I Finally got home this afternoon, and one of the first things I did was to open my package with the parts I ordered from Germany. Long story short, the ST170's look more complicated to install than the original lights...well, on a wiring standpoint. I have no problem doing all the labour myself, or getting some help for it, but I don't understand how the wiring gets done (what wire goes to what pins on the connector, etc) or how to play with the hookups to change the light configurations.
Has there been an install overveiw or directions posted on any of the online Foci forums? I might be able to figure some of it out on my own, however, I would also like to know how to get the fogs to stay on, etc.
Any advice would be great!
There's lots of people out there who have done it, I'm sure someone will reply. Sounds like it is similar to MACH lights which I did by myself.
the wires are almost the same as the mach hids, but the turn signal and the city light pin are reversed. hope this helps
pin 1: hi beam
pin 2: Low beam
pin 3: turn +
pin 4: city light
pin 5: not used
pin 6: common ground
you make everything work propperly, you will need to do some creative wiring.
you will need to extend the harness from the stock grill signals, markers and grounds to behind the headlights.
the headlights are pretty easy to wire up and should be a no brainer
the parking lights get hooked to the city lightsturn signal to turn signal and then the common ground needs to be shared by both the headlight ground wire and the signal/marker gound to keep the signals from going into fast flash.
oh and there is a screw on the bottom of the headlight you need to get with a 10mm on a ratched from under the front bumper.
good luck and let me know if you need any help
If all else fails ask Paolo to do it for you......... I've see him install them on steve's SVT
paolo,Aug 11 2005, 03:08 AM Wrote:the wires are almost the same as the mach hids, but the turn signal and the city light pin are reversed. hope this helps
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That should be the only issue you have. You did get the wiring harness with it?
Ok, so I was almost done installing these things...noticed a few things...
1: The mini light under the main headlight always stays on...I thought that this was only supposed to be a parking light if the headlight switch is turned on with the keys out, but they stay on at the same time as the main headlights.
2: Tried to wire the front marker light/turn signal as indicated...the light always stayed on, but the turn signal didn't work.
3: Wired the two leads from the turn signal wires to positions 3&4 on the VW connector...left side worked fine this way (stayed on, flashed when turn signal on, flashed at regular speed), but when I wired the RHS light the same way, both of them stopped working, well, stopped staying on, but the turn signal and hazard work still. I checked my connections again on everything, and even re-consulted the how to online...but still no joy.
I'm soo close to being done and buttoning the car back together 100%...I wanna know if I can change either of these settings I've made, or if it's not possible to...
ANY ADVICE WOULD BE AWESOME...DAYLIGHT FADING...lol
L8tr
Drivesthebeast,Aug 11 2005, 07:45 PM Wrote:Ok, so I was almost done installing these things...noticed a few things...
1: The mini light under the main headlight always stays on...I thought that this was only supposed to be a parking light if the headlight switch is turned on with the keys out, but they stay on at the same time as the main headlights.
2: Tried to wire the front marker light/turn signal as indicated...the light always stayed on, but the turn signal didn't work.
3: Wired the two leads from the turn signal wires to positions 3&4 on the VW connector...left side worked fine this way (stayed on, flashed when turn signal on, flashed at regular speed), but when I wired the RHS light the same way, both of them stopped working, well, stopped staying on, but the turn signal and hazard work still. I checked my connections again on everything, and even re-consulted the how to online...but still no joy.
I'm soo close to being done and buttoning the car back together 100%...I wanna know if I can change either of these settings I've made, or if it's not possible to...
ANY ADVICE WOULD BE AWESOME...DAYLIGHT FADING...lol
L8tr
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Hmm, did your headlights come with the wires already, cus im thinking the wires may be installed incorrectly. The little flashlight bulb inside the headlamp is the city light, and CAN be connected to your park light wire, which is the middle and one of the outer grille wires. ALWAYS use a multi-meter to check the wires current before you splice and join them TO make sure it functions properly when you are turnin on its function.
paolo,Aug 12 2005, 01:41 AM Wrote:Drivesthebeast,Aug 11 2005, 07:45 PM Wrote:Ok, so I was almost done installing these things...noticed a few things...
1: The mini light under the main headlight always stays on...I thought that this was only supposed to be a parking light if the headlight switch is turned on with the keys out, but they stay on at the same time as the main headlights.
2: Tried to wire the front marker light/turn signal as indicated...the light always stayed on, but the turn signal didn't work.
3: Wired the two leads from the turn signal wires to positions 3&4 on the VW connector...left side worked fine this way (stayed on, flashed when turn signal on, flashed at regular speed), but when I wired the RHS light the same way, both of them stopped working, well, stopped staying on, but the turn signal and hazard work still. I checked my connections again on everything, and even re-consulted the how to online...but still no joy.
I'm soo close to being done and buttoning the car back together 100%...I wanna know if I can change either of these settings I've made, or if it's not possible to...
ANY ADVICE WOULD BE AWESOME...DAYLIGHT FADING...lol
L8tr
[right][snapback]131933[/snapback][/right]
Hmm, did your headlights come with the wires already, cus im thinking the wires may be installed incorrectly. The little flashlight bulb inside the headlamp is the city light, and CAN be connected to your park light wire, which is the middle and one of the outer grille wires. ALWAYS use a multi-meter to check the wires current before you splice and join them TO make sure it functions properly when you are turnin on its function.
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We had that problem with incorrect wiring. To get the wire off, you need a dental pic, push the wire up to take the pressure off the pins on the side and then use the dental pic or a small sharpe object to pry apart the wire away from the connector. It's a pain but go easy and don't break it.
I guarantee it's wired wrong. Just go through it methodically and look at the connector and the headlight and match the points up to make sure the correct wire is in the correct tab.
Good Luck.
So you are saying that the wiring might be incorrect inside the headlamp assembly it's self? That might start to make sense...I went back and double and triple checked my wiring, and all of MINE looks correct.
I'd like to have that mini light stay off when the headlights are on, but be on when the key is off. Also, there's gotta be a way to get the turn-indicator/marker light to stay on all the time and then flash...I tried wiring them like 4 different ways, and it still didn't work. I even went as far as to replace the #16 and #17 fuses to 15 amps, up from 10 like what the Mach installation said to do.
The lights look very cool overall on the car, they have already garnered the vehicle more than a couple double takes. I also like the fact that the low beams are a bit brighter than the US headlights, and that the car doesn't look like a focus in the dark when it's coming towards you. Only thing I don't really like, is that the highbeam, though it's bright and goes a bit further, it's got a narrower beam area than the US ones.
I might try and do the jumper mod to make all 4 stay on with the highbeam (provided doing so won't set the car on fire since Ford chose to use ridiculously thin wires for something so important).
Ummm, maybe I can live with the lights as they are for now until I can get someone at one of the upcoming G2G's to look at them with me, or take the car to the stereo shop and do some testing on the circuits.
Thanks for all of the help and advice so far...any more would be of great value. :)
If your around Burlington, I can certainly compare notes and show you what we did. If the boy isn't too busy, I'll get him to help you out.
Drivesthebeast,Aug 12 2005, 10:58 AM Wrote:Also, there's gotta be a way to get the turn-indicator/marker light to stay on all the time and then flash...
impossible, unless you do an extensive re-wiring job. the turns are only turn on when flashing, to make them flash off, you need some kind of circuit combined with ur park lites and some diodes etc..
Alright...I guess that the lights are wired as good as they are gonna get then...just wish there was a way to disable the mini light when the DRL's/low beams are on...that'd be ok...I can live with the turns being only just that...everyone likes the way the car looks now anyways...
Now...gotta swap that bottom grille still...wonder how I'm gonna make that work, since it looks like I gotta do some cutting or plastic welding...
This should help with the lower grill:
http://www.jwardell.com/focus/grills.html
The stock lower grill incorporates the mounting for the fogs. You will have to cut the mounting section off the lower grill and attached them to your new lower grill.
![[Image: grills.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/dBlast/grills.jpg)
If you have the park lights hooked up right, they will come on when the headlight switch is in the middle position, and stay on when the headlight switch is set to on (just like how your grill lights lit up with the headlights before).
To have the signal lights stay on all the time you'd need to hack the housing a bit and get the 3157 dual filament bulb from your old grill to fit in there, and keep the 3-wire harness connected to it. I've never seen the ST170 lights close up though so I dont know if that bulb would fit in the space.
Another way you could make your signal lights stay on with the headlights and flash "off" when signalling would be to run the wiring from your side bumper lights to the signal light. Not sure how much power goes to those though, splicing extra wiring on them may cause your bumper lights not to work (or both sets, who knows). That would probably be the simplest way to do it though.