PIAA Wire Harness....WTF?

[cali_beemer]

So I am finally getting around to installing my PIAA lights. The bike came with the lights and bracket but no wire harness. So I ordered the proper M/C wire harness for the PIAA lights. I noticed the positive and negative leads are about 12" and the leads to the lights are about 6".....WTF? what did they think this would be mounted on? a kids radio flyer???? Then I noticed the connectors for the lights are not the same....The connectors on the lights are:

 

 

The connectors in the wire harness are:

 

 

So, now it looks like a trip to radio shack for some wire and connectors are in order.... Can anyone tell me how to check what wire is posstiive and which one is negative in the white plastic connector currently on my lights? There is a slot as if the connector is keyed but there are no indications of which pin is what. Normally, I dont believe positive and negative matters on a light but these connectors appear to be keyed as if it does.

[elkroeger]

Those lights are halogen, aren't they? I don't think there is any special + or -. Just pick one.

 

Do yourself a BIG favor: Just buy some extra wire and heat-shrink tubing, and solder it all together. Clip off all those little connector dumafwidgeys and toss 'em out.

[Troy]

Do yourself a BIG favor: Just buy some extra wire and heat-shrink tubing, and solder it all together. Clip off all those little connector dumafwidgeys and toss 'em out.

 

Don't even think twice about it, those are the worst! Same type of connectors I got with a wally world $35.00 special.

[cali_beemer]

I went to radio shack and got some crimp connectors and some 12 gage wire. My plan is to crimp connect the 12 gage to the positive and negative lead wire and run those to my centech box. The 2 wires to the lights will get the ends cut off. I bought a mating pair of crimp on male/female quick connectors. I will use those and wrap them in electrical tape to seal them. I really dont knwow why those would ever need to be quick disconnect but at the same time, I figured why not? I considered soldering the wires but I have never had much of a problem with crimp connectors.

[cali_beemer]

Those lights are halogen, aren't they? I don't think there is any special + or -. Just pick one.

 

 

That was my thought as well. Normally a halogen doesnt make a difference on which one is + or - but the connectors seems keyed as if they were designed to only be put on one way. My experience is that usually a keyed connectore to prevent swaapping the + and -.

[racer7]

Depends on the bulb and mounting whether leads are switchable at the lamp.

For example, on an H-7 bulb with both contacts isolated it makes no difference.

But on an H-3 that has a single central lead and the ground is the metal base- it will make a difference IF the lamp and mounting bracket connect the the bulb base to ground (eg the bike frame) by a metal path. With a plastic housing lamp, this won't happen but it could in some older metal lamps on brackets mounted to metal on the bike. So for H-3, it is wise to keep the bulb base as ground(negative)and not reverse it.

 

Next time order a kit from PIAA- it will come matched.

[cali_beemer]

Depends on the bulb and mounting whether leads are switchable at the lamp.

For example, on an H-7 bulb with both contacts isolated it makes no difference.

But on an H-3 that has a single central lead and the ground is the metal base- it will make a difference IF the lamp and mounting bracket connect the the bulb base to ground (eg the bike frame) by a metal path. With a plastic housing lamp, this won't happen but it could in some older metal lamps on brackets mounted to metal on the bike. So for H-3, it is wise to keep the bulb base as ground(negative)and not reverse it.

 

Next time order a kit from PIAA- it will come matched.

 

Thanks. The lights only have 2 wires coming off and neither is colored differently. Normally I would have orderd a matching PIAA kit but I wasnt going to order a new $250 light set when I already have the lights and all I needed was a $50 harness.

[cali_beemer]

So I am looking to see what wire to tie the centech relay into. It seems the tail light is a pretty commin wire, so my question is if there is a label on what color wire the tail light is? I plan to tap the relay wire for the PIAA lights and the relay wire for the centech into this line. Any problem with running both relay wires to the same tail light line? I am setting the PIAAs up so that I can turn them on regardless of the headlight being on high beam.

[johnlt]

That should work fine. Relays draw very little current.

[cali_beemer]

So can anyone help me out on what wire is for the tail lights? There are about 8 wires or so running inot the connector at the tail light area. I didnt see any labels on them. I suppose it might be in my clymer.

[Indy Dave]

is one a brown wire? I seem to remember brown wires powering the tail lights.

[johnlt]

is one a brown wire? I seem to remember brown wires powering the tail lights.

 

Brown is typically ground on BMWs.

[cali_beemer]

I will have to pull the light off the bike this afternoon. I was hoping I wouldnt have to do that. I was thinking I would be able to splice into the wire somewhere furhter up. However, last night I didnt even see where the wire harness was running to the tail section. I do have a wire harness running to the back of the bike under the seat to a large cylinder connector with a screw on cover. I have no idea what thats for. There is nothing plugged into it, the cover says BMW and there is a clip on the side for the connecter to clip onto. There is about 7 wires or so to the connector. I was initially thinking that was my tail light harness until I went and pulled it only to find out its not hooked to anythign and a screw cover over it....It almost looks like a trailer cennector. As of right now, I have no idea what wire to tap into. I almost thought it might be easier to tap into the power wire to the side power outlet. I believe those turn off with the ignition as well. Any issues with that?

[cali_beemer]

Well, I did some searching and it appears that copnnector is for plugging in service equipment. It also makes for a perfect relay wire tap in point. My inderstanding is that the green wire with blue stripe is the perfect choice, but I will take my voltmeter to verify this later today when I get home form work.

[Troy]

Another option to look at would be the running lights up front. They come on as soon as you turn the key. Not sure if they all work this way but on my k12rs the power to the heated grips switch came on with the key.

[Michaelr11]

Try the parking lamp for triggering the relay. If you use the parking lamp for the relay to your lights, they will shut off when you start the bike (via the load shed relay).

[Turf man]

Search for "Joe Frickin Friday"'s here on BMWST. This will show you how he did his tap. Great thread. Great pictures

 

Joe used the Eastern Beaver PC-8 fusebox product, (easternbeaver.com). Eastern Beaver also builds custom wiring harnesses for various driving light setups. The web site has lots of great helpful hints. Jim the owner is very helpful, send him an email.

 

I have my RT tore apart at the moment for the same reason, driving lights.

 

Good luck

[cali_beemer]

Well the PIAA wire harness was darn near useless. I dont think there was a wire on it that didnt have to be extended. Its prety tacky when every wire has a connection on it. I might as well just have bought the switch and the relay and built my own. 2 trips to radio shack for wire and connectors.....Arghhhh...but its doen now and the lights are bright.