1998 Honda Civic Headlight Wiring Diagram
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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
okay you know how on our cars we have the H4 bulbs. with the 3 prong connector. Well I just got some HIDS and I need to know witch is positive and which is neg for low beams. so i can hook this up. if you know PLEASE let me know!!!
THank you [/img]
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there are three wires, check the pic for the colors and what they do. this is for 01-03 civic only, in USA.
12V wire = always hot when lo and hi beam is on. If you ground your hid kit to the chassis, this is the power wire you want for the harness trigger.
lo wire = hot only when the hi beam is on.
hi wire = hot only when lo beam is on.
Now the way it works, all wires are cold when switch is off. When you turn lo beam on, the 12v wire is hot, hi beam wire is hot, and lo beam wire is cold (ground). When you flick the hi beam on, the lo beam wire and 12v wires are hot, while the hi beam wire is cold (ground).
The 12v wire is hot when both the lo and hi beam is used. ignore the diagram it makes no sense, just look at what the color wires are.
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Discussion Starter · #3 ·
i dont get it. What's POS and what's NEG on the wires. I have an HID kit that connects into the stock wire harness to ground it. Theres no other wires.
Please let me know
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the easiest way to tell is get either a digital Multimeter or a Volt Ohm meter. you can get them at like Lowe's/home depot/sears. basically it will show you if a wire has voltage on them.
to use a DMM/VOM: turn unit to VDC. hook the black probe to ground (any metal on car) and the red probe to the wire in question.
then follow steve's directions 
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did you read anything i wrote? i just told you how it all works. when off, all 3 wires are ground. when lo beam on, 12v wire is hot and lo wire is ground (hi beam is hot so the hi beam stays off). when hi beam switch on, 12v wire is hot, hi wire is ground, and lo wire is hot (so lo beam doesnt work). so you want your positive to be the 12V wire, and then ground the kit harness to the chassis if you want them to stay on when you use hi beams. otherwise, the + goes to 12v wire in harness and ground to the lo wire.
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Discussion Starter · #6 ·
Here is my HID kit I got:
I think i blew the bulbs by hooking it up to the wrong power source since I was not sure which wire was which on the car:
So your saying the connector should be like this? then the stock connector will plug into this?
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im not sure if you have the red right. try it the way you have it, turn lo beam on, if it doesnt work them turn hi beam on. if they come on with hi beam, them switch the red to the empty slot. if you already plugged them in backwards, your ballast and bulbs are dead most likely. i think you need to hook it straight to the battery and make sure theyre working before you do anything else.
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Discussion Starter · #8 ·
I just got a wire harness from ebay, works excellent.
thanks for the help though
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since ur experienced steve, any way to hook it up to where they stay on with highs and lows?
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well if you have a separate harness (you should), just wire the harness trigger to the 12v headlight wire and then ground the ballast to the chassis. the 12v wire will stay hot in both lo and hi beam positions.
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well the kit i got came with a harness and relays so as not to use the stock harness. have any pics on what u talking about? im not the most electrically gifted
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ok, the harness that comes with the kit should compose of relays, fuses, and connections to either the ballast or bulbs. You are basically using the stock wiring harness and controls to either turn on high, low beam and off.
What Steve is saying is to connect both the High and Low Prongs in a parallel circuit so that when you turn on your high beams, it will turn on high and low at the same time. You must only connect this to the high beam prong since you want both ONLY at high.
Posted by: falseessence.blogspot.com
Source: https://www.7thgenhonda.com/threads/help-on-headlight-wiring-which-the-3-wires-do-ahh-help.832/