American headlight looms?

[aclwalker 3]

I've been reading all the headlight loom threads tonight and it seems that the only real option now is to build your own, or to get the one on Ebay. I looked at the SX5 (or whatever) one on Ebay and I can't see how it works from the photo. Maybe it's the wrong photo, but there doesn't look like there's enough connectors to attach to the headlamps.

 

Anyway, I started reading more widely about the problem. It seems it's a common problem for VWs of that vintage. I came across a few interesting links.

 

Firstly, http://www.eurowires.net/wst_page5.html.

Does that look suitable? The blue plug doesn't look right. Do American Corrados have different lighting systems in an electrical sense? They seem to sell convertors to convert between US and Euro headlight connectors, but it's not really clear where they should be used. Also, on the picture of the loom, the black connectors don't seem to look like how I would expect them. I thought an H4 bulb was a 3 pin affair, with the pins at 90 degrees to each other. This looks like a row of pins.

 

Secondly, there's http://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/CheapTricks/Headlights.shtml. This website talks about the problem in general. About half way down the page, you can see a male H4 connector. Is this the connector that seems to be impossible to get? It seems this place sells these connectors.

 

Also, http://www.comagination.com/parts.htm. This place sells male H4 connectors too.

 

I'm confused now. I'm not sure what the connector to the headlamps looks like inside now, and I'm not going to go up the street to find out just now, as it's 2.30am and blowing a gale!

 

Are any of the links above any use for this?

[coolrado 0]

the uprated looms don't connect to the rear of the bulb, they connect to the 4 pin connector on the back of the headlight unit, the wiring inside the headlights is ok and doesnt require upgrading.

The top one looks like a very well made kit, and should do the job nicely, it certainly looks better than most of the kits you can buy in the uk.

It looks like the blue connector is just for connecting between the US type headlight plugs and this loom, to provide the signals for the relay box, but all you would need to do is cut that off and crimp some standard male blade connectors on, and plug them into the old headlight plugs.

 

I think the connectors are made by TYCO but i struggled to find them in any of the catalogues we have, it may be an obsolete part, or only available if ordered in large numbers.

[aclwalker 3]

the uprated looms don't connect to the rear of the bulb, they connect to the 4 pin connector on the back of the headlight unit, the wiring inside the headlights is ok and doesnt require upgrading.

The top one looks like a very well made kit, and should do the job nicely, it certainly looks better than most of the kits you can buy in the uk.

It looks like the blue connector is just for connecting between the US type headlight plugs and this loom, to provide the signals for the relay box, but all you would need to do is cut that off and crimp some standard male blade connectors on, and plug them into the old headlight plugs.

 

I think the connectors are made by TYCO but i struggled to find them in any of the catalogues we have, it may be an obsolete part, or only available if ordered in large numbers.

I see. Thanks for the answer.

 

In the first link, any idea what the smaller black connectors are, with the grey wiring? Are these for the flasher spots (or whatever you call them)?

[coolrado 0]

I'm not too sure what they are for, the side markers on the us spec bumpers maybe?

[millerman 0]

i can highly recomend the ebay sx5 loom its easy to fit and does the job well

[aclwalker 3]

i can highly recomend the ebay sx5 loom its easy to fit and does the job well

Yeah, I was thinking of getting that one, but there have been a couple of bad reports on here.

 

Do you know what the difference is between the SX5 and the others?

When I looked at the picture on Ebay, it didn't seem to have enough pins. Does it do the dip and full beam, or just dip?

Does it require any cutting of cables, or does it just attach to one of the existing headlight plugs?

[aclwalker 3]

i can highly recomend the ebay sx5 loom its easy to fit and does the job well

Yeah, I was thinking of getting that one, but there have been a couple of bad reports on here.

 

Do you know what the difference is between the SX5 and the others?

When I looked at the picture on Ebay, it didn't seem to have enough pins. Does it do the dip and full beam, or just dip?

Does it require any cutting of cables, or does it just attach to one of the existing headlight plugs?

I emailed the guy on Ebay with essentially the same questions.

 

The SX2 does either main or dip beam.

 

SX3, SX4 and SX5 all do the same thing, but are different versions. SX5 used diode relays which have inbuilt protection of the relay or something.

 

I asked about how it works, because it didn't seem that there were enough pins, and he said that it requires 2 cuts per side in the original loom, so presumably (I've asked him further questions) you are reusing the original connectors, but simply taking over 2 of the wires in the connector.

 

I'm not sure how 'reversable' this is (I've asked him that), because I'm just slightly concerned that if, in a number of years, it stops working, then it will be difficult to restore it to the original.

 

He says that butt connectors are used, so I've asked how they are attached to the wires once the cuts are made (are any tools required, for example) and if it would be possible to make this mod reversible by putting the corresponding butt connector on the other unused part of the wire from the cut, which would mean that it could be reversed if required later.

[aclwalker 3]

i can highly recomend the ebay sx5 loom its easy to fit and does the job well

Yeah, I was thinking of getting that one, but there have been a couple of bad reports on here.

 

Do you know what the difference is between the SX5 and the others?

When I looked at the picture on Ebay, it didn't seem to have enough pins. Does it do the dip and full beam, or just dip?

Does it require any cutting of cables, or does it just attach to one of the existing headlight plugs?

I emailed the guy on Ebay with essentially the same questions.

 

The SX2 does either main or dip beam.

 

SX3, SX4 and SX5 all do the same thing, but are different versions. SX5 used diode relays which have inbuilt protection of the relay or something.

 

I asked about how it works, because it didn't seem that there were enough pins, and he said that it requires 2 cuts per side in the original loom, so presumably (I've asked him further questions) you are reusing the original connectors, but simply taking over 2 of the wires in the connector.

 

I'm not sure how 'reversable' this is (I've asked him that), because I'm just slightly concerned that if, in a number of years, it stops working, then it will be difficult to restore it to the original.

 

He says that butt connectors are used, so I've asked how they are attached to the wires once the cuts are made (are any tools required, for example) and if it would be possible to make this mod reversible by putting the corresponding butt connector on the other unused part of the wire from the cut, which would mean that it could be reversed if required later.

he got back to me again really quickly and confirmed that I'm correct. His loom connects to the back of the existing connectors, by cutting 2 wires per side and connecting with a butt connector to the bit attached to the plug.

 

I got butt and bullet connectors mixed up in my head there. Butt connectors are 1 piece, in which you can, semi-permanently, connect two wires together, but they're not unpluggable like spade connectors or bullet connectors, like I mistakenly thought it was, meaning that to undo this loom would require you to somehow destroy the butt connector or snip it off and re-join your original wires.

 

But, I suppose if you wanted to make this loom more 'modular' and 'reversible', then you could make the cuts, fit some sort of spade/bullet or other removable connection to both sides of the cut, and then add little pieces of wire onto these looms at the butt connector with the opposite sex of connector at the other end to match what you've put on the plug. This would allow you to simply unplug the loom if required and restore the original system, by replugging the two pieces of the cut wires together again. It would be back to the original, except for the addition of a spade/bullet connector.

 

So what's better? Bullet or spade connectors? Bullets seem to be less exposed, but I've seen fully insulated spade connectors. Besides, I would be using shrink tubing anyway, as I bought a box of assorted shrink tubes and have never really used them!

[Mystic Rado 0]

On the US loom front, if you did want to get one of his looms - and they look much better made than anything I've seen recently commercially available over here - you'd need the Euro lights version as their stock headlights are different to ours and have different connectors. The connector in the pics is designed to plug and play with the headlight connector for the US-spec light, if you fitted it to a UK Corrado, you'd need to either hardwire it into the existing loom or - as suggested above - do some jiggery pokery with different connectors.

 

If you have a look at some of the vehicle wiring sites, you can buy much neater, more weatherproof multi-pin connectors than either spades or bullets. I'd look at fitting some of those rather than bullets or spades. I don't know which of those is better.

[aclwalker 3]

On the US loom front, if you did want to get one of his looms - and they look much better made than anything I've seen recently commercially available over here - you'd need the Euro lights version as their stock headlights are different to ours and have different connectors. The connector in the pics is designed to plug and play with the headlight connector for the US-spec light, if you fitted it to a UK Corrado, you'd need to either hardwire it into the existing loom or - as suggested above - do some jiggery pokery with different connectors.

 

If you have a look at some of the vehicle wiring sites, you can buy much neater, more weatherproof multi-pin connectors than either spades or bullets. I'd look at fitting some of those rather than bullets or spades. I don't know which of those is better.

Yes, I see he makes Euro versions too, but the picture shown says it IS the Euro version, but I guess he might have got the pictures wrong. I think I'll have a bit of a think about it and then email him some questions. Perhaps the guy might be interested in a group buy or something? I think it was $90 for the Euro version. I've lost track of the roller-coaster ride of the exchange rates recently, but I reckon that makes it somewhere between £45 and £60, which is expensive, but it does look good quality.

[Mystic Rado 0]

Yeah, you're right it is, you can see the standard, UK-type headlight plugs. The blue thing mates with the US-spec headlight plug to provide the trigger signal for the relays, so that's the bit you'd have to work around. I vaguely remember e-mailing the guy a while back, but I don't think he ever got back to me. Looking at his site though, he seems to know what he's doing and be very thorough.

[colinstubbs 0]

He could do them with another euro plug on dead easy, might be a good selling point for him that he can sell them to the UK. :lol: :lol: