piaa mini spots install question

[rucreus]

Looking for some help here,

I bought some piaa 'mini' spot driving lights. I took them to my local auto/electric shop and they said "You don't want us to install them, we'd have to replace a headlight 'module', we will charge you 4 or 5 hundred dollars, and we'd really rather not do it anyway, because it's so much of a pain" And they've never done anything to a Volvo before... ...any lights they have installed have been on Ford or Chev trucks.

Now, what? I had hoped it was quick and simple....

I had hoped to install the two and if they worked well, I was considering buying two more.

I really don't want to install them on a seperate switch... they came with a switch pre-wired with the relay on a harness, but I'd like to tie them into the existing controls so they come on with the high beams and turn off when the high beams are switched back to the low position.

I want to install them so they come on when I hit the highbeams, (wire them into the circuit that controls the up/down toggling of the headlights in the steering column headlight control stick.

Can I do this? Will I need some kind of new 'module'? Is it beyond my doings? ....or is this recommended to be installed by the dealer only.

(closest dealer is about 200 miles away, no other auto/electric shops nearby that I'd want to entrust with my car....)

As an alternative, can I install them with the supplied switch, and is this going to cause any problems with the computer controlled circuits on the car?

If I can install two, is there a reason not to try to install 4 the same way? ...or what would I have to do to install 4?

Anybody else installed these small spots? .....or know what I might have as options now? (closest dealer is about 200 miles away, no other shops in this small town that I'd want to entrust with my car...., so it's do-it-yourself or head out for the dealer) What do ya think? I'm wanting some advice.

[F0RWARD]

400-500 is Very-Very unreasonable price. Installation of additional auxiliary lights by dealer (Volvo original part made by hella) 200 USD.

http://www.volvosite.ru/volvoparts/XC.JPG

[AWD*V70XC]

I know that there was something about installing extra lights on the car that they would play havoc with the computer system because the voltage etc is regulated by the computer and so on, on the other hand LED lights draw little or no power and I was going to put these into the back of my car without any damage (I hope).

Going to the 'extremes' that you are talking about, I think a word with a good auto electrician would be a good start, also the positions of any lights in and around the front of the grill could affect the airflow over the three radiators and could start to screw up the electrics/electronics of the car because you are modd'ing it above its potential.

[rucreus]

http://www.volvoxc.com/volvo_photo_gallery/albums/userpics/DSC00598.JPG

The first phase spots are now mounted.... preferred wiring is not complete as yet, but I did find what I think may be a plausible wiring diagram and (just possibly), instructions for wiring into the headlight high beam controls....

When the project is complete, (...and hopefully, successful.), I will post more pics, links and instructions.

As you can see from the picture, very little surface area of the radiators will be affected... living in Alaska where temps very, very rarely exceed 70F, I don't anticipate any cooling restrictions that would be problematic... maybe in the tropics, but not here....

[Art]

Would this help at all? :)

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b249/Batstar/Lightingelectricaldiagram.gifhttp://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b249/Batstar/WiringLegend.gif

[rucreus]

Thanks Art,

I think it may be easier than that diagram may make it appear though.....

I found this (http://www.r-series.org/hlwires.html) chart also....

And I think this (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y102/defgh1/RelayWire.jpg) shows a schematic for adding a relay into the high/low motor control that will 'allow' the fog lights to be on in either High or Low operation.

Here (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y102/defgh1/FogModKit.jpg) is a photo of the parts needed for that mod....

I got the info on those modification from the Swedespeed R forum.... (here's a respectful tip of my hat to Jim Lill and Doug H over there, they did a bunch of work already that's been real helpful.)

There's a whole long series of modifications described in some posts there to enable the fog lights to be a 'boost' for high beam mode.

I think I want to 'add' another relay off of the reflector motor circuit that will control the on/off of the additional lights. I only want to use the motor circuit to actuate the relay, I'd pull the actual lighting power from another unused 'always-on' circuit so as not to cause a power voltage/amperage surge/drop in the motor circuit itself.

The goal will be for the fogs and the additional spot beams to come on when the high beams are actuated, but even though the fogs will continue in the low beam mode, the spot beams will go off when in low beam mode.

That way the headlights can be adjusted fairly high, with the fog lamps filling in the short range drop off and the spot beams can fill in that center of the road black out that I notice in the further limits of the stock high beams.....

I like the stock look, the clean lines of the front of the car as it's been designed, ....I'm attempting to preserve that as much as is possible.

I'm just trying to improve the lighting to what I think is needed for safe driving on unlit roads full of moose, etc, ........without having to resort to brush bar mounted giant pie plate sized aircraft landing lights....

Making the whole thing 'invisible' to the computer is preferrable, even if it might take some additional switches/fuse connectors being installed in the circuit. That way I could 'switch' the modifications 'off' before going in for warranty work.

It's do-able, (I think), thanks for the schematic, it all helps when trying to figure out how to 'hack' into the computerized controls on one's Volvo.

Progress may be slow, but I will continue to document my attempts and what I learn... (and I welcome all assistance, questions, or even the occasional criticism of others)

{[Edited to append incorrect second link....} Art... (or maybe the moderators),.....maybe you could edit your post to 'shrink' the image or just change it to a link to the image.... that big image appears to have 'stretched' the thread.

[F0RWARD]

[QUOTE=rucreus]http://www.volvoxc.com/volvo_photo_gallery/albums/userpics/DSC00598.JPG

Hi )
Do you have close view of your new lights? [thumbup]

[rucreus]

Here are the mock up mounts, ......'note', they are ''unfinished''....

..the lamp housings and the quarter inch plate aluminum brackets will soon be painted with a flat black paint.... (the brackets are very solid, no vibration or jiggling)

...final 'finished' appearance will be much improved from this 'rough' mock-up,

....my final finished plan, assuming I can make them work the way I want, calls for a shroud on each mount to be adapted/created that will 'cover' the fasterners from view. (I have some plastic 'sleeves' from a set of seat belts that should work real nicely, they are an almost perfect match to the texture of the cladding on the car, ......that should really clean up the installation and integrate it with the black plastic cladding on the car

http://www.volvoxc.com/volvo_photo_gallery/albums/edit/preview_ffb5c52d.jpg

..also note, very little restriction for the air flow to the radiator.

[F0RWARD]

Hi )

Do you anticipate such pattern ?http://piaa.ru/categories/images/th/15.jpg

[rucreus]

Although any light will continue to spread it's beam the farther away from the source you measure,

....the beam pattern on these PIAA's is narrow and focused... (part #00260)

I can't say at what distance a 25 degree spread will be achieved with these yet, haven't done any measurements of beam pattern at any distance yet....

I can't tell from your illustration what distance they measured to achieve that pattern of 25 degrees but the simple answer is yes, they are a narrow beam as opposed to a flood type light.

Where I'm hoping to boost vision is right in the center of the road, so aiming is close set also.

[F0RWARD]

....the beam pattern on these PIAA's is narrow and focused... (part #00260)



Is it yours?
http://piaa.ru/categories/images/th/11.jpg

[rucreus]

yes, Forward, .....that looks like the same PIAA light set I have in the mockup now...

I also hope to be running tests on these similarly sized Hella lights...

http://www.volvoxc.com/volvo_photo_gallery/albums/userpics/thumb_hella_de.jpg these are Hella Micro DE's....

later...

[F0RWARD]

yes, Forward, .....that looks like the same PIAA light set I have in the mockup now...

I also hope to be running tests on these similarly sized Hella lights...

http://www.volvoxc.com/volvo_photo_gallery/albums/userpics/thumb_hella_de.jpg these are Hella Micro DE's....

later...

Hi) Basically this is the pattern of DE Xenon lights. Looks grate.
http://www.hella-russia.ru/img/dexen.jpg

This is my set already installed as a high beam . Pic’s are coming )http://www.volvoxc.com/volvo_photo_gallery/albums/userpics/normal_Hella%20FF.JPG

[F0RWARD]

This is my new high beam lights. Everything is original Volvo parts except the spotl

http://www.volvoxc.com/volvo_photo_gallery/albums/userpics/normal_High%20beam%20switch.jpg

http://www.volvoxc.com/volvo_photo_gallery/albums/userpics/normal_High%20beam.jpg

[SteveL]

400-500 is Very-Very unreasonable price. Installation of additional auxiliary lights by dealer (Volvo original part made by hella) 200 USD.

http://www.volvosite.ru/volvoparts/XC.JPG

Are these lights available in the U.S. ? I also saw them here:

http://acctest.semcon.se/en-GB/P2X/safety/see-and-be-seen/VCC-249429.htm

and here:

http://www.volvocars.com.au/VolvoOwnership/Accessories/?model=XC70

I can't seem to find any U.S. part numbers for these.

[F0RWARD]

[QUOTE=SteveL]Are these lights available in the U.S. ?

IMHO they are available worldwide. [thumbup]

[SteveL]

[QUOTE=SteveL]Are these lights available in the U.S. ?

IMHO they are available worldwide. [thumbup]

Then how would I go about getting the entire kit for these lights:

http://acctest.semcon.se/en-GB/P2X/safety/see-and-be-seen/VCC-249429.htm

[F0RWARD]

Then how would I go about getting the entire kit for these lights:

===Just go to the volvo dealership and show printout with pic

[ForestRanger]

So does anyone have an actual "how-to" for doing this? I want to get some auxiliary driving lights and have them hooked up to an independent switch that would then activate them with the high beams (i.e switch on, spots & regular high beams come on when high beams activated; switch off, only regular high beams come on when activated).

[Ozzie]

IIRC, Volvo auxilliary spotlamps installation instrutions are in the link below. It should help you with your project.


http://accessories.volvocars.com/AccessoriesWeb/Accessories.mvc/en-US/US/all/all/all/all/all/PartNumberSearch


oz

[ForestRanger]

Huh.... well, no matter what relevant words I use I get no results searching on that site. Even "lights" returned no results.