No, the difference is weather or not they will turn on or not. To determine which wire is which, get out a multimeter. There's a diagram floating around here somewhere. It's the outside pins I believe. I don't remember off the top of my head but I think that's it.

If you are not using a relay, you are going to have a fun little fire on your hands BTW.

 

alright, im confused now. I got it hooked up and then went to try it out... no headlights. I unhooked the driving lights and still no headlights. I checked every fuse on the truck and they are all good. i have no idea what the hell i just did. I then tried hooking it up to the highbeam wire and it worked fine, except i can only use them with the brights on, which i don't want. Anyways, anyone have any idea what could be causing my headlights not to work? at this point the driving lights are not interfering with the headlights. I find it hard to be beleive i blew both bulbs as im only toying with one side, and I can't find a blown fuse. what the heck could i have just done to my truck?

 

You are doing a terrible job of describing what the problem is. Punctuation, and a clear train of thought are key when speaking.

From what I could decipher, You probably just shorted out, and cooked your headlight switch.

The Multi-meter is your friend.

 

Wow, I am really surpised that you found that to be lacking punctuation. If it troubles you to respond, by all means don't. What I am saying is my headlights don't work now. Thanks for your input anyways though, I appreciate the effort.

 

did you use a relay? if not your overloaded the circuit and blew the fuse.

 

Nooo way man, according to him the fuse is fine... lol

The switch is probably burned up. Get out a meter, and start checking things.

 

Yes, I used a relay. The lights came as a package including all the wiring and components (switch/relay). The brand name is Hella, which seems to be a reputable company. I suppose I could have fried the switch, but i'm shocked it didn't blow the fuse on the remote line before it made it back to the headlight switch. I could be wrong about it being a fuse, but I am unable to locate it if that is the case. The same applies about it not blowing the fuse on the remote line first though.

The curious thing is that when I hooked the remote up to the highbeam wire, everything functioned as it should. The problem with having it this way is that I can only use the driving lights with the highbeams on, which would be unbearable for oncoming traffic.

 

I'm assuming these are Hella 500's, as they are what everyone has from Hella?

Here's the problem, we cant diagnose an electrical problem for you. You need to get out a multimeter, and start testing, find where your problem is, and fix it. There really is nothing we can tell you that will fix the problem.

As for hooking it to the high beam wire, they turn on because by sticking the ground in there, you are closing the connection, this your high beams are artificially turned on.

 

I realize you can't solve the problem for me, I was just throwing some thoughts out there for some ideas etc.

I am almost certain it is the headlight switch at this point. I have done some reading and discovered that dodge's headlight switches are notorious for going. There must have been some sort of surge while I hooked up the driving lights. Thanks for the help.

 

You could have overloaded the switch but, before you go messing with it because you read they go out, I would check everything else. I have 187k miles on my truck with a couple sets of extra lights and my switch has never had a problem (knock on wood). You have fuses, bulbs, relays, and wiring to check first. If you wire something in the wrong spot, you may not blow anything. You may have wired things to turn on, off, or do nothing. I don't know if you have dual bulbs or a single bulb but, I would check there first. You said you checked all fuses so, I'd recheck fuses inside the truck and the fuses and relays in the engine compartment. The next thing is to remove the wiring connections you put in and get it back to stock and see if everything works or not. If not, you have blown something. If it does work, you have stuff wired wrong and start over with a clear head and volt meter.