Thanks to my wife, I received a set of PIAA 540's for my birthday. I was spending the morning doing the install and I have a couple of questions.
1) I searched the forums, and I kept seeing people storing their extra length of wire in various places. My thought was just to buy some new female ends, pull the ones supplied with the kit out of the plastic holders, cut the wire to length, clamps on some new ends and re-install in the holders. Any problems with resistance? which is the only thing I could think might be a problem.

2) If I am wiring to be on and off with just the PIAA switch, not to the high beams, just roll up the 18 guage wire that goes from the switch to the high beam wire and not use it or does it need to connect to a power source such as the battery terminal or another hot all the time wire, such as the brake lights?

3) What have the rest of you done with the two plastic trim pieces that go under the bonnet where the wires from the lamps go? I carefully Dremeled mine so they fit around the lamp brackets after I checked with Mini to see if they made two kinds. One for a Mini with driving lights, one without, which they didn't. They told me they just left them off which kind of surprised me.

Thanks for the help, Gene

 

Anybody with the answer to especially question #2 that would reply would be very much appreciated.

Thanks, Gene

 

#1 - no problem crimping on new connectors
#2 - yes, you'd need to hook it up to a power source, but then PLEASE do not use these in conjunction with your high beams. While you're fumbling to turn off the OTHER set of blinding lights, the other driver could be crashing...

 

I was thinking I would hook to the parking lights. My whole idea is NOT to use them with the high beams, maybe not even with the other lights at all. I was thinking about hooking to the battery, but I would be afraid of surges that may burn out the lights, so I'll opt for the parking lights unless sometbody has a better idea.

I'm going way over board on these, cutting all the wires to exact lengths, mounting all of the realays in project boxes behind the plastic by the firewall, etc.. A lot of work but it's fun and I want to make sure it's done right the first time. Any other helpful hints would be appreciated.

Gene

 

On my setup I ran all of the wiring up through the bonnet lining and then down the left side bonnet hinge through the drivers side cowling to the battery terminal next to the airbox (I have an MCS) and then I placed the relay on one of the bolts holding the coolent resivour to the firewall. Ran the switch through the grommet in the firewall under the plastic cover along the drivers door, under the rails of my seat and up through the handbrake so that I could mount the switch on the handbrake plastic without any wires exposed. I am quite proud of me setup eventhough it took me most of the day to decide how it was going to go.

 

That wire is only used to trigger the relay, i.e. allowing the relay to close only if that wire has power (which is why/how it is supposed to go to the high beam wire.)

 

Funny, mine are wired to the high beam but because we have daytime running lights up here my driving lights can be switched on with high beam and when the headlights are off just the daytime running lights on. So I can have the parking lights on with no headlights as such ( just daytime running lights) and blaze the road ahead with my PIAA's!

 

I'm thinking about adding some Aux lights. Where'd you order your from? Would you be willing to help me install sometime?

 

when i had the 540's i wired up the trigger to one of the switched fuses.
this way i could turn it on whenever i wanted.... but i rarely used it though,
only at dusk while driving through some deep forests. worked great.

yah, my sig is an "old" pict.

 

Okay, my PIAA's are in and work well. I took my time, took tips from all who offered, (thanks!) and thought I would post a few photos that may help others down the line.

I mounted the relay and fuse on top of the airbox bump-out with Dual-Lock and that seemed to be the perfect place for running the wires to their needed positions. I shortened all of the light wires and reconnected with some waterproof male/female connectors. I ran the switch wire through the grommet that has the brake line running through it. It was much easier to reach and work with IMHO. All of the wiring was tucked in the area in front of the brake master cylinder with the ground running to the fender mount bolt near the ground strap that runs down the hood hinge. I used a dremel tool to grind away areas on the plastic hood covers (later models) that fit in the slots where the light wires go thorugh, for the brackets and wires. DO NOT try to snip this it will snap like a twig. Use a file or dremel tool and it shapes nicely.

Hope this may give some others some help, and again thanks to all who helped me.

Gene