02-05 saturn vue All 4 headlights on?

[RGRG68]

Just wondering if anyone has modded the lights to all stay on when HB's are on. And if so how you do it without popping fuses... Looks like one 15a fuse for each side only.

[SylenThunder]

I just tapped a relay into the high beams that will send power to the low beams when they are on.

You can maybe do it a bit easier by picking up something like this....
https://www.theretrofitsource.com/wi...splitters.html

I haven't done a lot of research on the latter part though. I just used a spare HID harness I had laying around for the relay.

[RGRG68]

So this doesn't put stress on that circuit? I'm not very good with electrical.

[fdryer]

Find out what low beam and high beam lamp wattage are (owner's manual). Typical halogen lamps are 55 watts so doing some simple math, 55 divided by 14.5(v)=3.8 amps per lamp. If low and high beams are on then that half of the circuit would draw (2x3.8) 7.6 amps, well below the 15 amp fused circuit. 7.6 amps per side.

[RGRG68]

Originally Posted by fdryer

Find out what low beam and high beam lamp wattage are (owner's manual). Typical halogen lamps are 55 watts so doing some simple math, 55 divided by 14.5(v)=3.8 amps per lamp. If low and high beams are on then that half of the circuit would draw (2x3.8) 7.6 amps, well below the 15 amp fused circuit. 7.6 amps per side.

The High beams at 65W and the low are 51W (using Osram nighbreaker unlimiteds for low and Philips Crystal vision for High.. What gauge wire you use on the relay? 14? 16? 1 relay for both lights right? additional Inline 15a fuse in there anywhere? Thanks again

[fdryer]

Ok, using 51w and 65w; 51 divided by 14.5(v)=3.5 amps, 65 divided by 14.5(v)=4.5 amps. Adding 3.5 to 4.5 = 8 amps pers side, still under each 15 amp side. I don't know how wiring with a relay will allow all four lights to turn on but here's the wiring diagram. It is either already thought out and someone has this info or you're going to have to figure it out with some help from someone familiar with electrical wiring. The body control module uses discrete low voltage commands to run lighting. This project can vary from difficult to very hard as there are several ways to add wiring just to turn on all four lights. Ideally, my presumption is a circuit that triggers off high beams being powered up to turn on low beams with the option to disable it and automatically revert to normal low or high beam lighting. For safety and trouble free operation, lighting mods should allow a return to normal lighting with a switch.

[RGRG68]

Thanks for the diagram... ! I'll have to brush up on my wiring diagram-ese ..

[RGRG68]

I went and got a 40A 4 prong relay and an inline 20A fuse and some wire.. Not to try and figure out what to do with them..

[Bismarck318]

In gods name why? aside of annoying oncoming traffic, but if you must (seems like headlamp brightness requirements & laws are never enforced).

Holding my bright switch half way both sets can stay on, but eventually you will smell something burning, so imagine something isn't happy. .. plus my DRL resistor is shot.

[RGRG68]

Originally Posted by Bismarck318

In gods name why? aside of annoying oncoming traffic, but if you must (seems like headlamp brightness requirements & laws are never enforced).

Holding my bright switch half way both sets can stay on, but eventually you will smell something burning, so imagine something isn't happy. .. plus my DRL resistor is shot.

I'm sure you were going for effect with the "God's name why" question. Lets leave Him out of it (even though I'm sure He wants me to see well on these unlit, 120' tall pine tree infested country roads). That's why. Pitch black roads at night and me not wanting to try to shift my 5-speed, hold the wheel and pull the headlight switch back while loading the magazine of a 9MM and smoking a cigar.. Too many things to do at once.

[Bismarck318]

Originally Posted by RGRG68

Pitch black roads at night and me not wanting to try to shift my 5-speed, hold the wheel and pull the headlight switch back while loading the magazine of a 9MM and smoking a cigar.. Too many things to do at once.

You forgot the all important texting on the mobile phone!

They have an ashtrays in the Vue?

[tcndeb]

Originally Posted by Bismarck318

In gods name why? aside of annoying oncoming traffic, but if you must (seems like headlamp brightness requirements & laws are never enforced).

Holding my bright switch half way both sets can stay on, but eventually you will smell something burning, so imagine something isn't happy. .. plus my DRL resistor is shot.

Didn't realize that there is an actual law against having all 4 headlights on at the same time. Can you provide a link to said law?

[SylenThunder]

Originally Posted by tcndeb

Didn't realize that there is an actual law against having all 4 headlights on at the same time. Can you provide a link to said law?

The only laws I'm aware of limit you to 4 headlights, or 6 total light sources. (i.e. 4 headlamps and 2 foglamps)

@Bismarck318 It's not something you would have going when there is oncoming traffic. However on long dark roads in the country where you are likely to have animals crossing, having the most light is a good thing. Switching from low beams to the highs increases your distance, but you lose a lot of nearby light projection. It can make the difference between seeing that deer in the bushes before it jumps out, or not seeing it. Additionally most cars before the early 2000's left the low beams on when you turned on the high beams.

Having the low beams turn off with the highs wasn't normal when the Vue was introduced. DRL's were still getting traction in that period as well, and manufacturers were making a lot of changes in that arena. Early DRL methods were using the high beams at half voltage. Later (around 2002 or so) they changed to using the low beams at half voltage.

Saturn was also kind of like GM's testing platform for some reason.You can see that in a lot of the model designs.


Edit: Went Googling and found this...
Headlight Use Laws for All 50 States
Interestingly, I know Texas is a 6-beam state. That isn't mentioned in the laws listed.

[tcndeb]

I did the 4 headlight mod to my 04 Vue about 10 years ago, and my Blazer about 15 years ago. This is the procedure I used on one of them, although I don't remember which one. I didn't write this, just copied it from the net.

You will need:
Wire Strippers/Crimpers
30 Amp Automotive Relay (try to get one with male spade terminals on it - otherwise ignore the parts about spade terminals)
Electrical tape (I recommend 3M super 33 for these important connections
Female spade terminals (4 of them)
Ring Terminal
Some nice automotive wire. (I used auto speaker wire because I have tons)
Self-tapping screw

So here's a step by step, sorry I didn't get any pictures because I did it at night in my parking lot.

Setup: Take your relay, and use a female spade terminal to connect terminal 30 to a larger gauge piece of wire, or two pieces of your normal speaker wire. I used double 16 Gauge here. This will be our ground. Now, use the other female spades connect terminals 85, 86 and 87 to pieces of wire, make sure you can differentiate between them.


Step 1: Remove a headlight (I used the passenger side because I had lots of room after removing the bong)
Step 2: Decide where you want to mount the relay and cut your wires to length so you'll have enough plus a little bit to work with.
Step 3: Connect terminal 85's wire to the GROUND on high beam side (was pink wire on mine) I midstripped the wire, then used my meter's probe to open a little hole in the middle of the wire, and looped the new wire inside and around, then covered with electrical tape to insulate it. If you don't feel comfortable with this you can use T-Taps, but I will yell at you and call you a terrible installer, and someday they will fail and your car will die. So learn to midstrip and do it right.
Step 4: Connect Terminal 86 to POSITIVE on either of the beams (I used Hi beam - it was an orange wire on both sets of beams for me)
Step 5: Connect Terminal 87 to GROUND on low beam side (this was blue for me)
Step 6: Take Terminal 30's double set of wire, and tape the two wires together as one wire (this makes it cleaner, alternatively you could use wire loom and make it look REALLY nice). Find a place to ground them (I used the big brace up right behind the headlight as I already had a ground point there and ground loops are a pain in the ass - this is why I used the passenger side) Crimp the ring terminal on the wire we're using for ground, and prepare your ground point (grind/scratch the paint off of the area). Now place your screw through the ring terminal and screw it into the ground point. If you have to take that screw out for any reason, switch to a larger diameter screw instead of the self-tapper as they tend to strip their holes out very easily.
Step 7: Re-install your headlight and test it

[Bismarck318]

Originally Posted by tcndeb

Didn't realize that there is an actual law against having all 4 headlights on at the same time. Can you provide a link to said law?

Not necessarily a law, but as automotive lighting has evolved quite a bit since I started driving, standards had to have changed, I would think the high-beams of yesteryear would not have such candlepower (or lumens) as even today's standard low beams. Perhaps I'm getting old but I'm more often blinded by oncoming traffic, or even blinded by a vehicle riding along side of me causing a glare in the side mirror. I noted a brighter lighting on especially Ford vehicles starting in the 90's (would have had to been lens design). Even facing oncoming traffic while sitting at an intersection, may be due to aiming, or the projection angles the newer lamps have.

Back in the day, law enforcement was highly annoyed with an ambient blue glow of a couple of beehive lamps behind my grille, now Green (& even red), headlamps &/or accent lighting on a front of a vehicle is perfectly acceptable. I know some of the kids in my area find it acceptable to drive with high beams on all the time now too. I'm really surprised the auradescent lamps were outlawed what what they allow today.

Back when I had my '73 Ford Police (in 2003) it had the original incandescents, a co-worker slowed down when he saw the eerie glow coming up the freeway behind him.

Originally Posted by SylenThunder

The only laws I'm aware of limit you to 4 headlights, or 6 total light sources. (i.e. 4 headlamps and 2 foglamps)

@Bismarck318 It's not something you would have going when there is oncoming traffic. However on long dark roads in the country where you are likely to have animals crossing, having the most light is a good thing. Switching from low beams to the highs increases your distance, but you lose a lot of nearby light projection. It can make the difference between seeing that deer in the bushes before it jumps out, or not seeing it. Additionally most cars before the early 2000's left the low beams on when you turned on the high beams.

Having the low beams turn off with the highs wasn't normal when the Vue was introduced. DRL's were still getting traction in that period as well, and manufacturers were making a lot of changes in that arena. Early DRL methods were using the high beams at half voltage. Later (around 2002 or so) they changed to using the low beams at half voltage.

Saturn was also kind of like GM's testing platform for some reason.You can see that in a lot of the model designs.

Edit: Went Googling and found this...
Headlight Use Laws for All 50 States
Interestingly, I know Texas is a 6-beam state. That isn't mentioned in the laws listed.

Interesting link (kind of outdated laws, I seldom use wipers with Rain-X, & I live in a lights on with wiper state it "shall" had been worded lights on when raining ). I never took note to when the 4 lamp on was dropped by the manufactures as possibly the newer capsules were outputting sufficient light to meet said requirements... there used to be automotive industry standards on this, I'm sure there still are. I should had inquired on my last round of testing over at Nela-Park, though I wasn't working with the automotive lighting group.

[SylenThunder]

It's from December 2015, so it's not that out of date. How often do they actually make changes to those laws anyway?

Here's another that has a little more detail, and is probably more up-to-date.
https://kensun.com/pages/states

[Bismarck318]

Originally Posted by SylenThunder

It's from December 2015, so it's not that out of date. How often do they actually make changes to those laws anyway?

Here's another that has a little more detail, and is probably more up-to-date.
https://kensun.com/pages/states

Probably a typo below

The only color of lights to be used is white or amber mounted on the front, and red mounted on the rear. Using red or blue colors is legal in Ohio.
Though they doubtfully will enforce this, seen the new Camaros with Red & Blue halo's

Yes the laws were rated by CP (300 being the max in my state), I'm curious what some of these high end lamps are running at.

[Ta2dResqr]

Originally Posted by Bismarck318

Probably a typo below

Yes the laws were rated by CP (300 being the max in my state), I'm curious what some of these high end lamps are running at.

I use a great website called Daniel Stern Lighting. It gives tons of tech including bulb lumens. 1 candlepower = 12.57 lumens (300 candlepower = 3771 lumens) In order to approach this limit you need to use a D2S HID bulb or H4 Rallye 130w bulb.

A great upgrade for our vehicles discussed on this page is the HIR mod. Stock we are looking at 1000/1700 lumens for low/high beams. The HIR mod uses the same wattage and produces 1870/2300 lumens. The other added benefit is lifespan. Stock bulbs are rated at 360/320 hours. HIR are rated at 1000/400 hours. The bulbs cost about $80 for all 4 on Candlepower Inc. website. I have purchased from them a couple times with good service. Both Daniel Stern and Candlepower offer information on upgrading headlight wiring, modifying HIR bulbs to fit our housings and I believe there is even a link to a wiring diagram to use all 4 bulbs in high beam mode.

[SnowZilla]

Originally Posted by Ta2dResqr

I use a great website called Daniel Stern Lighting. It gives tons of tech including bulb lumens. 1 candlepower = 12.57 lumens (300 candlepower = 3771 lumens) In order to approach this limit you need to use a D2S HID bulb or H4 Rallye 130w bulb.

A great upgrade for our vehicles discussed on this page is the HIR mod. Stock we are looking at 1000/1700 lumens for low/high beams. The HIR mod uses the same wattage and produces 1870/2300 lumens. The other added benefit is lifespan. Stock bulbs are rated at 360/320 hours. HIR are rated at 1000/400 hours. The bulbs cost about $80 for all 4 on Candlepower Inc. website. I have purchased from them a couple times with good service. Both Daniel Stern and Candlepower offer information on upgrading headlight wiring, modifying HIR bulbs to fit our housings and I believe there is even a link to a wiring diagram to use all 4 bulbs in high beam mode.

Do you have the link to the exact bulbs? Is the wiring modification fairly simple? Are they safe to use with the existing headlamps?

[Bismarck318]

Originally Posted by Ta2dResqr

I use a great website called Daniel Stern Lighting. It gives tons of tech including bulb lumens. 1 candlepower = 12.57 lumens (300 candlepower = 3771 lumens) In order to approach this limit you need to use a D2S HID bulb or H4 Rallye 130w bulb.

A great upgrade for our vehicles discussed on this page is the HIR mod. Stock we are looking at 1000/1700 lumens for low/high beams. The HIR mod uses the same wattage and produces 1870/2300 lumens. The other added benefit is lifespan. Stock bulbs are rated at 360/320 hours. HIR are rated at 1000/400 hours. The bulbs cost about $80 for all 4 on Candlepower Inc. website. I have purchased from them a couple times with good service. Both Daniel Stern and Candlepower offer information on upgrading headlight wiring, modifying HIR bulbs to fit our housings and I believe there is even a link to a wiring diagram to use all 4 bulbs in high beam mode.

Having these riding behind you @ 16000 L (1273 cp) on a higher vehicle F-150/Silverado takes annoyance to a whole new level!

https://www.amazon.com/Torchbeam-Hea...7Z3RGL3Y&psc=1