Wiring a headlight buzzer

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Hakeem43020
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Location: Georgia, USA

Wiring a headlight buzzer

Post by Hakeem43020 »

Not sure if there will be much interest around here but I recently took up the task of wiring my buzzer to remind me when I leave my headlights (when switching off the car the headlights turn off but parking lights don't) on. I've seen people using aftermarket buzzers, wiring them differently but I wanted to make it stock.Rather than using an aftermarket buzzer I wired a relay to get the OEM buzzer to remind me if I leave them on when I open the door (same functionality like newer cars e46, e39 etc) and the ignition is off. All wires are under the kick panel and not too hard to get to :).

I found a few other diagrams but none would work. I found out that the buzzer is ground activated. I'm no master at relays/wiring as I've always had them but recently found out how they work.

I used a relay socket:
Image

and an inline fuse:
Image

I wired as shown below:
Image

85 & 30 go to the door switch. You’ll have to take the front kick panel speaker out to access it (There are a bunch of wires that run there. It’s not in the bunch of wires. It’s in a bundle with two wires taped together. There will be a purple and a green/brown wire, tap into the Green/Brown). This is switched ground for the door.

87 to the parking light wire (must be the parking light wire since the headlight wire loses power when the cars off). You could tap into the wire further above in the cluster behind the headlight switch but I took the easy way and spliced into the light bulb (the one left of the head light knob since it’s easier to access) beside the knob that comes on when you pull it out. This wire gets 12V as long as it’s on and I wouldn't have to pull the cluster.

86 to the buzzer + wire. To test if you have the right wire, jump it to ground, if it's the correct wire the gong should chime.

I suck at writing tutorials but thought I'd give this a shot hoping it'd help at least one person out there leaving their lights on.
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cgswift
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Re: Wiring a headlight buzzer

Post by cgswift »

Depending upon where you obtain your relay, take a close look at the diagram on the side of the relay housing. Some of these relays are designed for very specific applications and have a diode built in to the circuitry of the coil function. It will be between terminals 85 and 86, a little triangle with a line. This diode will make the input of the relay directional. Toph
1983 633CSi Balticblau Metallic
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1972 Datsun 510 Badass Monster!
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Hakeem43020
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Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2016 12:13 am
Location: Georgia, USA

Re: Wiring a headlight buzzer

Post by Hakeem43020 »

cgswift wrote: Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:25 am Depending upon where you obtain your relay, take a close look at the diagram on the side of the relay housing. Some of these relays are designed for very specific applications and have a diode built in to the circuitry of the coil function. It will be between terminals 85 and 86, a little triangle with a line. This diode will make the input of the relay directional. Toph
Thanks for the pointer. Went out today and realized the buzzer comes on when switched to accessory and only turns off when headlights are on when acc is on. Runs as expected when off. Guess I have some more changes to do.
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cgswift
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Re: Wiring a headlight buzzer

Post by cgswift »

Sounds simple enough. Terminals 85 and 86 are the field coil ends that cause the relay to switch. If one of these is a hot wire from the headlamps (assuming no diode) with the ignition off, and the other is a ground, you will have your 'switch'. Terminals 30 and 87a will be continuous when the relay is fired, 30 and 87, when not. Wire your buzzer accordingly and you should be good to go! Toph
1983 633CSi Balticblau Metallic
1972 K5 Blazer w/4Wheel Popup
1972 Datsun 510 Badass Monster!
1959 Corvette FI 283
1950 8N Ford Tractor (Harrison)

"Strive for perfection, excellence will be accepted."
Hakeem43020
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Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2016 12:13 am
Location: Georgia, USA

Re: Wiring a headlight buzzer

Post by Hakeem43020 »

cgswift wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 12:18 am Sounds simple enough. Terminals 85 and 86 are the field coil ends that cause the relay to switch. If one of these is a hot wire from the headlamps (assuming no diode) with the ignition off, and the other is a ground, you will have your 'switch'. Terminals 30 and 87a will be continuous when the relay is fired, 30 and 87, when not. Wire your buzzer accordingly and you should be good to go! Toph
Thanks. I’m still not quite sure why it has the opposite effect when acc/when the car is running since I didn’t connect any accessory to the relay. The buzzer chimes by default when the door is open and acc is on but the chime no longer goes off when the relay is connected so I’m thinking my relay is somehow messing that up.

I’ve looked in the ETM and can’t find any schematics for the gong. I imagined that there’d be a wire that sends 12V when the door is open but found that the gong chimes when ground is connected to the brown/Green wire so I wired my relay to send ground output.

I connected:
85 & 30 - the door switch
86 - Parking lights
87 - Gong wire (Wire that chimes when grounded)

ETM says the door switch is grounded when the door is open and 86 is the trigger so the circuit should send ground to 87 when the parking lights are on and the door is open right?

It’s pretty straight forward to wire it to an aftermarket buzzer but I still a little lost why it’s happening.

UPDATE : Found this. Will look more into it tomorrow. http://web.archive.org/web/200612111910 ... /chime.htm

Probably just need the diodes :).
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cgswift
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Re: Wiring a headlight buzzer

Post by cgswift »

If I understand you correctly, you are very close. Terminal 87 is only continuous with 30 when the relay is not activated. With the parking lamps on 86, that should give you 12VDC to one end of the coil while they are on. The door switch, connected to 30 is OK, but you could just give it a good grounding connection. When the door switch is activated, it should send a ground source to terminal 85, the other end of the coil, and activate the relay. When the relay is activated, it switches continuity between 30 and 87, to 30 and 87a. If you move your "Gong wire" to 87a, it should function as desired. Hope that this helps! Toph
1983 633CSi Balticblau Metallic
1972 K5 Blazer w/4Wheel Popup
1972 Datsun 510 Badass Monster!
1959 Corvette FI 283
1950 8N Ford Tractor (Harrison)

"Strive for perfection, excellence will be accepted."
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MrE
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Re: Wiring a headlight buzzer

Post by MrE »

Good stuff Hakeem.

Very good of you to work all this stuff out and put it up here for us - much appreciated.
Image
Hakeem43020
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Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2016 12:13 am
Location: Georgia, USA

Re: Wiring a headlight buzzer

Post by Hakeem43020 »

MrE wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:48 am Good stuff Hakeem.

Very good of you to work all this stuff out and put it up here for us - much appreciated.
No problem :). I always try to document everything as I know resources are getting limited with these cars getting up in age. I did get it manage to get it working but had to use two relays. The way I had it wired first technically was correct but will not work as expected. The buzzer also chimes when the door is closed when accessory/run is switched on so it will send current to the relay when the car is on which results in it staying on when the cars switched on.

To get it working I used:

2 diodes
2 SPDT relays which has NO and NC contacts (5 pin)
Some spare wire
Shrink Tubing
Inline fuses

1st relay:
85- Ground (Brown wire on the buzzer)
86- Parking light wire (The headlight wires are behind the cluster and hard to access so I just grabbed 12v from the bulb beside the knob which activates when parking/headlights are on)
87 - Pin 30 of other relay
30 - Chime wire (red/brown)

2nd relay:
85 - Ground (Since I already used the buzzer ground, I used ground from the window breaker switch)
86 - Accessory/IGN (I grabbed current from the window breaker switch positive wire)
30 - Pin 87 of first relay
87a - Ground (I used switched ground from the door which would activate it when it's opened)

To keep stock functionality I had to add 2 diodes like below
Image.


The way I had it above allowed me to grab all wires from one area (close to kick panel) w/o needing to run wires from behind the radio or having to remove the steering housing to splice wires. The diagram on the page confused me so I had to write it all out).

With all this we now have stock functioning buzzer that reminds us if we left our lights on :).
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