2006 Nissan XTerra Driving Light

Hello Everyone -

First time posting here. I tried searching the forums, etc., but couldn't find the answer to this.

I have a 2006 Nissan XTerra, and installed some driving lights last night. I am running a trigger wire off of the High-Beam 12V+ on the Driver's Side of the truck. This wire goes to the supply side of the switch in the cab, then the switch also has a ground for the LED indicator, and an outbound wire to go to terminal 86 on the relay. Terminal 30 on the relay is 12V+ to the battery, 85 is grounded, and 87 is 12V+ going out to the lights. each light is also grounded. All grounds in this are common on one lug to the chassis.

As I'm very familiar with standard lighting wiring, I just wanted to know if there's anything 'special' about this particular vehicle's wiring on the high-beams, or headlamps in general. I know it has a separate circuit for each side and for each beam (4 total).

The problem is that when I turn on the high-beams, and then also the new driving lamps, they work as planned. After switching between low and high, and this making the driving lights come on with them, about 5-10 times, the high-beam fuse for the driver's side headlamp (where I have the trigger wire piggy-backed) blows.

I am currently using Hella relay H41680011. I may decide to change to a Solid State relay, part # H41773001. Both of them, including their specs, are listed in the online catalog, here. My first idea, which I have yet to check, but will tonight, is that the trigger wire running from the switch to the headlight is chafed somewhere. If this is true, then this could be shorting against metal along the route, and thus cause the fuse to blow.

I wanted ot get opinions on one other possibillity though. Could there be a short in the switch, or the relay that could cause this overload? I would think that a short in the switch could cause it, but I'm not sure if a problem in the relay itself could back-feed through the switch and overload the headlight circuit, causing the fuse to blow.

Any opinions are appreciated.

Thanks!

I would NOT be using the factory lighting harnes for anything..... go to the battery for your 12v. wire the relays for negative trigger to "throw" 12v. Use your switch to ground the relay to turn on the aux. lights.

Just a thought!

Normally I would agree with you, but unfortunately, to get the Driving lights to come on at the proper time, which is only with the High-Beams, you have to tie into the factory headlamp circuit at some point, either to the 12V+ for the High-Beam, or the Ground if the headlamps are wired to switch the ground instead of the 12V+, which these are not.

Yes, staying away from the factory harness is best for reliability, but for automatic function and legal issues in some states (many states say that they can *only* come on with the high-beams), you must tie into the factory harness.

I'm already tied into the factory harness for the fog lights, with them triggering off of the parking light, and have no problems, so I believe this to be a simple case of a chafed trigger wire, or a bad connection, since I am using Scotch-Locks to piggyback off of the high-beam.

What I think I will do is run a separate jumper wire from the 12V+ High-Beams to the supply side of the switch and see if it still happens. if it doesn't, then we know it's a short in the trigger wire, and I just replace it.

I'm pretty confident that it's just a short in the trigger. if it were a short in the rest of the Driving lamp setup, it would be popping the fuse inline for the Driving Lamps, which it isn't.

I'll figure it out sooner or later, but work has not afforded me the time to get out and check it.

Thanks for the input.