john steele

I'm installing mine now. I want them to work with both the fog switch and high beam and want to leave the factory harness in place so I can swithc the fogs back in. So far I have the negative switched line tapped off of the fog lamp switch. Wiring is not my strong point so I'm slow and careful. I'll let you know how it goes. The lights fit fine and the install is a snap. Liikely the wiring is too if I knew what I was doing..The mods pages on this and other sites have helped.

john steele

They came with a nice harness and relay and fuse box. The harness is sized to fit along the factory harness with the relay and fuse mounted next to the battery. I found a little box (looks like a bargain bin mini tool case of some sort) that is about 4 inches long with a lid. I painted it black and put the relay and fuse in it and mounted it next to the battery down low. I placed the harness in black split loom. It looks like "it came that way when I bought it" so It will not look obvious at a roadside inspection that the lights are replaced.

After reading other peoples posts, I decided the factory harness might melt with these and other aftermarket lights, so I definitely wanted a new harness or I would have made one. The harness is switched through the positive lead. (I think I have an older MRT harness, the new sets may have a different harness).

I am trying to switch the light from the high beams only when the fog light switch is depressed. It is more complicated than it appears at first glance because you seem to need a one-way bridge in the circuit and the exisitng lights are switched through the ground.

john steele

The info on melting wiring came from other posts and forums, not from my experience. However, on my jeep, I have melted cheap harnesses by upgrading lights, so I know that it is a possibility. I have also "burnt" lamp lenses by increasing the wattage.

The harness came with the lights and has considerably larger wiring than stock. It looks like every other aftermarket light harness, except that it was obviously fitted to the WRX (not a lot of extra wire to slop around, but enough to reach the lamps and battery without a problem) and it is much better quality than a discount auto parts place harness (connections are well done and wrapped, heavy gauge wire throughout). It is set up to work with any switched power to the relay or could be used with a switched ground.

I am going to try to get these running this evening, so I'll let you know more on Monday. I'm sure I would have these running without problem if I was not trying to get them to come on only when the factory fog lamp switch is depressed and the high beams are on, if I would switch themon/off through a tap on the switched ground on the foglight only, I would be done.

FYI the light housings press into place using grommets in the frame. They are not attached with screws or etc (there is an aiming adjustment screw). While they look and feel secure, and they could not just fall off, I am concerned about them popping loose on a rough ride (or popping loose from somebody taking them), so I am going to make a modification to the frame so I can run a screw from the light housing to the frame so that I feel more secure. John

john steele

I didn't get as far as I thought. I want to make it clear that I got these lights and brackets at a discount and I do not think they are the current kit from either MRT or RP, so please do not let this be a reflection on them. Also, my experience with Jeeps is overbuild and don't do anything you can't fix yourself. And finally, I am an electrical idiot, so my goal is to keep the factory wiring as isolated from my own work as possible.

The lights put out a lot of light, but it is close to the ground. Aiming will be critical as too much light down low will be blinding. I may make a set of cut-offs to sheild the ground in front of the lights. The harness can easily handle the power.

The attachment grommets are hard rubber and likely work well, I prefer a solid connection so I drilled a hole in the mounting frame. I threaded a bolt, nuts, & washers through threaded mount for the adjusting screw on the light to the new hole I drilled in the mount so that the light is now physically attached to the mount but the rubber gromments still can isolate vibration. Adjusting can still be done through the screw.

I made "L" shaped brackets out of stainless steel and attached them to the mounting bolts. I bent the ends in a "j" shape and attached a pair of round mesh light covers (left over from a jeep project). Thus the mesh is supported by the mounting bolts and can take quite a blow before the lens gets hit. The wire mesh looks good, doesn't cover the light pattern, and the price is about $250 less than STI (you could paint STI on them and claim they are a rare JDM part, very limited..I wonder what I could get on e-bay!
Gotta go

john steele

No promises,.right now i don't have the car as it is in the shop getting a fender repaired. I knew I'd never get the paint (MB) to match up in Iowa humidity and I think they have had problems as well. I may be able to get something done this weekend.

The_Lizard

I'm on the verge of putting driving lights on my 98 OB. I have a set of PIAAs (100s, I think) on my 89 Escort which is near its end. These lights have been great and trouble-free for about 135,000 miles on that Ford.

(Back in the old days I ran Cibie 95s, imagine those on a '73 Hornet, '75 Regal, and '80 Phoenix - these lights are almost identical in size and performance, better on reliability)

I will rip the whole system off the Ford and install it on the OB. But I still need to figure out exactly where and how I will mount them. The ideal would be to have the filaments at the same height as the headlights; if they are mounted lower, then I'll be able to see the ripples in the road but I lose some range.

john steele

Finally I got them installed, wired, and working (due to demands on my time, not the difficulty of installation). Sorry, no pictures as a have trouble getting time to do the work as it is.

I wired the harness that came with the lights into two relays. The first relay (which came with the set) provides fused power from the battery to the lamps and is switched by the on/off function of the high beam. I tapped into the high beam from just behind the headlight and found a switched +12v line (I’m not going to tell you what color because the advise on the wire color codes I got elsewhere was wrong and I’m not going to confuse the issue –I suggest you use a DMM and test the three lines coming out of the high beam. I used the service book to look up the colors, but I suspect they change as my switched high beam powerline color was not as shown in the book). The second relay control power to the first relay and is switched by a tap into the switched ground on the fog lamp switch in the dash. When the fog lamp switch is depressed, the relay is closed allowing the first relay to use the high beam switch to control the aux lamps.

The upside is that the high beam and fog lamp circuits are not changed and I can plug the OEM fog lights back in without redoing any wiring. In addition the OEM fog lamp and headlight wiring remain isolated from each other and the aux lights. And all power to the lights is carried by the heavy duty wiring harness that came with the lights. The downside is the use of two relays and if the aux lights are on you must turn them off via the high beams before turning of the fog lamp switch. I know there is a way of using one relay, but this was easier for my electrically challenged mind to figure out.

I placed the relays in a small plastic box with a lid and painted it flat black. I mounted this between the driver’s side headlight and battery. The wires to the switch, headlight, battery, and aux lights I placed in a black plastic looms and ran them alongside existing looms. If you didn’t know it was not suppose to be there, it would be hard to spot it as an “add on”.

The aux lights and the mounting kit were easy to install and wire. I spent much more time figuring out where to tap into the existing system and making my wiring look factory.

The output seems to about double the existing high beams, although they are mounted too low for driving lights. After I aim them and use them a bit, I may make a plastic visor to “cut off” some of the light pooling too close to the front of the car. They are not designed to throw a lot of light immediately to the sides of the car.

In my opinion, you get what you pay for with these types of lights, I would not pay $300 if you really just use them for show or occasional bursts of highway, they are too bright and narrow beamed and will likely cause complaints / attention/ authorities. In addition, there are “showier” lights available. However, based on the construction and use so far, they are likely to work reliably over time and really light up those Midwestern gravel roads.

Ps . after I had them working at the very first stop sign I came to someone pulled out without stopping…fortunately my car has decent brakes…I almost had the aux lights for a total of about 3 minutes