i installed my hella 500s about a week ago and they worked flawlessly through Saturday, and then on Thursday i went out for a drive at night and they wouldnt switch on. i checked all my connections and they were all fine, replaced the terminal connected to my battery because it was cracked and still nothing.

i got a multimeter and tested the relay connector piece and all the connections to the 12v constant gave of around 12v except for the switch one but ive got the feeling that i had the switch off so no power was going anywhere. Could this be the relay? ive check all my wiring and fuses and theres no way the bulbs burned out.... im pretty much clueless right now as usual but im upset because theyre brand new.


any information as far as testing the wires for power would be a help to

 

is the switch getting power?
it could be the relay, i would have to look at it to tell you.

 

^ yeah the switch has power because i have it connected to my windsheild wiper fuse and the wipers still work... i also eliminated the switch and connected the two wires together and still nothing so my first guess was the relay like you said but autozone and advance dont have the kind i need

 

Is there power on the wire running from the relay to the lights?

 

Turn the relay so you can back prob the terminals. Turn on the switch. Using either a test light or VOM set to 12V prob terminal 85 on the relay coming from the dash switch. You should see 12v or the test light lightup. If not you have an open circuit from the switch. If that checks out, prob terminal 30 on the relay. You should have 12V there (power feed from battery or where ever you took power from). If you dont have power at terminal 30 back trace it to your power feed. Next prob terminal 87 on the relay there should be power there with the dash switch on. If you dont have power at 87 with the switch on then double check the relay ground at terminal 86 using the VOM set to Ohms to battery ground. If thats ok, then the relay is bad.

You can try jumping terminals 30 and 87 and see if the lights come on. This will bypass the relay and will send power straight to the lights. If the auto parts stores dont have the relays try radio shack.

 

do you have a picture of the relay, i might have one.

or you could just get a relay and a socket from autozone and wire it up.

 

all terminals showed up 12v's a side from the switch one, but like i said i think i had the switch off... im gonna get the multimeter back and retest it to see if it works or not

 

Jeff, I had the same problem with mine a while ago, I figured out it was the relay with a test light (didn't have a voltmeter handy). I had a spare "basic" relay, and made it work by wiring 4 wires from the plastic connector that the Hella relay plugged into. If you find out that your problem is the relay, then you can either cut your wires from the plastic part and hook up female spade connectors to them, then attach them to your new relay. Or if you want to do it my way, just cut 4 2" wires and put a female spade connector to one side, and a male connector on the other. Then its just plug and play from there.

 

so you eliminated that plastic peice the relay plugs into and just used those spade connectors directly to the relay?

 

What I did was eliminate the relay provided by hella, everything else is the same. By adding in the 4 new wires, i removed the hella relay and used my own.

 

somtimes those hella relays can act weird, I used a mod between the stock fog switch and a relay to make mine work and it performed for as long as i used them

i hope you get them to work again

 

so hopefully just a new relay from anywhere as long as its a 30 amp with the same pin set up should fix my problem?

not sure if im following right now but i think and hope i am

 

Any basic 30A relay they sell with the 4 pin setup should work for your lights. You just have to wire it up correctly. I wish I had photos to show what I meant.

 

Just call around and ask for a 4 Pin 12 volt 30 amp SPST Relay

 

well the new fuse worked... its 40amp though so i hope that doesnt create a problem because that was all they had