Evening all,

I have these Volvo spotlamps fitted (thanks Pete & Jos for helping to get the final bits together )



but they aren't wired up yet. It's a bit complicated over here, you're allowed to have up to 6 forward-facing lamps on your car, but only 4 are allowed to be on at any one time. That means the setup on the above pic is legal, but this is not:



The TÜV man needs to give his blessing for any technical change you do (bar hanging up fluffy dice maybe), so I need to wire them up by the book. So that means, the spotlamps go off when the fogs go on, regardless of their switch setting. I suppose it could work the other way around too, the fogs go off, when you turn the spots on, I don't think it matters.

Ideally, they'd also go on when full beam is on, but that's just a nice option

The wiring loom I have is from a German spot lamp set, so in theory it should be correct for the described setup. Does anyone have a wiring diagram for this lot, or perhaps tell me which bit goes where?

The cables coming from the lamps branch out into two sections here:



1. red, white/black, and brown:

2. red, white/black, black and brown:


This lot are flapping around in the engine bay ATM (yes, I know it needs a clean! Salty roads )

The other parts I have are these:






The switch would go next to the fog lamp switch behind the gear lever.

I managed to wire the fog lamps, and the ambient temperature gauges up myself (all pretty much plug and play) but I don't know much about car electrics and am a bit stumped as to how to do this lot. Any ideas?

Cheers

Tom

BTW, the only "spare" connector I found left in the engine bay was this:

anyone know what it's for?
T.

For what you want, you are going to need an extra relay and some more wires. Want me to draw up a picture? It won't be hard, promise!

What I'd do is have the spots come on with the mains, and use the switch you have as a "spot cut" so you can have mains without spots. Would you prefer fogs or spots to take presidence if both are switched on? FWIW, I'd have spots overiding the fogs, as you'll never ever ever want the spots if it's foggy.

Chris, a pic would be great And you're right, spot lamps in fog make no sense at all

Many thanks!

Tom

trabitom99 wrote: And you're right, spot lamps in fog make no sense at all



Tom

Dashed dangerous I go so far as saying.
No better in the snow either as me and Bilbo found out recently

Right, one of Chris' late night attempted in paint... if this isn't clear, shout, as I'm used to reading schematics



Basically, to the right of the dotted line is what you should have got with the kit (and looks like what you have from the pictures). Both the spots and the fogs work the same to the right of the line, a low current is given to the relay when you want light, and the relay turns the lights on.

So, what you need is the extra relay (known as a SPDT relay, single pole double throw, which just means it can switch things rather than turning them on and off. Here we are just using it to turn the fogs off when energised rather than on. It is energised/switched from the mainbeam switch, via the new blue switch so that when the grill is active, the fog lamp relay is unable to receive a trigger current.

The switch (new blue one you have) is included so that you can run main beam with the spots turned off, you'd normally leave this switch on, so that you have 4 beams on, and turn it off when you want standard lights. When this switch is off, and you have main beam on, you can still have fogs.

If you add that red line (wire) with a piggy back spade on the switch, you can make all the new loom with spades like the OEM one and just hide the new relay away.

EDIT: second attempt with less noobishness first attempt cut spots on mainbeam, not on spotlamps, which is just silly as you couldn't have main and fogs if you ever wanted.

Mate, here are some quick pictures that I made with the camera, it's from my magical ring binder (binder"s" I should say ) with hundreds of blue leaflets

The 2 first pictures show the situation utill 1986 and you will notice that there is something specific to Germany in the wiring!! (maybe Volvo had to take into account the fact of maximum 4 lights working at the same time you talked about!)

The 2 last pictures are from another blue leaflet from 88, there is a little difference between -87 and 87- models. And again the little square just for Germany!

I hope it helps.

Many thanks guys, perfect As soon as they're working, I'll post the results.

Cheers

Tom

I blue leaflet saying to use skotchlocks?

Chris_C wrote:I blue leaflet saying to use skotchlocks?

skotchlocks? Are they those nasty little hinged, barrel shaped, clamp things? If so there was loads of them in my daughters car, connected to really manky looking thin wires, that went nowhere! We think the car may have had a security feature at some time, that was later disconnected.

These things. They are the single most likely cause of the world exploding... or at least causing the car to stop working!

Sorry for the noob question, but what should you be using?

Tom

I have had no problems when using those, but it is required that you don't just put it to wire, but make sure that there is also proper contact, pliers come handy.

Better would be to make Y-joint with proper connectors, sometimes bit hard however. you would need to split wire and add several connectors to wire ends to form Y-joint.

I would probably take guiding to switch relay from high beam wire from headlight, fogs and spots could share same main power lead. If you can use high beam, then there is absolutely no need for fog lights, so that would make care of that too

Tom, either the proper ratchet crimp spade terminals (vehicle wiring products do the tool and tags, about 25quid for a set) They look the same as Volvo OEM ones, not the blue/red/yellow ones. If not that, then solder if you can.

Tbh, I've really taken to the ratchet crimps, they are awesome, I'll hunt a link.

Thanks for the clarification Chris...that pic shows exactly what I thought they were...nasty things they are.

Good luck with the connections Tom, when are you planning to have a second set of brackets? Not that i am in a hurry, but it's nice to know