Headlight alarm buzzer installation

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Introduction

Some early Jimnys don't come from factory with a headlight alarm when the car is turned off but the headlights are left on. This makes it easy to accidentally leave your headlights on overnight and come back to a flat battery. A headlight buzzer can be fairly easily wired up to the ignition switch using a piezo buzzer and a relay.

Tools and parts needed

• #2 Philips screwdriver
• Electrical insulation tape
• Heat shrink tubing
• Soldering iron
• Solder
• Wire strippers
• Multimeter

• 12V, 4 pin, normally open relay
• Electric piezo buzzer
• Wires

Procedure

Steering column lower trim panel removal

• Underneath the steering wheel is a plastic panel with two screws at the bottom
• Remove the screws and slide the panel out to access the wiring

Identifying the correct pins

• The 18 pin connector between the steering column and the car's wiring has the ignition, headlight switch and ground cables
• To find which cable is which, attach a multimeter to ground (part of the accelerator pedal arm can be used as a ground)
• Use the positive test probe to test each of the pins by poking it into the connector from the back where the wires go in (while it is still connected)
• The ground pin will always be 0V
• The ignition pin should be 12V when the key is in the ACC position and 0V when it is in the OFF position
• The headlight switch pin should be 12V when the headlights are turned on and 0V when they are off.

Your car's wiring may differ, so be sure to test the voltages before stripping any wires.

Required pins for headlight buzzer

• This diagram shows the pins that were tapped into in the tested car (1999 model).
• This pin diagram is as viewed from the back end (wire end) of the plug (ECU end, not steering column end).

Wire colouration may differ. In the tested car, the wires were as follows:

Pin	Colouration	Function
3	Headlights	Red/Yellow
5	Ignition	Yellow/Blue
18	Ground	Black

Installing the relay and buzzer

Connection of wires for headlight buzzer

• Disconnect the 18 pin plug coming from the steering column
• Strip each of the 3 wires using a wire stripper (try to keep the wire intact and just strip the outer housing).
• Wrap some new wire around each of the wires coming from the loom and cover the connection with electrical tape.

Headlight buzzer relay connection

• Connect the wires and the piezo buzzer to the relay as shown in the diagram.

Re-assembly

• Tuck the relay, piezo and excess wire up inside the steering column (secure with tape, ziptie or your favourite method of DIY fastening)
• Replace the trim panel with the screws removed earlier.
• Test out the ear grating headlight buzzer by turning off the ignition and flicking on the headlights
• Enjoy not waking up to a flat battery

Related forum discussions

The following forum discussions contain useful info regarding these issues:

• [1]

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Page last edited on 13/12/2021 by user Bosanek