head light solenoid

[DUAL10S 10+ year member]

Was talking about alternators, batteries etc @ work yesterday and a coworker suggested putting a solenoid on my aftermarket head lights.

My head lights have seperate hi and low beam bulbs so I ran toggle switch for hi beam and a toggle switch for low beam. They would not work with the factory switches.

So, he explained it like this (one solenoid for hi beam and one solenoid for low beam):

-Run 8 guage wire from battery positive post to solenoid positive input

-Run 8 guage wire from the solenoid positive output to head light

-Run 8 guage ground as necessary

-Leave the toggle switches in place and wire them to the solenoid switch

(hope that makes sense)

His reasoning was that most toggle switches are rated @ 15a. Said I could get 100 amp solenoid which would help with light dimming and make them burn brighter. Similar to HID ballast I think

Any thoughts on this?

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[SmartAsss 10+ year member]

*Relay* is a better term for what your talking about. 8 gauge is really over kill for headlights. 12awg at the most id say. but yeah you should really run a relay because your drawing more power from the factory wires and they are not sized for that.

 

[DUAL10S 10+ year member]

When I put after market lights in they would not work with my factory switch so I had to install two toggle switches with 12 guage wire. Basically run whole new elec for my head lights.

So when I go to the auto parts store do I need to ask for a relay or solenoid? Have never messed with this before.

 

[SmartAsss 10+ year member]

You need a relay, should look like a small black box with 4 prongs. two prongs will go to your factory switch and the other two will go to your headlights. it is a switch that is activated by a small amount of power (from your factory hl switch). this switch then makes a connection to a larger power draw (your aftermarket headlights)

here is a good PDF that i've found to help you understand them better.. http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/hweb2.pdf

It is basically a small solenoid connected to a switch but what you want to look for is a relay.