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1990 DL 245 N/A
I am in the process of installing relay supplied E-Code headlights, and trying to find the best way to cheat the BULB FAILURE SENSOR. Using the 1990 240 System Wiring Diagrams at grid B 2,3 I found control circuitry for HEADLIGHT BEAM LENGTH CNTRL SYSTEM. Consisting of a CONTROL REGULATOR and a LEFT AND RIGHT CNTRL MOTOR. What is this? Does anyone have this? Sorry about the early digression.
Back to BULB FAILURE SENSOR circumvention.
My plan is to use the relay coil to supply a common load for the BULB FAILURE SENSOR, presumably this will keep the relay happy and not illuminate the BULB FAILURE LAMP. If anyone has alternatives, please post.
Fred
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Hmmm, well, 12 years with 5 240s with e-codes (one sold, two are son's) without relay supply and without bulb out issues. Simple but effective. Until such time as something goes awry (I'm not worried), simple and effective.
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Well the E-codes went in, not without some persuasion, but in they are. I had to take the wagon out for a bit of a road test. I back out of the driveway with the lights off. I head down the street where it is pretty dark, turn on the parking lights and they are almost as good as the old headlights. I switch on the headlights and out of the three vehicles I own the 240 "outshines" them all. I was really impressed by the performance.
The BFW function for the low beams is gone ,of course, but that won't be a problem. What's is going to be a problem is finding some level ground to adjust the things. The helipad at work comes to mind but the security guys may not see things my way.
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You aim them against a vertical surface, not a horizontal one. The procedure is on Daniel Stern's site.
I found a nice brick wall adjacent to a level parking lot worked beautifully for my e-code adjustments. aiming to mortar joints made things very easy, just needed a tape measure to figure out which ones and a short length of painters tape to help me keep track of them.
john
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1989 245 241K / 1993 945 127K
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Hi John,
That's a great idea using the mortar lines for aiming points, I did find Daniel Stern's write up. So with E-Codes using the H4 lamp one adjusts only the low beams, and the high beams follow suit. Was that your experience?
Fred
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Fred, it sounds like you're really happy with the upgrade. I wish I could offer you a Daniel flat spot for the geometry session. Are your parking lights 4 watts?
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Art Benstein near Baltimore
Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
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Four watts for the front?? Those bulbs must draw an amp or so if not more, they are the front parking incandescent bulbs. I have LED brake/tail lights, they might be 4 watts.
Fred
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Parking lamps are 4 or 5 watts. They're for parking. If you use the 21W filament in the dual bulb, well, them're for driving.
Same 'round the back, 'cept they're called tail lamps when driving, and parking lamps when parked, engine off, and lamp switch in the mid-setting. I think in Europe they will run* them all night on road side. That's the reason for the separate fuses 15 and 16, as I understand it.
You and Ken are in sync: LEDs in the back and E-codes in the front!
* Now there's another kind of lamp; running lamps, pretty much covered by the parking lamps, which are not the driving lamps with which we drive on the parkway.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore
"Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until they speak! " -- donated by a fully enlightened friend in Georgia
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Art, I did not know the difference between parking and driving lamps, I thought they were the same. Thanks again for the enlightenment!
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"I did not know the difference between parking and driving lamps, I thought they were the same."
What? You mean they're not? Where did I go wrong in my attempt to confuse the situation?
:)
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Art Benstein near Baltimore
How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?
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Art, if the P.O.D is obfuscation of a poor old Georgia boy you did.
I am taking the things apart to do a CSI on the lamps. I have no idea what is in them now.
Fred
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No Fred, I'm just trying to lighten it up.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore
Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
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Art, I took the turn signal assemblies apart, they had 1157's in them, very old 1157s. The markings on the bulbs are all the same, they have never been changed or they were all changed at the same time prior to March 1994. They were difficult to remove due to the level of white oxidation that had formed around the lamp's bodies. Must have been a "good year" for 1157s the week of manufacture.
Thanks for keeping things light.
Fred
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Thanks Art, an offshore option, I sea now.
So the BFWS is not a fastidious creature. I was thinking about connecting pins 2 and 7 and just be done with, it is just getting to the darned thing.
Thanks for the enlightenment.
Fred
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Time to hear from our friends across the pond; the dim/dip regulator is a switching dimmer for the dipped main beams and the headlight beam length control is a motorized adjuster, one for each side. Great Britain. Hardknocks! has one I think, or I recall us discussing them.
The threshold for balance sense in the BFWS is way higher than a relay coil will do bother, but of course you can just tie them together such that any load will flow through both coils equally. With lights that fancy, you'll surely know when one dies.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore
Darkdelta. O, Enlightened One!
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I put Euroheadlights in both my wife's '93 (DJAuto, with 55/60 H4) as well as my own '93 (Cibie-Volvo, with 80/130 H4), both using a relay system, and in both cars never had a problem with the bulb failure warning, nor would I expect any issue.
In my relay systems, the original wiring for the headlights only goes a set of four relays: one for low beam and one for high beam, each pair on each side of the car (so that if there's a relay failure, I'll still have the headlight on the other side working). In other words, as far as the car's wiring is concerned, the headlights are only lighting some very, very low wattage but identical bulbs :-).
My understanding is that the warning system relies on a difference in current between left and right sides, but since the only loads on the system are the tiny coils inside identical relays, the warning system should never be activated. Isn't that right?
Also shown above, in addition to the headlight relay, extra relays for fog lights as well as the waterproof fuse holders (one for low and another for high beams) and other "stuff" :-).
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That is correct but with the tiny draw of the coil, You should be able to connect the Coil to one side (passenger or Drivers side) with Both headlights to the one relay and it should not trigger the BFS. That's the way some Kits are sold anyway. I would do as you have done. In fact I made Circuit boards with two relays on them, one board for each side of the car. Each Low beam gets it's own relay and each Highbeam gets it's own Relay. Makes future troubleshooting easier
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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.lyse.net/brox/TonyPage4.html http://cleanflametrap.com/tony/
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Ken, I guess what I am trying to say here, is I predict your bulb out sensor will not catch an open relay coil like it caught the open headlight filament before you modified the circuit.
But you don't need supervision on relay coils anyway. Simple enough test you can try: pull the wire off one of your relay coil terminals and see. Light bulbs are expected to open up now and then, not relay coils.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore
If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.
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