reading of. That may not be enough to turn on the HID's, hence why they are not working.

Sweet as i will give this a go today and test to confirm voltages again. thanks bud i really needed to know this, i can wire a whole car easily but have no idea what was meant to be at a headlight plug..

cheers mark.

ok stuee.

i done your test today and now i think i know what the problem is..

as tested, there is no voltage on any 3 of the terminals (bulb plugged in and unplugged) when the lights are off. this is what i found. this is my version of the plug looking from the front. ( I ^ I )... it sucks but its best i can do..
nothing
negative I ^ I negative...

with the low beam on
11.48v+
nothing I ^ I earth

with high beam on
nothing
11.46v+ I ^ I earth

so i have worked out earth is on rhs of the plug and the lhs and top is switching, now what i think is going on is as far as i know most 3 pin light plugs have the earth on the top pin? if so my h.i.d plug will most likely be this setup so i need to change the pins around?

cheers mark.

dammit, why cant it print it like i wrote it...


the first part by itself is meant to be above the ^...

I can understand your diagrams anyway.

Going by this


it seems to be correct what you have (earth one side and power to either top or opposite side).

cheers stuee for your help, i will give it a go this week and see how it goes.

cheers mark.

Just to let you know that all 3 pin head light plugs have either earth or constant power to one of your side pins not the top. The top is your low beam and the opposite side is your high beam. Constant power means there earth switching (Toyota) Constant earth means there power switching. Hope this helps.

Any luck yet??

hoping to do it tomorrow, but as the above post, im not sure its going to work the way i thought..

cheers mark.

They are working, im not sure what went on to be honest.
cheers for the help.
mark.