Help: Electrical Issue Angel Eye Lights

[lseguy]

Or Demon Eye..whichever you prefer to call them. But this isn't an Angel Eye problem, but a basic electrical problem.

In short, here is my setup:

Yellow wire coming from a 12V source in my fusebox going to relay terminal #87.
Blue Wire spliced from my fog light positive wire. Blue wire going directly to relay terminal #85.
Black wire grounded to chassis, going to relay terminal #86.
Red Wire coming from relay terminal #30, ending at the actual Angel Eye light boxes.

Problem: Using a voltmeter, with all wires connected to the relay, I've determined that there is no power coming from the #30 relay terminal. With the car off/foglights off, there is 12V at terminal #87 only. With the foglights on, there is 12V at terminal #87 and terminal #85. Obviously there is never any power at terminal #86.

When I turn on the foglights (key on or off), I can definitely hear the audible click inside the relay. Just to try an easy fix, I tried a new relay from Pep Boys in the same configuration, but the results were the same with even a brand new relay.

The kicker to all of this? I've been running this same configuration for 3 years now, with NO problem. Not sure why this is suddenly an issue.

Any ideas?

http://www.velocitymotorsport.com/images/install_notes/P2P.jpg

 

[JES_LS]

well if there is no power to the #85 terminal, then there is a problem. its not that the relay is the issue. you have no power getting to that terminal.
do your fog lights work??

 

[mholhut]

Relay? Fuse panel? Why not just splice into the parking lights? Why make things difficult?

Also, depending on where you live, CCFL angel eyes really don't like to work well in the cold. Got to 37 degrees here last night... I'm sure the CCFL's were quite chilly on my car. Also, the inverters have been known to fail, so one might need to be replaced.

 

[lseguy]

JES: As I originally stated..there IS power at #85. There is NO power coming from the #30 output terminal. Yes...fog lights work fine.

Mike: These are the original Gen I Angel Eyes with the halogen light boxes. They require a relay due to the power consumption. I prefer to have them turn on when I turn on the fogs, hence the blue wire spliced into the fog lights.

 

[lseguy]

As an aside, I actually PREFER the original Gen Angel Eyes with the light boxes. The resultant light that emanates from the rings is almost identical to the stock BMW Angel Eyes. The later generation Angel Eyes always appear very aftermarket bright to me. IMHO

 

[JES_LS]

JES: As I originally stated..there IS power at #85. There is NO power coming from the #30 output terminal. Yes...fog lights work fine.

Mike: These are the original Gen I Angel Eyes with the halogen light boxes. They require a relay due to the power consumption. I prefer to have them turn on when I turn on the fogs, hence the blue wire spliced into the fog lights.

Sorry my bad, trying to read and keep my two sons from bothering my ill wife at the same time.

If both inputs are showing 12v, but the output line is not then I would check the ground wire for continuty. especially check were the ground wire connects to the chassis.

 

[lseguy]

Thanks, but I've solved the issue.

The relay I was originally using is indeed defective, despite the audible "click" I hear when power is supplied to it. When i shake it, I hear something rolling around inside. When I connected the new relay, I obviously did not connect the wires in the exact same fashion as the wires were connected to the old relay. When things did not work, I turned to the web, and one of my first hits was the URL above in my first post.

After some more googling using "relay foglights terminal 87" (dont ask why I used that particular search criteria, because I have no clue) I stumbled across several pages of projects where individuals were using relays to wire fog lights. In 3 out of 3 hits, i found that they used a different wiring configuration to their relays.

#30 terminal was wired to the 12V Hot.
#87 terminal was wired to the positive of the each of the actual Fog lights(or in this case, Angel Eyes)
#86 terminal was connected to the Hot/Positive of the fog lights (in this case..so that my Angel Eyes would turn on whenever my fogs were on)
#85 was ground to chassis.

Once I connected in this fashion, all is well again.

 

[JES_LS]

cool, I was still not thinking, I have one of those relays on the desk right here next to me but I did not look at the internal circuit diagram

glad you pulled your thoughts together and went and fixed the wiring layout.

If you had used one of those plastic bodied relay sockets, when you wired it up the first time then you would not have gotten confused when you had to replace the relay.

Just a thought.