L to GT lights on my BE with problems

[amgarrety]

Please provide help ASAP if you can, my car isn't really legal to drive otherwise.

Ok, so today I changed from L headlights to GT headlights. They were working fine, but I noticed my parking lights weren't working, this includes my dim brake lights in the back. I pulled out fuse 5 and it was fried. I replaced it, tried again, and instantly blew the fuse again. Keep in mind my hi and low beams and high beams are still working fine.

So I replaced the 10 amp fuse with a 20 amp fuse, to see what result I would get. It was bittersweet. Of course I blew the fuse, but a relay in my fuse box under the hood sparked, and upon looking at the diagram, it looks like I need to get new relays to work with these headlights. My relays were 15amp Hi/Lo relays. Im thinking that was fine for my Hi/Lo single light bulbs, but not for my independent Hi beam and Low beam headlights. Now, my headlights still work, but they are dim, even on hi beam. My dash lights now do not work, and of course, my parking lights don't work. So I cant drive at night until I get this fixed.

My turn signals, brake lights, and all that fun stuff still work perfectly fine at the correct brightness.

Can anyone please help? Do I need new relays? Do I need someone to do some wiring for me?

Thanks.

[Huffer]

I'm not familiar with the BE headlights, but what is the difference between the L and the GTs? I didn't think there was a difference?

[amgarrety]

The L style are what is in my picture, a single Hi/Lo bulb. GT headlights have 2 bulbs, one for high beam and one for low beam. The GT lights also come standard on Outbacks, so if you can picture the headlights that are on a BH, that's what I'm dealing with.

They *should* be interchangeable. All the correct wires are there. I just can't figure out what is shorting out. It is ONLY my parking lights (when the relay is working, that's my own fault).

[geckoboy86]

They should be interchangeable with just wiring. Its similar for the previous Legacy going from USDM lights to JDM lights.
Maybe something with the fogs is messing with it. Idk.

I asked the users on LVSE (Facebook) to see if they have any ideas.

[amgarrety]

Thanks. I know as a fact that my wiring is correct. I checked it many times before making it permanent, and the lights still work how they should.

The only wires I messed with were hi beam, low beam, and ground. The markers and parking lights were exactly the same.

I don't really even know where to go. I don't think I need more power, and I'm certain no wires are exposed.

[Huffer]

If you're blowing fuses and what not, then your wiring cannot be correct or you're grounding out somewhere...

[geckoboy86]

How did you do your grounding. Seeing that your going from one bulb to 2, did you splice your orginal ground into 2?

[02_Legacy]

here is the wireing diagrams for both systems. It appears that the only difference is the DRL system. Perhaps try disabling the DRL's and see if that fixes your problem.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/12/headlightwiring-1.jpg

[amgarrety]

There are 3 wires on both ends. The headlight has the hi wire, lo wire, and ground which connects to both lights. The old wiring had the same exact wires, one hi, one low, and one ground. I'm almost certain my wiring isn't off.

The DRL actually sounds like it might be the problem. The only thing I'm concerned about is that I can blow my fuse while my car is off by just hitting my parking light switch on my steering column. So the DRL wouldn't be on. I don't know how that really works, so for all I know it could be the DRL.

I was wondering how that would work when I switched...

[Wiscon_Mark]

On the BD, it's actually hi ground, low ground, and hot for the 3 leads. Maybe it's that way on the BE's too?

And did you mess with the parking lights? I thought you could just keep the bulb attatched the harness and pop it into the new headlight. That's what I did with the JDMs.

[amgarrety]

I actually just spent the past hour or so with the lights and I got it figured out 7 fuses later.

That's what I should've done Mark, because that was the problem. The lights and sockets for my parking lights and turn signals all came new with the headlight, so I decided to use those instead of keeping my old ones, even though they looked the same in every way shape and form. I switched back to my original lights and sockets and everything was fine.

It seemed as though the sockets were the problem, because I was still blowing a fuse even without the bulbs in place.

I still don't see a difference between the old and new sockets, but hey, its fixed.

Thanks for your help everyone.

[Legacy89]

Actually you are wrong. These cars (BE/BH) has ground controlled lights. So one positive and two negatives.
On the EDM model atleast.

[amgarrety]

That may be the case. I'm by far no electrical expert, I just tested wires until I got the result I needed.

[Legacy89]

I know, had to think twice when i mounted my driving ligths and hid kits.

[rougeben83]

Subaru's use a negative switch. The center prong is actually the positive, and the two sides are negatives for low and high respectively. This topis has been covered many times in the lighting forum. You probably just rewired it through trial and error to the point that it works.

Just ground your low beams straight to chassis, stick the center prong as the positive. Don't even bother to wire the side prong for the low beam.